Hyatt Hotels Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 4, 2023

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Morning, and welcome to the Hyatt First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Hoppe, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations.

Operator

Thank you. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Hyatt's Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call are Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt's President and Chief Executive Officer and Joan Bottarini, Hyatt's Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will include forward looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our annual report on Form 10 ks, quarterly reports on Form 10 Q and other SEC filings.

Speaker 1

These risks could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward looking statements in the earnings release that we issued today, along with the comments on this call are made only as of today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. In addition, you can find a reconciliation of non GAAP financial measures referred to in remarks on our website athyatt.com, under the Financial Reporting section of our Investor Relations link and in this morning's earnings release. An archive of this call will be available on our website for 90 days. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Noah. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hyatt's Q1 2023 earnings call. I'm pleased to share financial results This quarter that once again highlight the transformation of Hyatt as resilient, predominantly fee based and asset light. It was another record breaking quarter as measured by adjusted EBITDA plus net deferrals and net finance contracts. With the sum of these three numbers up 58% above the Q1 of 202269% above The Q1 of 2019, a notable achievement when you consider we sold $2,300,000,000 in real estate, Net of acquisitions since 2019, we have now achieved 4 consecutive quarters of record results, Driven by our successful asset light acquisitions and more recently a RevPAR environment that is trending meaningfully above 2019 levels.

Speaker 2

Our agility, leadership and unwavering commitment to our purpose to care for people so they can be their best Our key factors behind our success. We are proud to have been named to Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list for the 10th Consecutive year, a testament to the dedication of our colleagues worldwide. I'm grateful to the Hyatt family For bringing our culture to life every day and caring for all our stakeholders, including our loyal guests. And I want to express my appreciation for all our colleagues who make Hyatt Our results demonstrate our momentum, which was also the focus of our recent owners conference at the beautiful Moshe Resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2 weeks ago. The same location where we will host our Investor Day on May 11.

Speaker 2

Our owner conference provides a unique opportunity to deepen our engagement and illustrate the differentiation of our personal relationship based approach with owners. A record number of owners were in attendance, and I was very encouraged by the enthusiasm and support we heard regarding the multiple ways we are driving value for owners, including commercial capabilities, financial performance and growth. During the owners conference, we announced the launch of our 1st upper midscale brand in the Americas, Hyatt Studios, tailored to meet the needs of extended stay travelers. Our research indicates strong demand for this product amongst our guest base, presenting a unique growth opportunity to expand our footprint and strengthen our overall network effect. Through close collaboration with developers, we designed the Hyatt Studios brand with flexibility, so construction and operating costs can adapt to a wide variety of markets.

Speaker 2

And I'm thrilled to share that we received an overwhelmingly positive response to the launch of the Hyatt Studios brand from our ownership community, with letters of interest representing over 100 hotels. We expect construction to begin later this year a supportive and well capitalized developer base and the thoughtful design that was conceived through listening closely to guests and developers. Leading this brand is industry veteran, Dan Hansen, who joins Hyatt as Global Head of the Hyatt Studios brand. Dan brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as President and CEO of Summit Hotels. He was instrumental in the concept and launch phases of the brand and is now focused on successfully scaling it.

Speaker 2

Dan has a proven track record of delivering results and under his leadership, I'm confident the Hyatt Studios brand We'll deliver a great hotel experience for our guests, while driving compelling returns for our owners. The launch of Hyatt Studios is part of our broader strategy of creating a portfolio that drives deepening loyalty, Stronger connectivity and more frequent engagement with our members. Our success in executing on this strategy can be seen in our World of Hyatt program, which added approximately 2,000,000 members during the quarter. And we continue to see strong enrollments at our ALG properties who have signed up over 500 1,000 loyalty members since the launch in May of 2022. Building further on our momentum, We recently announced the planned acquisition of Mr.

Speaker 2

And Mrs. Smith, a global travel platform that will further strengthen our position in luxury. This planned acquisition opens new opportunities for the World of Hyatt program to expand and bring in even more members, With access to over 1500 carefully selected boutique and luxury properties in desirable locations worldwide. This planned acquisition will further drive asset light growth and enrich the breadth of experiences for our guests. Turning to growth, we achieved significant net rooms expansion with over 5,000 rooms added on a gross basis during the quarter, contributing to 7% net rooms growth over the trailing 12 month period.

Speaker 2

On February 2, we completed our Dream Hotel Group acquisition, which contributed approximately 1900 rooms. Additionally, our growth during the quarter included 3 luxury resorts And new openings in several high barrier to entry locations such as Bordeaux, France Davos, Switzerland. We also expanded our locations in other important cities such as London, Mexico City and Austin, Texas. Notably, one exciting new opening, the Andaz Condesa Mexico City, was a conversion to the Andaz brand through an ALG Resort owner, which underscores how our strategic acquisitions are driving value across multiple dimensions and positioning Hyatt for long term growth and success. We're confident in our ability to drive future net rooms growth through our strong pipeline and conversion opportunities.

