Three months after Hyatt Hotels Corp. CEO Mark Hoplamazian called business travel demand at the hotel company “extraordinarily encouraging,” officials said demand lived up to that promise in the second quarter, with systemwide business travel revenue up 14 percent year over year.
“Group and business transient were our strongest customer segments in the quarter,” Hoplamazian said, noting second-quarter systemwide revenue per available room increased 4.7 percent year over year.
In the United States, Hoplamazian said, business travel revenue increased 12 percent year over year, citing New York, Seattle, San Diego and Washington, D.C., as “top-performing markets.”
It should be noted that second-quarter 2024 business travel figures are inflated by the shift of the Easter holiday from April last year to March this year. Still, Hoplamazian noted that “bookings for business travel over the next two months look very strong, led by corporate negotiated accounts.”
Second-quarter group room revenue increased 8 percent year over year, he said, and “group pace for U.S full-service managed properties is up 7 percent for the second half of 2024.”
Hoplamazian said Hyatt had “about 60 percent of our total [group] business on the books for next year,” pointing to pharmaceutical, technology and financial companies as key contributors. “This is not like association has taken over and is pulling up on average. This is very, very well-balanced and widespread,” he said.
Still, Hyatt, like Marriott International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, cut its projected 2024 RevPAR to 3 percent to 4 percent above 2023 levels, down from its prior forecast of a 3 percent to 5 percent increase. Hyatt CFO Joan Bottarini cited “lower incentive fee contribution in the second quarter from hotels in Greater China, weaker-than-expected demand in Maui and hotels under renovation” for the lowered projection, adding that “we expect group and business transient revenue growth to outpace leisure transient for the second half of the year.”
Hyatt Q2 Metrics
Hyatt’s systemwide second-quarter revenue per available room increased 4.7 percent year over year to $149.31, while average daily rate increased 1.1 percent to $204.73 and occupancy increased 2.4 percentage points to 72.9 percent.
In the United States, RevPAR increased 2.3 percent year over year to $159.98, while ADR declined 0.1 percent to $213.33 and occupancy increased 1.8 percentage points to 75 percent.
Hyatt’s total second-quarter revenue was $1.705 billion, down from $1.703 billion in the second quarter of 2023. Net income increased to $359 million from $68 billion one year prior.
Net rooms increased 4.6 percent year over year to more than 325,500, while Hyatt’s development pipeline increased 9 percent to about 130,000 rooms.
