The present thinking in the Hilton organization on the possibility of an orbiting hotel is described, followed by an outline of how a Lunar Hilton might be designed. Suggestions from a feasibility study of a lunar hotel prepared by a group students in Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration are discussed. Whereas the Orbiter Hilton would be free in space, the Lunar Hilton would be located below the moon's surface and include about 100 guest rooms.
A primary rule of the hotel industry is that a hotel, whether on earth, in space, or on the moon, should not be built unless there is a proven need for it. No hotel should ever be built that will cost more than it can earn. When a space hotel becomes a practical reality, it will simultaneously become a practical financial reality.
[1]Scarcely a day goes by when someone doesn't ask me, jovially, when the Lunar Hilton is going to be opened. They're joking, of course. But I don't see it as a joke at all.
My rationale for assuming that people from our planet will someday populate the universe is really quite simple. I refer to it as "proportional achievement".
In the early days of this century if someone had prophesied that within thirty to forty years live pictures would invisibly transmit through the air into our homes, he would have been laughed at by everyone.
Before Kitty Hawk, transporting people miles above the earth in a matter of a few hours was thought impossible. Furthermore, who would have dreamed that we would one day be transplanting an artificial heart into a man's body?