Speaker 2

We maintained our record level pipeline of 117,000 rooms in the Q1 with new signings offsetting our openings. Additionally, we maintained the percentage of rooms under construction relative to our pipeline across a diverse number of countries and markets. And despite a more difficult lending environment, we continue to see developers start construction for their properties in the U. S. And around the globe.

Speaker 2

It's also great to see conversion opportunities continuing to represent a material percentage of our net rooms growth At approximately 30% of our Q1 openings, excluding the acquisition of Dream Hotel Group, This reflects strong demand for our brands. Overall, we remain confident in our growth trajectory as we look ahead. Moving on to the latest business trends, I'm pleased to report another quarter of positive momentum. We continue to benefit from our optimal positioning at this stage of the recovery. In the Q1, comparable system wide RevPAR was up 43% compared to the same period last year or 6% compared to the same period in 2019 for the same set of comparable properties.

Speaker 2

The growth compared to last year was partly aided by easier comparisons due to the impact from Omicron in 2022. Rates remain strong, up 12% on a constant currency basis, while occupancy jumped 1400 basis points. We continue to see extraordinary pricing for our comparable system wide luxury brands, which increased 7% over the Q1 of last year with an average daily rate just shy of $300 for the quarter. This is particularly impressive given the strong rate realization we are lapping from last year. From a segmentation perspective, leisure transient showed durability and strength with revenue increasing by 20% compared to the Q1 last year or 24% compared to the Q1 of 2019.

Speaker 2

Leisure demand in urban markets broadened with weekend and shoulder periods well ahead of the Q1 of 2019 And resorts achieved another record RevPAR level, driven by strong levels of rate realization and Increased occupancy. We experienced robust revenue growth in the group segment with an increase of approximately 70% Compared to the Q1 last year and surpassing the Q1 of 2019, Business Transient had the strongest relative recovery, More than doubling last year's Q1 revenue and reaching approximately 85% of Q1 2019 levels, With March especially encouraging reaching 92% of March 2019 levels. Large corporate accounts had the most recovery momentum in the quarter, while small and medium enterprises improved slightly and we're in the same approximate range as 2019 levels. From a geographic Our Asia Pacific region contributed significantly to our Q1 growth and was 3% ahead of Q1 2019 levels. Notably, RevPAR performance in Greater China quickly ramped up following The easing of travel restrictions, a pattern similar to other areas of the world.

Speaker 2

In the Q1, RevPAR in Greater China Was only 4% below Q1 2019 levels, a significant improvement compared to 3 months prior when it was 44% below 2019 levels. In addition, RevPAR in Mainland China In the Q1 surpassed the comparable period in 2019 by 10%. However, performance varied across markets. Markets more traditionally dependent on international inbound travel like Shanghai and Shenzhen Remain meaningfully below 2019 levels, while markets more traditionally dependent on domestic travelers were significantly above 2019 levels. In total, rooms revenue from domestic Mainland China travelers in the Q1 was up 30% Compared to 2019 levels, while international inbound was down more than 60% compared to the Q1 of 2019.

Speaker 2

We remain optimistic that growth in the Asia Pacific region will continue to strengthen as flight capacity is restored and the backlog of issuing new visas to Chinese travelers is reduced. We're confident this increased access to travel Will serve as a strong tailwind for Hyatt as the year progresses. Our ALG Resorts had another exceptional quarter with comparable net Package RevPAR up 30% in the Americas and up 36% in Europe compared to last year. Additionally, I'm pleased to report a strong rate of adoption from our loyal worldwide customer base. In the Americas, we have seen more than 20% of room nights at ALG Resorts from World of Hyatt members in the Q1.

Speaker 2

This is particularly impressive given that World of Hyatt was introduced at ALG Resorts only 10 months ago, A clear indication of the successful ongoing integration of ALG Properties into Hyatt's expanding set of offerings. As we look to the Q2 of 2023, both Legacy Hyatt and ALG Resorts continue to perform exceptionally well. Based on preliminary results, system wide RevPAR in April increased by approximately 20% compared to last year. We expect the 2nd quarter growth rates to moderate relative to the Q1, driven in part by the strong recovery we began to see in the Q2 of last year. Looking ahead to the back half of the year, we expect RevPAR and net package RevPAR to grow in the mid to high single digits.

Speaker 2

For the full year of 2023, group revenue is pacing 24% ahead of last year for our Americas full service managed properties. This represents an increase of 300 basis points from the update we provided a quarter ago. Separately, gross package revenue at our comparable ALG Resorts in both the Americas and Europe for the full year is pacing 17% ahead of last year. In summary, overall business trends are positive and we maintain our optimistic outlook. Future bookings remain strong And our hotel teams continue to drive strong top line growth and flow through to the bottom line.

