Hilton Launches ‘Undergraduate’ Hotel Brand for College Towns. Here’s What the Numbers Say.

Hilton launched its 27th hotel brand on Monday, designed for smaller college towns that its Graduate chain doesn't reach. It's a wager that demand in college towns can support a lifestyle hotel if it has a lower development cost.

The brand, Undergraduate by Hilton, has fewer amenities and is cheaper to run than the Graduate brand Hilton bought in 2024 for $210 million. Skift was the first to report in January that Undergraduate was in the works.

Hilton projects that the first hotel will open in 2027. It plans to open 400 to 500 of them, on top of the pipeline it projects for its Graduate brand, which has nearly 60 hotels open or in development.

The pitch to travelers is familiar: a hotel near campus for students, parents, alumni, sports fans, and conference guests.

Hilton expects Undergraduate to sit in the upper-midscale segment, two tiers below the upper-upscale, in CoStar's categorizations. That would mean its room rates