Hilton posts quarterly profit on recovery in leisure travel
October 27, 2021
(Reuters) – U.S. hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc reported a quarterly profit on Wednesday, compared with a year-ago loss, as easing pandemic-led restrictions drove a recovery in leisure travel.
Hotel operators around the world, including Hilton, are seeing occupancy rates inch towards pre-pandemic levels amid rising vaccination rates.
However, labor shortages in the U.S. and tighter social restrictions in southeast Asia, especially in China, continue to weigh on the tourism and hospitality sectors.
Hilton reported comparable RevPAR – a key performance measure for the hotel industry – of 90.39% for the quarter. System-wide occupancy came in at 64.3% for the third-quarter, compared with 42.5% a year ago.
Excluding items, Hilton earned $0.78 per share, while revenue rose 87.5% to $1.75 billion.
The company reported net income attributable to stockholders of $241 million, or 86 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a net loss of $79 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Ashwini Raj in Bengaluru; Editing by Arpan Varghese)