Recovering Travel Sectors Lead Hilton to Exceed Pre-Pandemic Revenue

A burgeoning leisure travel industry, recovering business travel sector and growing group travel trend have all contributed to Hilton’s strong recovery in its third quarter, noting that RevPAR (revenue per available room), a key hotel metric, exceeded that of its pre-pandemic level for the first time since the pandemic began.

Hilton’s latest milestone is a good one for the hotel industry; system-wide comparable RevPAR increased 29.9 percent during the quarter compared with the same quarter in 2021, and it exceeded the RevPAR during the same quarter of 2019 by 5 percent.

“The third quarter marked an important milestone in our recovery as system-wide RevPAR exceeded the same period in 2019 for the first time since the pandemic began,” said Christopher J. Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer of Hilton. “Our diluted EPS, adjusted for special items and Adjusted EBITDA exceeded the high end of our guidance. Improved performance reflected the continued strength in leisure travel, as well as recovering business transient and group demand. We expect these strong trends to continue throughout the fourth quarter with system-wide RevPAR once again exceeding prior peaks.”

Net income for Hilton during its third quarter was $346 million, while adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $732 million. Last year, these numbers were $240 million and $519 million. As of September 30, Hilton has $8.8 billion of long-term debt outstanding.

Hilton expects full-year system-wide comparable RevPAR to increase between 40 to 43 percent when compared to the entirety of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $2.5 billion and $2.53 billion. Net income for the year is expected to be between $1.219 billion and $1.24 billion.

The hotel corporation also noted its continued development, adding 12,900 rooms across 80 new hotels to its global portfolio during its third quarter. It currently has 416,000 rooms in development as of September 30, 2022.