At Hilton Hotels & Resorts, many of yesterday’s innovations are today’s givens. Since opening its first property in 1919 in Cisco, Tex., the company has introduced TV sets in guest rooms, a central reservation system and digital keys — not to mention the piña colada. (It’s true, look it up.) And while no one knows what tomorrow will bring, the new Innovation Gallery has a few futuristic ideas.

A few weeks ago, the company unveiled the Willy Wonka-esque incubator inside a former nightclub at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia. The showroom, which is accessible by invitation only, is a safe space for unfettered imaginations and inventions both practical and fanciful. Here, the company will experiment with the next rage of products and services and, depending on the outcome, will release them into the wider hospitality world — or consign them to the reject pile.

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