Speaker 2

Finally, a quick update on our real estate transactions before We continue to make progress on the 2 assets we're actively marketing with a signed letter of intent for 1 asset, And we are advancing the marketing process for our other assets. We remain focused on realizing the most attractive valuations And securing durable long term management or franchise agreements. And we remain highly confident in achieving our $2,000,000,000 sell down In closing, I'm very pleased with the start of the year, which actualized well ahead of our expectations. Our strong free cash flow profile and asset light earnings mix are a result of the strong execution from our team. Looking ahead, I'm confident in our ability to continue to drive results and deliver value to our shareholders.

Speaker 2

Joan will now provide details on our operating results. Joan, over to you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. My commentary today will cover consolidated financial results, key drivers of performance and expectations I can share for the remainder of 2023. This morning, we reported 1st quarter net income attributable to Hyatt of $58,000,000 And diluted earnings per share of $0.53 and another record earnings for the quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $268,000,000 Net deferrals of $31,000,000 and net finance contracts of $17,000,000 We also generated a record level of fees in the quarter With total management, franchise, license and other fees of $231,000,000 an increase of 50% in the Q1 of 2022, driven by the continued success of our asset light transformation and strong recovery across the globe. It's notable that properties that have joined our system in the last 5 years, including the brands acquired through our Two Roads Hospitality And Apple Leisure Group acquisition contributed 35% of our total fees in the quarter. The performance of these properties is benefiting From significant contribution from World of Hyatt members, enhancing our network effect as we expand our portfolio with additional opportunities for our members to experience more stay occasions with us.

Speaker 3

Turning to our legacy Hyatt results, Adjusted EBITDA was $189,000,000 for the quarter, which is approximately 108% higher than the Q1 of 2020 Our management and franchising business has benefited from our larger system size and more fully recovered RevPAR environment. As Mark mentioned, our 1st quarter system wide RevPAR Was up 43% compared to Q1 2022 or up 6% compared to Q1 2019, fueled by strong rates and positive momentum in occupancy. RevPAR performance relative to 2019 has strengthened in each month as the year has progressed, with the month of March at 8% ahead of 2019 levels and setting a new record for our highest RevPAR month ever recorded on a constant currency basis. We are thrilled to see a rapid RevPAR recovery in Greater China, driven by fully recovered occupancy levels relative to Q1 2019 with rates that are quickly strengthening quarter over quarter. This has contributed to a swift recovery in fees within the Asia Pacific region With fees of $38,000,000 in the Q1 compared to $16,000,000 in the Q1 of last year.

Speaker 3

We're encouraged by the momentum in the region and believe it will continue to serve as a tailwind for us throughout the year. Additionally, in the quarter, our owned and leased segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $74,000,000 Up 37% to Q1 2022 on a reported basis and when adjusted for the net impact of transactions, up $44,000,000 or 151% in the Q1 of 2022. Comparable owned and leased margins were 25.9 percent in the quarter, up 900 basis points to 1st quarter While results were supported by a strong recovery in business transient and group revenue, our operational and commercial teams Are doing an excellent job both driving strong top line growth with rates over 11% and maintaining a laser focus Controllable operating expenses to expand margins. Turning to ALG, the performance of this segment once again exceeded our expectations. Adjusted EBITDA was $79,000,000 net deferrals were $31,000,000 and net finance contracts were $17,000,000 Free cash flow generated by ALG continues to be strong and 3 key areas drove financial results.

Speaker 3

First, net package RevPAR for the same set of ALG properties in the Americas was up 30% compared to the Q1 of 2022, reflecting strong net package ADR growth of 14%. Total fees were $39,000,000 in the quarter, reflecting the strong RevPAR environment. 2nd, approximately 8,800 membership contracts were signed for ALG's Unlimited Vacation Club in the quarter, exceeding Q1 2022 levels by 13%. UBC now has 134,000 active members as it continues to expand at an impressive pace. And 3rd, ALG Vacations continues to generate solid results, driven by a transformed business model and strong unit pricing.

Speaker 3

In the quarter, there were approximately 689,000 guest departures and the business realized a margin of approximately 20%. As we look further into 2023, we are optimistic about the Q2 given the trends in April, We expect continued strength of leisure travel demand, favorable pricing environment and airlift that remains above 2019 levels for I'd also like to provide an update on our strong cash and liquidity position. As of March 31, our total liquidity of approximately $2,500,000,000 included $1,100,000,000 of cash, Cash equivalents and short term investments and approximately $1,500,000,000 in borrowing capacity on our revolving credit facility. At the end of the quarter, we reported approximately $3,100,000,000 of debt outstanding. As of March 31, We have $648,000,000 maturing in the Q4 of this year and expect to meet this obligation through a combination of pay down and potential refinancing.

Speaker 3

Record operating performance and asset light growth are contributing to our strong free cash flow. Through the 1st 4 months of the year, we have repurchased $114,000,000 of Class A common shares, And we have approximately $445,000,000 remaining under our share repurchase authorization. We remain committed to our investment grade profile and our balance sheet is strong. Finally, I'd like to make a few additional comments regarding our 2023 outlook. We are increasing our full year 2023 system wide RevPAR growth expectations To a range of 12% to 16% compared to 2022 on a constant currency basis.

