Hilton Hotels & Resorts

IHG Hotels & Resorts said the are pursuing an ambitious expansion plan in Greater China that explores popular and emerging destinations. Hilton’s upscale focused service brand, Hilton Garden Inn , announced the opening of its fiftieth property in Greater China. Brisbane’s $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf Brisbane resort and casino will officially open before Christmas.

The biggest surprise of this earnings season is how bullish analysts seem to be coming out of it. Lodging Econometrics released its Q4 year-end Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report . At the close of 2022, LE analysts state that the total global construction pipeline stands at 14,267 projects with 2,298,846 rooms. The 473-room, La Concha Resort , in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has joined Marriott International’s Autograph Collection .

Lodging stocks were mostly lower on Friday. PLYA bucked the trend with an 8% gain on stronger-than-expected earnings. SOND was down another -8%, VCSA fell -7% and SLNA traded down to yet another new all-time low. Besides Playa Hotels’ strong results, Ryman Hospitality Properties took part in the winding down of earnings season with results that were better than their December update. HRI Hospitality announced the topping out of its new hotel project, Tempo by Hilton Nashville Downtown .

Marriott Vacations missed expectations with their 4Q report, primarily due to their exchange and rental businesses as their core VOI business outperformed. Chatham Lodging Trust reported an in-line 4Q for EBITDA. They did not give 2023 guidance. Accor reported good results and forecast higher RevPAR for 2023 , very optimistic due to the return of the Chinese traveler.

Singapore has urged Chinese authorities to restore flight capacity between the two nations to pre-Covid levels as soon as possible in a bid to improve business and tourism ties. South Korea will increase the number of flights into the country from China to 80 from 62 per week by the end of this month. European Union countries have agreed to phase out pre-departure Covid testing for travelers from China by the end of the month.

Lodging stocks were lower: There was only one mover of note, SLNA with a -6% drop getting near an all-time low today, but there was a sea of red on the screen today. DiamondRock Hospitality reported a solid 4Q. DRH had given preliminary results in January but still beat expectations even with comparable RevPAR below consensus as margins made up the difference. IHG reported a good quarter but the highlight was the announcement of a $750 million share buyback for 2023

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was up 16.4% in January from December. The Hotel Brand sub-index was up 16.2% and the Hotel REIT sub-index rose 17.1%. Hilton, Easton’s Group of Hotels and the Gupta Group announced the opening of Canopy by Hilton Toronto Yorkville, marking the brand’s Canadian debut. The DJIA rose 130 points on Friday while Nasdaq was down 69, the S&P 500 was down 11 points and the 10 year treasury yield took a breather, down -0.4 to 3.83%. Lodging stocks were lower.

Earnings rolled out at a rapid pace with  Hyatt, Wyndham, Host and Hersha reporting results. Hyatt reported above expectations and sounded very confident on the conference call. The lodging stock star of the day was definitely  Service Properties Trust . SVC owns nearly 8% of Travel Centers of America and RMR has 1.67%. Travel Center agreed to be bought by BP for $1.3 billion. CBRE is raising its forecast for hotel performance on the heels of industry gains in Q4 2022 and the expectation of slightly positive GDP growth in 2023.

Airbnb definitely got a better response from investors on their 4Q earnings report than traditional lodging analysts. Choice Hotels continued the parade with 4Q revenue and EBITDA comfortably above estimates with the Radisson acquisition helping with that. STR reported U.S. lodging data for the week ended 2/11. RevPAR was up 18.9% year over year.

Marriott International followed up Hilton’s solid 4Q earnings report with one of their own, easily beating estimates on solid 4.6% RevPAR growth. 21c Museum Hotels will open its tenth hotel this spring, a 10-story lodging in St. Louis, Missouri.  Marriott was up $6.90 a share, Hyatt was up $4.73, Hilton was up $2.38 and Airbnb is currently surging double digits in after hours trading on their earnings report