Business transient room nights hit approximately 80 per cent of fourth-quarter 2019 levels for Hilton Worldwide despite the impact of Omicron.
During the company’s Q4 and full-year 2021 earnings call, Chris Nassetta, CEO, discussed corporate travel and said: “I think there's a really good chance, on a run rate basis, that we will end up back at or above where we were in 2019 before the year is out.”
Nassetta added that large corporate customers "through the third and fourth quarter, were 70 per cent or 80 per cent off still" from 2019 levels while small and medium sized businesses continued to travel.
He said: “We found that surprisingly large corporates disappeared, but the SME's were still out there more than others. Why? Because their business requires them to be out there.”
Nassetta added that while the company turned its focus during Covid-19 to SMEs, Hilton also pivoted “a whole bunch of our infrastructure and retooled our entire sales force to make sure that we didn't abandon the large corporates and those relationships. We kept our entire sales team on payroll during the whole crisis.”
Looking beyond Q4, Nassetta said the post-Omicron recovery looked robust: “In the beginning of January, midweek US transient bookings for all future periods were down 13 per cent from 2019 levels and improved to just down four per cent by the end of the month.”
Q4 metrics
Hilton's revenue per available room increased 104 per cent and 60 per cent in Q4 and full-year 2021, respectively, compared with the same period in 2020.
Occupancy levels for Q4 quarter and full-year 2021 were 61 per cent and 57 per cent, representing a 21 percentage point increase and a 17 percentage point increase, respectively, on the same periods in 2020.
Hilton Worldwide net income was $148 million in the final three months of 2021 and $487 million for the full year.