Peruse the initial public offering for Hilton Worldwide filed last week and you'll read the story of a dedicated team of forward-thinking executives toiling six years to coax value, growth and profits out of an iconic lodging name.

Listen to Wall Street and you'll hear the tale of a legendary investment firm (The Blackstone Group) that bought too high ($26 billion to take Hilton private) at the wrong time (2007), but now can turn that investment lemon into lemonade that might be worth $30 billion in today's resurgent lodging market.

But what about us poor business travelers, the folks who fill the rooms at what are now more than 4,000 Hilton Family hotels? What's the IPO filing, a placeholder for a predicted 2014 float of an undetermined number of shares at an undetermined price, mean for us?

On some levels, nothing at all. More than anything else, and just like its major global lodging competitors, Hilton Worldwide is a franchising company now. All but about 150 of the properties bearing one of its 10 brand names are owned and managed by others. Besides, even after the IPO, Blackstone will remain the majority owner of Hilton Worldwide. In other words, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

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