Hyatt Signals Strength in Business Travel, Loyalty, and All-Inclusives

Hyatt reported results for the first few months of the year, highlighting the hotel group’s growth amid broad resilience across the travel sector.

The Chicago-based hotel chain saw significant booking increases, thanks partly to strong demand from business travelers, guests at its all-inclusive resorts, and a surging loyalty base.

Here are a few highlights from Thursday’s earnings call.

Taylor Swift effect

• “I see many, many points of proof that this is going to be a solid year,” said president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian during an earnings call. “Yes, the elections will negatively impact the D.C. area and travel in November for the fourth quarter. It’s also true that the Olympics will positively affect the third quarter in Europe.”

• “Of course, we also have to mention Taylor Swift, who continues to grow GDP for the world,” Hoplamazian said. “She is having an effect on every market in which she shows up.”

• Hoplamazian is one of many travel leaders to note how the pop icon’s worldwide tour is filling their coffers.

Business travel recovery

• Revenue from hotel stays by transient business travelers rose 6% year-over-year, as did revenue from group room blocks.

• Business transient revenue was particularly strong in forward bookings beyond the first quarter. April showed a substantial increase of 21% globally in business transient revenue, compared to 2023. Executives said they were optimistic about the pace of growth staying positive through the rest of the year.

• The company’s ballrooms are booming, too. Looking ahead at group bookings from May through December, Hyatt’s U.S. full-service managed properties see 7% higher demand for meetings and events year over year.

Loyalty growth

Hyatt boosted the number of members in its loyalty program by 22% year-over-year, to 46 million members.

• Loyalty growth matters for profitability. Loyalty members tend to stay longer, spend more, and predominantly book through Hyatt’s site and app (which are cheaper channels than online travel agencies).

• In the quarter, more than 700 Mr & Mrs Smith boutique hotels and villas became places to earn and redeem points in Hyatt’s program. By year end, this will grow to 1,000 luxury and lifestyle properties.

• A new collaboration with Peloton, a fitness equipment maker, was also expected to help, as guests will eventually be able to earn loyalty points by exercising.

All-inclusive resorts

Hyatt’s move in 2021 to buy the all-inclusive resort company Apple Leisure Group in a $2.7 billion deal seemed to be paying off.

• At all-inclusive properties in the Americas, net package revenue per available room, a key industry metric, grew 10% year-over-year in the first quarter. They saw especially robust leisure demand in Mexico and the Caribbean.

• Looking ahead, bookings through June were up 4% year-over-year at their all-inclusive resorts in the Americas. Bookings for Cancun are especially strong, up 6%.

• Yet overall demand in the Americas and Europe is normalizing, executives said. For the remainder of the year, the executives expect all-inclusive performance to be roughly the same as last year.

Hyatt’s first quarter

• Hyatt’s revenue per available room, a key industry metric, rose 5.5% year-over-year. Its all-inclusive resorts performed even better, surging by 11%.

• The hotel group expanded the net number of rooms it manages by 5.5%.

• The above growth was accompanied by a 5.5% increase in net rooms under management, mainly due to the opening of a dozen hotels.

• The hotel chain’s future growth prospects look promising. Its pipeline of executed management or franchise contracts has expanded to about 129,000 rooms, marking a 10% increase year over year.

• Hyatt’s financial health remained robust, with the company reporting a net income of $522 million and adjusted EBITDA of $252 million for the quarter.

• “Owned hotel profit margins at 19.4% were below our 23.3% forecast and analyst consensus of 23%,” said analysts at Truist Securities in a flash report. “Hyatt noted difficult comps including the 2023 Super Bowl in Phoenix, higher real estate taxes, higher wages, and transaction costs from asset sales in process.”

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