Hilton Worldwide has made a higher profit than expected in the third quarter of the year as RevPAR (revenue per available room) surpassed pre-Covid levels for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The hotel giant announced a net profit of $346 million for the quarter running from July to September, with RevPAR rising by 29.9 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2021 and by 5 per cent compared to 2019 on a “currency neutral” basis. As a comparison, Hilton made a net profit of $240 million during the same quarter of 2021.
Christopher Nassetta, the president and CEO of Hilton, said that exceeding 2019’s RevPAR was an “important milestone in our recovery”.
“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,” added Nassetta.
In Europe, Hilton’s occupancy reached 77.4 per cent for the third quarter, which compares to just 18.5 per cent a year ago. Average daily rate for Hilton’s European properties has also jumped up by 45.9 per cent year-on-year to reach $159.10, while RevPAR nearly doubled to $123.15 in Q3.
During the quarter, Hilton added just under 13,000 new rooms to its system, while 19,900 new rooms were approved for development. Hilton currently has a pipeline of 416,000 rooms.
For the whole of 2022, Hilton is now forecasting that it will make a net profit of between $1.219 billion and $1.24 billion.