Is Hilton Playing Politics? They Put Jerusalem in the West Bank, Not Israel

I was a bit surprised when I was doing some searching this morning and found out how Hilton classified Jerusalem. Unlike other hotel chains, they say that Jerusalem is in the West Bank and not in Israel – when you try to search for hotels with Hilton.

Is Hilton Playing Politics? They Put Jerusalem in the West Bank, Not Israel

Ok, I understand that this topic can get people riled up and I do ask that people remain civil in the comments.

Travel providers are constantly needing to stay on their toes in the various countries they do business in. Look at what happened with the airlines and hotels with how they categorized China and territories that China claims as their own.

I also understand that the area of Israel and the West Bank is also a hot button issue with many people. The US made the major move this year of locating the US Embassy inside of Jerusalem and that made no small waves!

Note: Even airlines play with where Israel is for award categorizing with some even listing Israel as being part of North Africa! But, this is regional classification and not territories.

But, I was a bit surprised that Hilton shows Jerusalem as being the West Bank while other US chain hotels with a presence in Jerusalem put it as Israel.

How Hilton Shows Jerusalem

When you search for “Jerusalem,” it gives options that include “Jerusalem, West Bank” and just plain “Jerusalem.” When you search for the “West Bank”, it gives locations that are in the West Bank territories and includes Jerusalem in that. When you search “Israel,” it includes other Israeli cities but does not include Jerusalem.

Jerusalem as being part of West Bank

However, if you just search “Israel” and then go to the hotels, it does have the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem as an option. But it just does not categorize Jerusalem as Israel in its drop down box.

Using “West Bank” shows Jerusalem as one of the cities in the West Bank

Searching “Israel” does not list Jerusalem as one of the cities

But, when you search for “Israel” the results page will list the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem

But, it does show “Jerusalem, Israel” on the Waldorf Astoria page. Not sure why they have it listed differently there than on their home page search bar…

The Waldorf Astoria page lists the WA Jerusalem as being in Jerusalem, Israel

I have searched for Jerusalem before and I am almost positive it was not like this when I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria a couple of years ago. I am not sure if it has always been this way or not.

Anyway, I thought it was something odd that Hilton appears to be the only US hotel chain that puts Jerusalem in the West Bank instead of Israel in their drop down choices. I know companies normally like to take a neutral position on some hot button issues but with something like categorizing territories, there really isn’t a “neutral” position.