Hilton eyes return of business travel as revenue more than doubles thanks to Covid jabs
The Hilton hotel empire is confident of its continued Covid recovery as it eyes the return of business travel in the coming months.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings surpassed analyst’s predictions for quarterly profit and revenue in results today.
It posted a 106 per cent rise in fourth-quarter revenue, with $1.84bn, compared with $890m for the previous year.
Vaccination uptake and a return in people travelling over the Christmas period helped to boost hotel occupancy rates in the fourth quarter.
The company reported comparable revenue per available room (RevPAR) of $84.14. Occupancy rates across Hilton hotels hit 61.3 per cent.
This was compared to an occupancy rate of 20.7 per cent for the previous year.
Hilton chief executive officer Christopher Nassetta said he was still confident about a full recovery across business and personal travel segments in the months ahead.
He said flexible travel policies across large corporate customers would fuel an uptick in bookings.
Nassetta also told the Reuters news agency that the company expected strong leisure trends to continue in 2022, driven by pent-up demand. The hotel and tourism industry was set to reap the benefits of nearly $2.5 trillion of excess consumer savings, he added.