Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s business travel demand in 2024 has been “extraordinarily encouraging,” with systemwide first-quarter revenue from the sector up 6 percent year over year, with some segments up even higher, president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said Thursday during an earnings call. 

Global business transient revenue “increased approximately 6 percent in the quarter with strength in both January and February, and we saw similar trends in the U.S., a clear sign that business travel continues to recover,” he said.

April systemwide business transient revenue was up 21 percent year over year, Hoplamazian said, although that figure was inflated by the shift of the Easter holiday from April last year to March this year.

Still, Hoplamazian shared other statistics to illustrate the strength of the business travel segment. “Business transient, frankly, in the first quarter, into the second quarter is extraordinarily encouraging,” he said. “Our business transient hotels were up 15 percent, almost 16 percent in the first quarter. Convention hotels were up about 11 percent, just as a hotel type. New York City was up 19 percent. San Jose and Seattle are really going strong. Why? Because technology transient, business transient, was up 30 percent in the first quarter.”

It wasn’t clear if Hoplamazian’s figures were year-over-year revenue, and Hyatt didn’t immediately return a request for clarification, but on the call he said, “these numbers are staggering.”

First-quarter group revenue increased 6 percent year over year, Hoplamazian said, with the May-through-December booking pace up 7 percent from 2023. He called the segment “the gift that keeps on giving.”

Q1 Metrics

Hyatt’s systemwide first-quarter revenue per available room increased 5.5 percent year over year to $131.86, while average daily rate increased 2 percent to $202.33 and occupancy increased 2.2 percentage points to 65.2 percent.

In the United States, RevPAR increased 0.2 percent year over year to $132.68, while ADR dropped 0.4 percent to $205.41 and occupancy increased 0.4 percentage points to 64.4 percent. Hyatt CFO Joan Bottarini said U.S. RevPAR increased about 2 percent when the effect of the Easter shift was excluded. 

Hyatt maintained its outlook for a 3 percent to 5 percent year-over-year increase in full-year 2024 RevPAR.

The company’s first-quarter revenue increased to $1.71 billion from $1.68 billion one year prior. Net income increased to $522 million from $58 million in Q1 2023, a figure boosted by sales this year of Hyatt properties in Green Bay, Wis., Aruba and Zurich. 

Net rooms increased 5.5 percent year over year to more than 323,400, while Hyatt’s pipeline increased 10 percent to more than 129,000 rooms.

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