Hotel earnings fall sharply
Wyndham Worldwide has posted an 11% fall in first quarter revenues to $901m as demand for rooms continued to weaken.
Its hotel business, Wyndham Hotel Group (WHG), blamed a 24% decline in earnings on a worldwide drop in revenue per available room (revPAR) and $3m in restructuring costs.
"Wyndham Worldwide delivered solid first quarter results despite strong economic headwinds and a significant reduction in revenues," chairman and ceo Stephen Holmes said.
Pre-tax earnings fell to $35m year-on-year partly offset by lower marketing expenses.
WHG reported a 9% decline in revenue to $154m as revPAR fell 11.3% overall.
The hotel group's domestic market was hit the hardest as revPAR dropped 13.4%.
Wyndham said a strengthening dollar had hit its vacation and rentals business with travellers put off by poor exchange rates.
"As expected revenues were down in each our three business segments," Mr Holmes said.
But he said all earnings had been "in line with or exceeding" expectations.
Mr Holmes added: "Over the course of 2008 we took sign action to position Wyndham Worldwide to withstand the difficult economic environment and benefit from an eventual recovery."
"These actions, which included rebalancing our portfolio of businesses, cutting expenses, and reducing our reliance on the securitisation market, were difficult and had the potential to be very disruptive to our business."
Despite a weakened first quarter, Wyndham predicted full-year revenues of $3.5-3.9bn and a net adjusted income of $289-331m.
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