Speaker 3

We continue to expect larger growth rates over the 1st half of the year, in the mid to high 20% range. And as we have a bit more visibility into the second half of the year, We now expect RevPAR growth will be in the mid to high single digits. The continued recovery in Asia Ongoing improvements in group and business transient demand serve as key contributors to our improving RevPAR growth expectations over the back half Turning to net rooms growth and consistent with our estimates provided on our Q4 earnings call in February, We are reaffirming our expectations of net rooms growth of approximately 6% for the full year of 2023, driven by a strong pipeline and our ability to execute on conversion opportunities. We continue to expect Adjusted SG and A to be in the approximate range of $480,000,000 to $490,000,000 in 2023, Inclusive of approximately $15,000,000 of one time integration expenses associated with carryover projects from 2022 for ALG and the acquisition of Dream Hotel Group. Our SG and A guidance is inclusive of incremental run rate G and A related to the Dream Hotels Group acquisition as well as strategic investments to launch our newly announced Hyatt Studios brand.

Speaker 3

We continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately $200,000,000 inclusive of ALG, as well as the transformative investment into the Hyatt Regency Irvine, which accounts for nearly 1 quarter of 2023 capital expenditures. I'm excited to report that this newly renovated property in a highly desirable market is scheduled to reopen later this summer, By saying that we're very pleased with our Q1 results, which exceeded our expectations. We are exceptionally proud of our teams around the world We continue to deliver these very strong top line and flow through results, while supporting our industry leading net rooms growth. Looking ahead, we are optimistic as we continue to leverage our unique positioning and strategic focus to unlock the value of our real estate assets, while transitioning to an asset light and predominantly fee based business model. This strategy has allowed us to increase cash flow, positioning us for long term growth and creating value for our shareholders.

Speaker 3

One final reminder to share, We'll be hosting our Investor Day next Thursday, May 11. In addition to hosting investors and analysts in person At our beautiful Moshe Resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, we will also stream the event live. And we invite all those interested in our live stream Thank you. And with that, I'll turn it back to our operator for Q and A.

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Hi, thanks. Maybe given all the concerns around the banking system and tightening credit, would love to just hear what You're seeing from developers and or how you're thinking about the visibility within the current pipeline? And perhaps more specifically, what percentage of the in construction pipeline is in the U. S. First of all, with respect to the pipeline composition of the pipeline and The properties that are under construction, it's expanded actually from sequentially year over year.

Speaker 2

About 20% of the hotels that are under construction are U. S.-based hotels. And obviously, they're 48% outside the U. S. And so we haven't really seen a significant impact or any impact actually on a sequential basis, Probably for the last several quarters, it's been in the same range.

Speaker 2

The capital formation for new Starts is very challenging because regional and local banks have backed up their Provision of credit. Having said that, in discussions with a number of our developers with respect to our new brand, More and more developers are recognizing that while this confidence of crisis, if you the crisis of confidence, should say in banking right now is likely a short term phenomenon, almost certainly a short term phenomenon. And therefore, when you look at the relatively lower supply growth The industry has experienced and given the attractiveness of the brand that we just launched, we are hearing from our developers that they're ready to begin construction, Even if they have to over equitize or otherwise get more creative about how to source capital. So we have great confidence that we're going to have Our first Hyatt studio is under construction this year and open before the end of next year. So that's encouraging to me because if you look historically, Our build and supply growth has been it's been sort of procyclical.

Speaker 2

We start building more and more hotels As the cycle improves and improves and those hotels start to open, which exacerbates cycles. That's what happened in 2000 And 89, you'll remember that those were 2 high single digit, low double digit supply growth years in the teeth of a downturn. And this is the time to start building hotels right now. So, I think that more developers with a long stable with respect to hotels under construction. That's helpful perspective.

Speaker 2

Maybe one follow-up It's related in some ways, but on the asset sales side, some of the hotel REITs have been offering seller financing to close deals and excited pressure in closing transactions over $100,000,000 Are you seeing or expecting anything similar to Over $100,000,000 Are you seeing or expecting anything similar in terms of the outcome that you're looking for from the market assets? Or have you even Thanks. It's circumstantial, as you know, by market and by asset type. Yes, we are very aware of what's going on in the marketplace. While we have not provided seller financing to We would certainly be open to that to get the right deal done for the right asset.

Speaker 2

So it's possible that we will turn to that. I also think that the activity level has been we have slowed our we've witnessed a slowing in the activity level In general, and therefore, we're being very deliberate about what we bring to market and when. But we still have 100% confidence we're going to

Operator

Our next question comes from Joe Greff from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Good morning, everybody. Mark Jones, how are you thinking about the cadence of ADR growth in the second quarter and in the second half of this year?

