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First Hyatt Earnings Report Since IPO Finds Fourth-Quarter Rise In Occupancy
Hyatt Hotels Corp. today, in its first public earnings report in decades, reported that occupancy, though not rates, began to creep upward at its properties in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Hyatt, which last year completed an initial public offering following about 30 years as a private company (BTNonline, Nov. 5, 2009), said fourth-quarter revenue per available room for its owned and leased hotels dropped by 6.7 percent compared with the same period in 2008. RevPAR for North American managed and franchised hotels dropped by 11.1 percent for full-service properties and by 11.9 percent for select-service properties.
Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian in a conference call today said an uptick in transient travel during the quarter improved occupancy, but rates continued their year-over-year decline. For the full year of 2009, average daily rate for owned and leased full-service hotels dropped by almost 13 percent to $175.59, and select-service rates dropped by 13.3 percent to $93.15.
The company said it expected any continued recovery to be occupancy-driven. Hotel research firm Smith Travel Research vice president of global development Jan Freitag, however, said that with supply growth stalling, the upper upscale tier might have a chance to begin to boost rates later this year should occupancy continue to climb.
Hyatt also opened nine new properties during the quarter: two Grand Hyatts in China, Hyatt Regency properties in Hong Kong and South Africa and five Hyatt Places in the United States.
http://www.btnonline.com/
First Hyatt Earnings Report Since IPO Finds Fourth-Quarter Rise In Occupancy http://goo.gl/fb/gCYs