Hilton Worldwide Holdings reported its second quarter 2021 results on Thursday with adjusted EBITDA of US$400 million, beating consensus estimates of US$335 million. Adjusted earnings per share of US$0.56 also beat consensus estimates of US$0.40.
Hilton fell short of consensus estimates on total revenue, primarily from other revenues and not the fundamental base fees, according to Truist Securities. Franchise fees of US$369 million beat consensus of US$322 million.
Hilton reported that systemwide comparable RevPAR increased 233.8%. Asia Pacific RevPAR was +143.1%, while U.S. stood at +233.6%. Absolute RevPAR of US$73.03 compares with US$46.23 in 1Q21, US$40.68 in 4Q20, and US$118.27 in 2Q19.
Truist pointed out that the large select-service brands such as Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites had strong occupancy – 66.5% and 76.4%, respectively – and it assumed corporate demand played a material factor in the outperformance versus the higher-rated brands such as Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, and Hilton in the 40s% occupancy.
Hilton said it approved 25,900 new rooms for development during the second quarter, bringing its development pipeline to 401,000 rooms as of June 30, 2021. It added 19,800 rooms to the system in the second quarter, contributing to 17,800 net additional rooms during the period and approximately 7% annualized net unit growth from June 30, 2020.
As of July 21, 2021, 99% of Hilton’s hotels were open ad full-year 2021 net unit growth is expected to be between 5% and 5.5%.