Speaker 2

So, good news is that we've seen, as we look At pace and group, let's say, we're up 24% for the year. And new bookings right now are pacing ahead in ADR Versus what's on the books already. So as we look at new bookings as they come through post The Q1 when that calculation was made, we're seeing an increase in ADR booking levels. The same is true for the AMR portfolio. So we're seeing increases continued increases in rate.

Speaker 2

So we see a pro a positive progression. In the Q1, leisure Resort ADRs were up 1%, I think, year over year, which is quite remarkable given How explosive the ADR growth was a year ago. And so we feel actually like Not only are core resort ADRs maintaining and growing, but it comes at a time when non resort Leisure business has gone up significantly. So we're seeing occupancy increases And ADR increases for leisure purposes of visit in non resorts. And despite that movement and expansion or extension Leisure trips, our resorts continue to maintain and grow ADR.

Speaker 3

Yes. I would just add within the guidance that we've provided, the RevPAR guidance, Joe, that we're anticipating that we continue to sustain these rates Within kind of a mid single digit levels. And what we see also on the occupancy side is growing demand, Which we've also incorporated into well, it's incorporated into our estimates for full year guidance. And we still anticipate that Coming out of the year, we're still going to have a minor gap to 2019 on the occupancy front. So ADR is still sustaining, group or demand continues to grow on the occupancy side and we still see that we have room to grow beyond 2023 coming out of the year.

Speaker 4

Great. And then my follow-up question is looking at ALG Managed rooms, that was down on a net basis sequentially and also down sequentially in the 4th quarter. Can you talk about what's driving that and can you anticipate growing that on a net basis from here?

Speaker 2

Absolutely. We have an expectation for robust openings here this year Within the ALG Resorts portfolio, the attrition that we experienced was actually expected. There was a small portfolio of hotels in Europe that we expected when we underwrote the deal, we knew we had a suspicion that those I think it's 5 hotels in Europe that left the system, because the owner had advised us that they were likely going to be selling in those contracts, Which date back, I don't know, 5 or 6 years, had a termination on sale provision in them. So we just assumed that they were going to go and they did. And that was the primary driver of the attrition in that period of time.

Speaker 2

But we feel really good about the growth that we will see in the remainder of the year.

Speaker 4

And attrition is behind us or is there still some remaining attrition left to be realized?

Speaker 2

I mean, on a portfolio basis, there's always a chance that you might see some here and there. But in general, we don't there's no other structural or Contractual risks that we had identified that we expect to see leave the system.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Dore Kestin from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Thanks. You addressed this a little bit, but, so with China, a relatively large piece of your pipeline, can you differentiate the environment Between China and the U. S. For signings, your funding availability and just your expectations for construction starts as The year goes

Speaker 2

on. Sure. The projects that In China, we're in large measure put on hold during the course of 2022. The ability to actually get back to being in construction and progressing those has only really opened up in Q1 of this year. So we are just beginning to sort of ramp back up because that's when all the COVID restrictions were released or around They were brought back significantly at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 2

So we do see we still have quite a few projects on hold. We do not expect them to remain on hold for much longer. And so what we expect to see is a Increasing level of properties under construction in China over the course of this year. Signings actually remain robust. We've had a couple of great openings as well of luxury hotels.

Speaker 2

Asia Pacific overall, just to give you a perspective on this, Is in the Q1 of this year, 46% larger in room count than it was in 2019 Q1 And 60% of that growth, 60% or 70% is luxury and upper upscale hotels, 70%. So we've had a significant expansion and that continues. We've seen a new Andaz Hotel and other Full service hotels opening both in China and Asia Pacific. So the quality and the composition of our openings in the region I've continued to maintain at a high level. We're not populating the growth is not really concentrated in lower chain scales.

Speaker 2

It's concentrated in higher chain scales, which means greater fees per key and higher fee levels, including incentive fees going forward. So we feel like we're really positioned for growing momentum in the fee side of the business that translates into developers seeing That this is the right time to get their hotels completed and opened.

Speaker 5

And what is the majority Financing in China where you can talk to like Greater Asia, where does that come from?

Speaker 2

Well, in China, it is true that the credit markets have really been through the ringer Given some of the significant dislocations on the private sector in the private sector in financing. So for those developers that are highly dependent on leverage like that, it's going to have an impact. The majority of our hotels, we have some private developers that are dependent on that kind of financing, but we have a larger proportion of properties that are in the pipeline with state owned or state supported enterprises With very large balance sheets. So they are less dependent on the last dollar of financing debt financing.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thanks, Mark.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Duane Pfennigwerth from Evercore ISI, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hey, thanks. Maybe just one quick one on Some of the segment reporting, geographical segment reporting changes, any thoughts on why the changes to some of the geographies?

Speaker 2

If you're talking about the change in segments, we moved The Indian subcontinent from EME to Asia Pacific as of the beginning of this year because the oversight reporting relationship changed, That's the principal segment change. That's probably what you're picking up. Okay. Go ahead.

