While Marriott International, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International and Hilton all reported profits for the fourth quarter and full year 2021, Hyatt Hotels Corp. posted a loss.
Net losses in the fourth quarter of 2021 reached $29 million, compared to net loss of $203 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. For the full year, Hyatt reported a net loss of $222 million, down from a loss of $703 million in 2020.
Instead of focusing on those negatives, Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian spent much of the earning call with investors focusing on November’s acquisition of Apple Leisure Group, which he called the biggest acquisition in the history of Hyatt. The deal nearly doubled Hyatt’s resort offerings—adding 100 resorts to the portfolio—and “significantly” expands the company’s presence in Europe, he said: “And most importantly, it is an asset-light and growing platform with great momentum that significantly increases our mix of [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] driven by a highly resilient leisure demand.”
Related: Hyatt completes acquisition of Apple Leisure Group
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased to $112 million from a loss of $98 million, and ALG contributed $4 million to that total. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA increased to $257 million from a loss of $177 million.
Owned asset dispositions brought the company approximately $630 million of gross proceeds, leading to the completion of its $1.5 billion commitment ahead of schedule. The company is in “advanced stages” to dispose of two other owned hotels for an aggregate amount of approximately $270 million. “Should we successfully close these two transactions, they will mark early and solid progress toward the $2 billion asset sell-down commitment we announced in August,” Hoplamazian said.
Hoplamazian said he was “thrilled” with the company’s performance during the last quarter of 2021, and that “post-omicron booking levels” are driving “tremendous optimism” for 2022.
Development
In the fourth quarter, 128 new hotels with 37,014 rooms joined Hyatt's system, including 99 hotels with 31,887 rooms from the acquisition of ALG. For the full year, 198 new hotels with 49,834 rooms joined the system. An additional 17 properties with 3,076 rooms converted to a Hyatt brand during 2021.
As of Dec. 31, the company had a pipeline of executed management or franchise contracts for approximately 540 hotels (approximately 113,000 rooms), inclusive of ALG's pipeline contribution of approximately 30 hotels (or approximately 9,000 rooms).
“While we recognize that supply chain delays could play a role in the timing of openings, we expect to deliver net rooms growth of approximately 6 percent in 2022,” CFO Joan Bottarini said during the call. “This expectation implies that we will end the year with just over 300,000 rooms in our system, a notable milestone considering we reached 200,000 rooms just a little over three years ago.”