Originally named CrestHill by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn started in the 1980s. However, due to the downtime in the real estate industry, only four out of the initial 25 proposed hotels materialized. Three out of these four hotels exists up to the present day and is still part of the Hilton Garden Inn chain of hotels.

Hilton Garden Inn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Valencia, California and Southfield, Michigan are part of the initial batch of hotels under the Hilton Garden Inn brand. The fourth one is already under the Four Points hotel brand. Created for the mid-priced market, CrestHill by Hilton became Hilton Garden Inn in 1996 and managed to add more than 700 hotels under the brand since the rebranding. By 2012, the brand managed to enter the international scene after establishing Hilton Garden Inn Leiden in the Netherlands. Just like the hotel brands in the United States, the branch in Leiden carried all the brand signature features from the Americas.

Hilton Garden Inn is part of the huge Hilton Worldwide chain of hotels and has already each other international country such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India, Namibia, Germany, Columbia, Poland, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, and Costa Rica.