Speaker 3

I just can give a little bit Color on the magnitude of the change. That India, the continent, in the total Asia Pacific Region, as far as the fees, the contribution to fees, it's about 15% of the fees that we reported in 2023 in the Q1. And from an EBITDA perspective, just to help you a little bit with the modeling, we had about $12,000,000 of EBITDA in 2022 coming from the India subcontinent. Now the performance of those hotels has been very strong. We've seen RevPAR growth consistent with overall Asia Pacific RevPAR growth excluding the India subcontinent in the first quarter, Levels above 100%.

Speaker 3

So really strong growth and it really isn't an outlier when you look at the overall Region relative to the two components that were brought together.

Speaker 6

Thank you. That's helpful. And then just for my follow-up, can you talk a little bit about Maybe just organizationally, new business development and recruitment of new assets for brands that you Acquire. So what does the onboarding process look like? Who are the folks involved with sort of growing those portfolios On the brands that you acquire and maybe you could give some color on ALG, what geographies are you focused on And maybe some early thoughts on Dreams as well.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Great. Thank you very much. First of all, it's important to note that in the acquisitions that we've made, we retain key developers development executives In the organizations that know the brands intimately, that was true for Two Roads Hospitality, that was true for ALG and it's true for Dream Hotels as well. We're bringing across the key team members who know those brands the best and know the developers That, they've been doing business with and have signed deals for future openings. We have enhanced that significantly.

Speaker 2

So the Two Roads portfolio has grown enormously. We'll be going through much more detail on these topics a week from today. But it's grown enormously and that's because We have expanded the development effort behind the Two Roads brands to include all Hyatt developers, who have come up the learning curve and can really speak to those brands with authority and that's on a global basis. We're seeing increased interest in some of those brands, some of the Two Roads brands globally. On the Dreams front, we have 24 signed Agreements that I think only 1 or 2 of them, small number are in the pipeline.

Speaker 2

We're not counting them in the pipeline yet because we have a pretty high bar when it comes to making it into our pipeline statistics. The pipeline means we have fully executed contracts and we have high confidence and visibility to financing. And many of those projects are signed, but not, in our opinion, financed yet. By the way, the Dream Hotel Group actually treated them the same way. So they didn't really count them until financed.

Speaker 2

So We have confidence that they will get Finanx because the brand is really performing well, and the primary brand being Dream. But stay tuned for when those come into the pipeline as we move forward. ALG, we have Growth initiatives both in Europe and in the Americas. Having said that, we have been responding to And pursuing additional regions, in the Middle East and in Asia. So I would be surprised if we did not end up with new projects in those two regions in short order, because the interest level is very high.

Speaker 2

We're taking a very careful approach to make sure that the core economics and our ability to deliver on a distribution Channel basis is that we have confidence in that because right now we don't operate in those 2 markets in the all inclusive space. And in fact, it would be relatively a new format for much of those regions. So we're taking it very Carefully, the good news is the model is so powerful from an economic benefit perspective to owners that we have high confidence that we will actually be signing And ultimately opening new hotels in those regions.

Speaker 6

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Operator

Our next question comes from Patrick Scholes from Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I wonder if you could give us some high level thoughts on how you see summer leisure demand Shaping up for various regions such as domestic resorts versus Caribbean resorts versus Europe and how that Strength or possible weakness compares versus last year's summer visitation. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes, I'll start and Joan can add additional color. Just looking at the resort demand and using ALG as a proxy, Our pace for ALG is up 15% for the year. It's plus 8% for the 2nd quarter. So we feel really and that's lapping a very strong Q2 last year. So we feel really good heading into the summer actually.

Speaker 2

And The business in Europe has been just astonishingly strong. It is tracking Ahead of 2019 in the mid to high single digits in business transient, leisure is Ahead of 2019 significantly. So I would say Europe is I thought 'twenty two was going to be the breakout year for Europe. I was off by a year. This is really the breakout year for Europe.

Speaker 2

We're seeing People come back to travel, including business travel in a more pronounced way relative to 2019 than we've even seen in the United States. So I feel really actually quite bullish on Europe and continued strength there.

Speaker 3

The only thing I would add is that we've seen And you all have seen the flight capacity increases that have been made to those leisure destinations, particularly for us in The ALG markets in the Caribbean and with that increase, it's really helped to Increased demand into those markets. One thing I would point out is that last year, what we saw for ALG was we saw An incredible surge coming out of the Q1 into Q2 and Q3. And that was really filling in for last year into What has traditionally been a, what we would call a shoulder period for ALG. So this year, as we look at the seasonally Adjusted more normalization pattern, we anticipate that Q3 will be more moderated, as it relates to leisure into The Caribbean and Latin America.

Speaker 2

Yes. I mean, just to give you a data point on Joan's point about Airlift, our departures through our ALG Vacations platform were up 19% in the first It's a staggering number when you consider that represents almost 700,000 travelers. So we and you can't do that if you don't have Lyft. And so airlines have cascaded capacity into the markets that are most important to us. Okay.

