Hyatt Hotels Corporation 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Thank you, and welcome to Hyatt's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call.

Joining me on today's call are Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Joan Bottarini, Hyatt's Chief Financial Officer. Before we start, 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-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other SEC filings. These risks could cause our actual results to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issue today, along with the comments on this call, remain 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 today's remarks under the Financial section of our Investor Relations website and in this morning's earnings release. An archive of this call will be available on our website for 90 days. Additionally, we posted an investor presentation on our Investor Relations website this morning containing supplemental information. Please note, unless otherwise stated, references to occupancy, average daily rate, and RevPAR reflect comparable system-wide hotels on a constant currency basis, and closed hotels in Jamaica are excluded from comparable metrics in 2026. Percentage changes disclosed during the call are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. With that, I will turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. I am extremely proud of our teams and the exceptional results they helped deliver in the third quarter. Hyatt continues to demonstrate the strength of our asset-light business model and our insights-led brand-focused strategy, supported by the talent and commitment of our colleagues. Our teams are focused on delivering on-property experiences that truly resonate with our guests, deepen loyalty, drive durable fee growth, increase free cash flow, and generate attractive long-term returns. Our third quarter results provide another compelling example of our strategy in action. We delivered strong RevPAR, fee, and adjusted EBITDA growth, expanded World of Hyatt membership, and grew our development pipeline to record levels, even as certain subregions experienced temporary softness in demand.

Our diversified global portfolio focus on high-end, experience-focused travelers, and strong commercial platform continue to drive performance and strengthen Hyatt's position as a preferred choice among guests, owners, and developers. Together, these advantages support high-quality operational execution and growth, driving higher fee earnings and free cash flow. Turning to our operating results, third quarter system-wide RevPAR grew 7.2%, exceeding our expectations. Performance was driven by durable demand from high-end travelers and continued strength across our luxury portfolio, with some benefit from the FIFA World Cup in July and the timing of the Jewish holidays in September. RevPAR growth in the U.S. also exceeded our expectations, while most international markets delivered strong growth. Average rates grew in all brand categories, driving nearly 80% of our RevPAR growth.

Our focus on driving high-quality RevPAR growth is intentional as it supports higher cash flow for owners, and it also results in higher fees and fees per room for Hyatt. RevPAR increased across all customer segments: business, group, and especially leisure travel. Year to date, we have gained 100 basis points of market share across our portfolio, driven by gains in average rate index, highlighting that our strong RevPAR gains are much more than just favorable industry trends. Together, these results highlight the benefits of Hyatt's differentiated strategy, premium brands that resonate with travelers and win in their competitive set, supported by a commercial engine that drives superior results for our owners. Business transient RevPAR grew approximately 1% during the quarter, with growth accelerating to more than 4% in September, a sign of renewed momentum after the summer, with strong results in our select service brands in the U.S.

Group RevPAR increased a strong 8% in the quarter compared to last year, with some of that growth coming from the FIFA World Cup and the shift in the timing of the Jewish holidays. The strength and resilience of the leisure traveler drove leisure transient RevPAR growth of approximately 10%, once again led by our luxury hotels. Demand for high-quality experiences remains strong, with performance at our resorts in the Americas offsetting temporarily softer demand at our all-inclusive resorts in Cancun. Looking ahead, we see continued momentum across all customer segments, and the pickup in bookings into Cancun is very encouraging. World of Hyatt continues to fuel increased performance across our brands and continues to grow at an exceptional rate with more than 72 million members, up 19% from a year ago. But it is not just about scale. World of Hyatt is central to our insights-led and brand-focused approach.

Its continued growth reflects the appeal of our brand and the value the program delivers to members and ultimately to owners. The way we connect and engage with our members differentiates their experience and provides us with valuable insights into what matters most throughout their travel journey. We see this reflected through the deeper and more frequent engagement with our members. Since 2022, we have seen members with over 100 qualifying stays per year increase by nearly 40%. Our recently announced long-term loyalty collaboration with Delta Air Lines is a great example of connecting with our members beyond their hotel stay experience. Our collaboration brings together two brands with a shared commitment to thoughtful premium experiences that put members first. Together, Delta and Hyatt aim to make travel more connected and rewarding through exclusive benefits and experiences that extend throughout their travel journey.

We're excited about this collaboration and look forward to sharing more as the program develops. Together, our differentiated brands, commercial platform, and growing base of highly engaged World of Hyatt members strengthen our value proposition for guests, owners, and developers. This drives demand for Hyatt Hotels and supports attractive owner returns, underpinning our quality growth strategy. Hyatt's value proposition continues to resonate with owners and developers, as reflected in our exceptionally strong development activity during the third quarter. We ended the quarter with a record development pipeline of approximately 158,000 rooms, up 12% from a year ago. Year to date, we have signed 70% more deals compared to last year, and our construction starts are up over 40%. The performance of our luxury, lifestyle, and Inclusive Collection brands continue to generate strong owner interest in signings, while our Essentials brands are building continued momentum and expanding Hyatt's reach.

In fact, during the quarter, over half of the signings for our Essentials brands in the U.S. were in markets new to Hyatt. Third quarter net rooms growth was 3.9%, excluding rooms from the Playa Hotels acquisition that were removed from Hyatt's room count in the fourth quarter of 2025. Notable openings included the Thompson Seville, our second Thompson Hotels property in Spain, and Hyatt Vivid Punta Cana. Our expansion into upper mid-scale continues to gain momentum with 14 hotel openings in this segment during the quarter. As we look ahead, we expect over half of our openings for the year to occur in the fourth quarter. Approximately two-thirds of our anticipated fourth quarter openings are hotels in the final stages of pre-opening.

The remainder of our anticipated growth is largely comprised of multi-property conversions that in some cases have taken longer to finalize than anticipated, and strategic partner hotel additions. We've built a strong and rapidly expanding international pipeline that we believe will deliver accretive fees per room. We also see significant opportunities to expand our brand presence in the U.S. Together, these opportunities give me confidence in our ability to deliver the net rooms growth targets and, most importantly, the fee growth that we outlined at our Investor Day in May. Now, turning to transactions. We continue to make progress to sell the Hyatt Grand Central New York and are also advancing discussions to sell several additional properties. We will continue to provide updates as we make progress on these sales.

Throughout these sales, our disciplined approach remains consistent with our track record of pursuing transactions that achieve attractive values while securing long-term management or franchise agreements, supporting continued fee growth and shareholder value. We continue to sharpen our brand focus, invest in our talent, and leverage technology to deliver high-quality experiences and operate more effectively. The appointment of Amar Lalvani as Hyatt's first Chief Creative Officer reflects that commitment. He's helping bring our brand strategy to life across the company and equipping colleagues to deliver it. We believe these capabilities strengthen Hyatt's competitive advantages and support long-term value creation. As we shared at Investor Day, we've built a powerful flywheel that creates value for guests, owners, colleagues, and shareholders. Our third quarter results reinforce the strength of our strategy and our confidence in Hyatt's long-term potential.

Our opportunity is reflected in the strong development pipeline and the significant activity behind it. This is not about growth for the sake of growth. We are and will remain intentional about where and how we grow, focusing on openings that strengthen our network, further drive owner returns that will result in high quality, durable, and compounding fee growth into the future. I will now turn the call over to Joan to provide more details on the quarter.