Hilton also said it will scale back the number of hotels it originally expected to open in 2001, a reflection of the tight financing environment for new lodging projects. Wall Street reacted by sending Hilton's stock down nearly 6%.

Hilton--whose brands also include the Doubletree, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites and Hampton Inns--is considered a bellwether for the lodging industry because it serves a broad range of customers throughout the United States and around the world. The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $64 million, or 17 cents a share, compared to a year-earlier $25 million, or seven cents a share. Revenue totaled $875 million, a 7% gain from a year earlier.

The hotelier's 17-cents-a-share quarterly profit matched the consensus among analysts polled by financial-services firm First Call/Thomson Financial. Hilton officials said revenues generated by the average hotel room, or "revpar," in industry parlance, grew a healthy 7.4% in the latest quarter despite bad weather that hurt business and leisure travel in many parts of the nation.