Speaker 2

Thank you. And then just the other part of the question, how about domestic U. S? It certainly sounds Caribbean, very strong. Europe, phenomenal, but how about the traditional U.

Speaker 2

S. Resorts? Thank you. Yes, feel very good about U. S.

Speaker 2

Resort performance. We saw a couple of individual markets within Hawaii, not the entirety of the state, but that Has that have some slight airfare issues in our opinion that may be impacting Demand, total bookings, but apart from 1 or 2 individual locations In Hawaii, the rest of the resort portfolio looks very strong. It's a little early for us to Calling Memorial Day and July 4, but we'll have a lot more color on that on our next earnings call. Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 2

All set.

Operator

Our next question comes from Bill Crow from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hey, good morning. Thanks. Two quick questions. The first one on China. The reopening of China seems like it coincided with some of their major holiday periods and spurred demand.

Speaker 7

I'm wondering how the pace of travel looks outside of those holiday periods?

Speaker 3

Well, Bill, for the entire quarter, Greater China was only down 4% for the entire quarter. The Lunar New Year holiday certainly helped, but we're seeing very strong demand, especially on a sequential basis, because that It was down over 40% in the 4th quarter. So really strong results coming out of China. And what Mark had business, which is exceptionally strong. And we saw a 60% reduction in international inbound.

Speaker 3

So when you think about the tailwind of when those when that flight capacity returns into China, there is a lot of runway for growth into the region. With the Greater China results being a little bit down and Mainland China being up 10%, We still have room to grow too as it relates to Hong Kong in particular. Flight capacity into Hong Kong has been Really restrained and what we saw in the last couple of weeks actually, including the Labor Day holiday was that Hong Kong had returned back to 2019 levels. Short period of time, but again, that surge in demand that we've seen over time and again, restrictions are lifted and they've been Listed for the entirety of the last 4 months, we've really seen it Sustain and continue to be very encouraging as we think about the future growth in that region.

Speaker 7

That's perfect. Thanks. The second question was on, I think you said business travel and I assume you mean BT travel Is 85% recovered? Again, I'm going to assume that's demand as opposed to RevPAR. But Assuming I've got that right, do you think we close that gap through the balance of this year, continue to make progress?

Speaker 7

Or As the kind of the macro environment here, some of the layoffs and maybe the totality of travel costs, Is that going to kind of subdue the growth that we get from this level?

Speaker 3

Well, it has been improving over the course of Quarter. So we were over 90% recovered from business transient in the month of March.

Speaker 2

I think we're like 93% recovered. So we are really inching up to what on a revenue basis, 2019 levels.

Speaker 3

Yes. And throughout the quarter, our RevPAR comparisons to 2019 have accelerated across the months in the quarter. And in April, we also saw an 8% RevPAR growth over 2019, which is similar to what we saw in March And a lot of that is being driven by business transient recovering, particularly

Speaker 7

in the markets

Speaker 3

in the U. S, but also And markets in Europe have been very strong. Very strong. They're actually over 2019 levels in the Q1 in our European markets. So, we're seeing business transient come back on a relative basis and growing in momentum.

Speaker 7

So how close is rooms demand or rooms sold? You said it was 93% revenues. I'm just curious about the actual occupancy, if you will, of business travel.

Speaker 2

Yes. So we're tracking Well behind 2019 levels in occupancy, for the hotels that we would designate as Business Focused Hotels. I don't know that we've got a quick estimate for Q1 In terms of what the gap is, but we've been tracking well below 2019 levels, obviously higher rates that makes up the revenue side. The only other dynamic I would point out is that small and medium enterprises have basically been over 2019 levels for several quarters. It's the large corporates that are actually representing a lot of the growth.

Speaker 2

So when we talk about the growth over the course of the quarter, the quarter was 85%, we ended at 93%, 85% of 2019 levels, we ended at 93%, a lot of that change. In fact, virtually all of it came from large corporates. So We're seeing large corporates get back on the road. And some of the blurring of the line between what used to be called business transient, where I think everyone sort of had in their mind a bright line between business transient and group. That line is blurred.

Speaker 2

So Some of the purposes of visit and trip drivers from 2019 have looked different today and some of it shows up

Operator

Our next question comes from Richard Clarke from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Good morning. Thanks for my question. I just like to So on the topic of the Mr. And Mrs. Smith acquisition you've done, this company used to have a deal with IHG and IHG used to talk about having to be quite selective With which one of the hotels they brought onto their platform to make sure this wasn't providing a cheaper route to the benefits of being distributed by a major company.

Speaker 8

Just wondering how you're going to manage that. You're going to have some of those Mr. And Mrs. Smith Hotels competing with your hotels and how will you manage that conflict? And then maybe broadly, why do you see this as an attractive

Speaker 2

Thank you, Richard. Just to clarify, we have signed this acquisition deal, but we have not yet closed it. So, let me just begin by being clear about where we stand. The way we see this is, first of all, for those of you on the phone who don't know Much about Mr. And Mrs.

