Skift Take

Profitability is possible, but there won’t be massive financial windfalls to report this week. Investors will still expect at least some sign the leisure-led recovery is benefitting these global hotel companies — especially amid the rise of new variants.

Series: Early Check-In

Early Check-In

Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.

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Several of the world’s largest hotel companies report second quarter earnings this week, and don’t rule out the potential for at least one to post a profit. Another just needs to show it has stopped the financial bleeding from the pandemic for investors to be happy. Accor, Hilton, and Wyndham all report this week, and all happen to represent different vantage points of the hotel sector. Paris-based Accor, which posted a $2.4 billion loss last year, has been one of the most-impacted global hotel companies due to its significant exposure to Europe, where off-and-on lockdowns hindered the recovery momentum. Hilton saw a less staggering (albeit still grim) $720 million loss last year, likely a result of the company’s smaller exposure to Europe than Accor and greater presence in the U.S., where lockdowns ended earlier. Accor simply needs to show some level of recovery — likely from domestic European leisure travel as well as inbound traffic from the U.S. to countries that reopened borders in recent months — is underway to satisfy expectations. Hilton needs to show leisure demand to its resorts and hotels compensates for lagging performance in convention hotels and business travel-oriented properties in major cities. Wyndham, however, needs to show a profit — and it almost certainly will. While the company lost $132 million last year, it also reported occasional profitability through the pandemic and only lost $7 million during the fourth quarter of last year during a winter surge of new cases in the U.S. Wyndham CEO Geoffrey Ballotti was among the most bullish on the prospects of what vaccine distribution could do for the industry’s performance. “We are encouraged the vaccines are working, and we believe they will help to deliver a multi-year resurgence in leisure travel unlike any other in our industry’s history,” he sai