Wyndham Reports Strong Overseas Demand in Q2

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ second-quarter revenue per available room increased overseas due to “strong pricing power” and “higher occupancy levels,” with China nearly recovering to 2019 levels, hotel executives said Thursday during the company’s earnings call.

“Demand, growth and recovery overseas was especially strong,” Wyndham president and CEO Geoffrey Ballotti said. That recovery is most notably seen in China’s RevPAR, which is “99 percent of 2019,” Ballotti said, and was driven primarily by “strong leisure bookings.” Occupancy in China reached 83 percent of 2019 levels, said Wyndham CFO Michele Allen, up from 76 percent in the first quarter.

In Q2, Wyndham’s systemwide RevPAR increased 7 percent year over year to $46.47, up 14 percent from 2019. Wyndham’s overall RevPAR was lifted by the hotel company’s international performance, which increased 34 percent year over year to $34.44.

However, U.S. RevPAR in Q2 was $55.26, down 1 percent year over year—while up 8 percent over 2019—a fall Ballotti said was due to the market normalizing following the “record comps we saw last year.”

Wyndham’s systemwide occupancy improved 16 percent year over year, Ballotti said on the call, and Allen added that “international occupancy improved to 89 percent of 2019 levels [and] from 84 percent in the first quarter.”

As for the company’s business mix, Wyndham’s “select-service brands continue to outpace their full-service counterparts across the industry by 300 basis points in the second quarter,” Ballotti said.

Citing “double-digit increases” against 2019 that Wyndham continues “to generate from the infrastructure accounts—who drive over 20 percent of our franchisees revenues—we remain bullish about our growth prospects in the quarters and years ahead,” Ballotti said.

Additional Q2 Results

Addressing the elephant in the room of a May report in The Wall Street Journal that cited sources indicating potential acquisition interest in Wyndham from Choice Hotels International, Ballotti sidestepped the issue.

“We never comment on speculative news articles,” Ballotti said. “We’re focused on our business as usual and growing our business.”

Additionally, Wyndham grew its systemwide pipeline 10 percent year over year in Q2.

Wyndham reported revenue of $362 million in Q2, which was up from the first quarter, but down 6.2 percent year over year. Wyndham’s net income in Q2 was $70 million, down from $92 million in 2022.

Angelique Platas www.businesstravelnews.com