Speaker 2

Smith. It's a travel platform and there are well over 1500 hotels on the platform, highly curated Group of boutique and luxury hotels with average daily rates in the mid-four 100s in dollar terms, just to give you a sense for relative quality level and they're small. So these are not hotels that would naturally be part of A larger brand company like ours portfolio, and we feel like this is a massive expansion in the world of Hyatt members access to Hotels. Having said that, we in the same vein that we have done other affiliations in the past, We have taken great care to analyze on a market by market basis, the sort of hotels That might end up being adjacent to or otherwise in the same vein of pre existing Hi, property. So we will be very careful in how we integrate the Hotels that are part of the system, all the hotels we expect to stay on the platform, but that doesn't mean that they're all integrated.

Speaker 2

And I think we have Examples an example of how we manage that with small luxury hotels where we didn't have 100% of the small luxury hotel group, Hotels themselves on our platform. So, the enterprise will continue to operate as an independent business And continue to grow, which has been it's been growing at a pretty healthy pace and we expect that growth to continue over time, Because there is there are a large number of higher end boutique luxury hotels that operate Independently of any brand affiliation and so the power of the channel has been proven because of their very strong customer base. That customer base looks a lot like ours. And so we're really excited about extending and expanding the customer base, the World of Hyatt membership base. Rolled Up Hyatt has got great momentum adding 2,000,000 members in the Q1 alone.

Speaker 2

So we feel like this is going to be really adding to the network effect. Finally, As an economic matter, the company is profitable. And as has been the case with other platforms that we've looked at in the past, We do see a relatively clear path to a high single, low double digit kind of multiple on our Purchase of the platform, the power of the platform excuse me, the power of the platform is something that we Have a much better handle on and understanding of having had ALG Vacations as a part of our portfolio for the last Year and a half. So I think across the board, we're just uniquely positioned to really understand this better, see what the power is, extend the network effect And add value to the hotels that are part of that platform. That's the theory.

Speaker 8

Okay. That's useful color. As a follow-up, just looking at your last Tiera, the Q3 results you talked about doing 6.5% growth going forward. I guess if you strip out Dream, you get a little bit below that this quarter, just slightly. Your guidance for this year is 6%.

Speaker 8

Just thinking about how you're thinking about that picture of nug going forward, does it come down to 6 Then accelerate or can you get it back above 6.5% in the nearer term?

Speaker 2

Yes. We feel really Good about the long term trajectory in that range. And to just be clear, There are some of the uncertainties that we actually touched on earlier in this call, namely financing for new projects in the United States, The ramping up of projects coming back online in China and so forth, it's also true that 30% of our Ads in the Q1 were, excuse me, conversions. So the conversion The durability of the conversion activity base has not only proven itself, but we're seeing even more opportunities So we are piecing together because of the performance of our network and the system, a picture For net rooms growth that we expect to maintain at that level or higher, the fact is that we, For conservatism, take reserves against what we could execute this year, And that's why we're maintaining our current guidance. I think if we had more visibility to When confidence begins to grow in the banking sector and or taking note of the Fed's decision yesterday To change the language with respect to future rate increases, these are all factors that could contribute to a revised outlook Next quarter.

Speaker 2

But right now, we have maintained a I would describe it as a conservative Position just because there are some uncertainties in the world.

Speaker 8

Understood. Thanks for the color.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Richard.

Operator

Our last question will come from Shaun Kelley from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Hi, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Mark, I apologize if I'm front running the Analyst Day a little bit, but given All the commentary on international and the different trajectories of recovery, I thought it might be helpful if you can provide just Inclusive of ALG, what's your kind of latest, however you want to do it, revenue, fee, EBITDA, mix By region, is that something you could help us with? Just I know the portfolio has changed a decent amount, especially with ALG. And so what I'm kind of getting at is How much of Hyatt pro form a run rate is coming from the U. S?

Speaker 9

How much coming from Europe, APAC China and China. If you don't have that and that's a better thing to reserve for a week from now, I totally appreciate it.

Speaker 8

Excuse me.

Speaker 2

I think at a macro level, the fact is that something on the order of 80% of Our earnings base is coming out of the U. S. That includes our owned hotels Portfolio, so there's some measure of influence on that number for that. And I think the we really need to break out the non hotel pieces of ALG, Which is really the vacations platform, in order to give you a better handle on what our hotel exposures look like, around the world, but We don't have the data at this point that I can give you more specificity on. Do you want to add anything to that, Jen?

Speaker 3

Yes. I would just say of the 80%, it's really you mentioned, Mark, from the U. S, so it includes our Latin American and Caribbean business, which is A significant proportion of those travelers are coming from the U. S. So it's U.

Speaker 3

S.-based actual travelers that demand You're referring to any 80%? Yes.

Speaker 9

Very helpful. Thanks. Sorry to put you on the spot, especially late in the call, but appreciate it.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Hyatt Hotels Q1 2023
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