When Chris Nassetta joined Hilton Worldwide as chief executive in 2007, he found a hotel chain that was “broken”.

“We had lost our way for decades and decades”, says the 62-year-old executive. But as he set about trying to restore the brand often credited with inventing the Pi?a Colada cocktail and popularising air conditioning and TVs in hotel rooms, the obstacles mounted.

Nassetta was appointed as part of the high stakes $26bn purchase of Hilton by private equity group Blackstone, where the debt package alone exceeded $20bn. Months later, the financial crisis hit and Nassetta remembers media headlines calling the hotel group Blackstone’s “black eye” for the high price paid at what seemed to be exactly the wrong time. The challenges continued when, in 2009, rival Starwood accused Hilton and its top executives of corporate espionage as it tried to create a lifestyle hotel brand.