Skift Travel News Blog

In full-year 2022, the Loews Hotels chain of 25 luxury properties generated $345 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a measure of profit — on revenue of $721 million, its parent company reported on Monday.

The hotel unit’s adjusted earnings were roughly 51 percent higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $227 million.

CORRECTION: This post originally misstated Loews Hotels’ adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for 2022 and its relationship to the 2019 figure.

Using a different metric, Loews Hotels’ performance was even more impressive. In full-year 2022, the chain generated $161 million in net income compared to a loss of $28 million in 2019.

For the year, Loews Corp., a New York City-based conglomerate that runs insurance, energy, and hotel business units, generated $1 billion in net income from $14 billion in revenue.

Loews Hotels’ results significantly improved due to higher occupancy of 79 percent and average daily room rates of $257, as travel rebounded from the impacts of the pandemic, the company said.

Here are the 2022 figures:

In 2019, the brand was getting an average nightly rate of $288 and had 84.6 percent occupancy across its system.

In recent months, higher hotel revenues were partially offset by increased operating expenses due to the higher demand levels and resumption of additional pre-pandemic services.

On January 1 Alex Tisch became the president and CEO of Loews Hotels — succeeding his cousin once removed Jon Tisch, who became executive chairman and remains co-chairman of the board. Alex, a fourth-generation family member, joined Loews Hotels in 2017 and was named its president in September 2020.

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) plans to reach a portfolio of 300 hotels by 2025, it said on Tuesday when reporting its earnings.

“We are looking to open 18 hotels a year,” said CEO and managing director Puneet Chhatwal. He cited plans to grow through conversions and new construction across India and in West Asia and Europe. The company plans to invest about $60 million a year for the next few years specifically for hotel development.

India’s largest hotel operator — with brands such as Taj and Ginger — had its highest-ever net profit in the quarter that ended on December 31. The Tata Group-backed company reported consolidated net profit of $46.8 million (3.83 billion rupees) on revenue of about $206 million (16.86 billion rupees).

“We are very pleased to report our Q3 [third quarter] results with a record level on all key parameters, revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, PAT, strong free cash flows and being net cash positive,” Chhatwal said.

The strong performance followed hard on a previous quarter that was also a company record thanks to a surge in post-pandemic travel. Hotel occupancy was up 27 percent on average from pre-crisis levels, while average room rates were up by 27 percent compared with 2019 levels.

“With the month of January gone by almost tonight, we see the momentum continuing,” Chhatwal said. “We have a fair idea and depth of the business on the books and the pick up the way it is coming. The outlook is very strong.”

For more context on CEO Puneet Chhatwal, read Taj Hotels CEO on the Sweeping Strategy Behind Delivering Best-Ever Financials.

Nick Jones said on Wednesday that he would step down from being CEO of Membership Collective Group nearly three decades since he founded the original Soho House that eventually led to the creation of the public company and owner of the Soho House chain.

Andrew Carnie, president of Membership Collective Group, will succeed Jones as CEO.

Jones battled prostate cancer earlier this year successfully but said he now wants a change of life priorities.

On Wednesday the company cut its guidance for this year’s adjusted earnings from between $70 million and $80 million to between $55 million and $60 million. The company also said it would scale back on its growth ambitions by cutting costs across all its operations, refocusing the business back to its core of Soho House properties vs other extensions such as Ned, Scorpios, its digital memberships, and most importantly cutting back on plans to open nine properties this year to instead only opening between five and seven, including delaying planned venues in Mexico City and Bangkok until next year. It is also cutting down its in-house digital content unit by 40 percent, it said.

More on its cuts, from its earnings call: ” To give members the best possible experience and to ensure reduced pressure on the organization, we are returning to our previous target of five to seven new houses a year, and this is in line with our already signed pipeline for the next three years. At the same time, our cities at houses offer will continue to provide a clear path for longer-term growth at a minimal expense to the company. As part of prioritizing the right investments for our business and our members, we are no longer pursuing the external digital membership…We are reducing our in-house operating expenses. Post COVID, we rush to get all our houses open as quickly as possible in the manner we were used to operating them. In addition, it was a tough and unpredictable labor market, which means our costs increased significantly. What we’ve learned is our members are using our houses just as much, but at different times, so we’re adjusting our cost base accordingly….we’re refocusing our G&A with targeted reductions on content, digital and other corporate expenses, without impacting the member experience. For example, we are reducing our editorial content spend by about 40% going forward. We can raise prices, but the real opportunity is to run a more efficient business.”

The group went public in 2021. Its shares lost about two-thirds of their value this year after the company’s post-pandemic recovery ran up against the pressure of inflation, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, and sudden layoffs in the tech sector.

In the third quarter, revenues at Membership Collective rose 48 percent to $266 million, while the company’s net losses widened from $77 million to $91.7 million. Its net debt rose from $326.2 million to $462.6 million.

The news of the company scaling back its growth trajectory helped to send Membership Collective shares down by roughly 18 percent.

The company owns dozens of Soho House clubs, plus The Ned hotel in London and New York, and the Scorpios beach club in Greece.

Accor, the Paris-based hotel group, said on Wednesday it would return to breakeven before the end of the year for its sales, marketing, distribution, and loyalty activities for owners of its branded hotels.

Accor said robust sales and earnings this summer along with tight control of costs had led the group’s management to raise its full-year guidance for 2022 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a measure of profit. Management had set guidance at above $550 million, but they now expect to generate between $593 million and $622 million (€610 and €640 million).

Accor also revealed it’s engaged in exclusive talks with Valesco Group to sell its Paris head office for about $452 million (€465 million). The asset disposal would be subject to a 12-year sale and leaseback agreement. It requires approval and is slated to be done by year-end.

The sale of the headquarters building is part of the group’s effort to lighten its balance sheet. The move toward leasing rather than owning may also provide a side benefit of letting the company scale up and down in office space as needed and as workplace trends evolve.

Tata Group-backed Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) reported what Puneet Chhatwal, its managing director and CEO, called the best first quarter in the company’s history.

The hotel brand reported strong free cash flows of almost $25 million and net cash positive of $33 million in its consolidated and standalone financials for the first quarter ending June 30, 2022.

A surge in demand across markets and segments, with occupancy and rates exceeding pre-Covid levels and backed by an asset-light model, Indian Hotels Company achieved a milestone earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $51 million, compared to a loss of $15.5 million in the same quarter last year, said Chhatwal.

The company reported a profit after tax of $21 million against only $750,000 in 2019-20.

“The trend is very positive in India and we have outperformed in almost every market on the domestic front, except for a marginal lag in Rajasthan,” Chhatwal said.

With revenue per available room levels exceeding that of the first quarter of 2019-20 in Indian metropolitan cities, Chhatwal, said, “The cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi are back.”

Mumbai Bengaluru and Delhi are also important for the hotel brand as it has owned or licensed assets in these cities. “We account for those revenues and a change in the revenue numbers has a significant impact on our portfolio and our performance,” Chhatwal said.

The company has signed 10 new hotels in the first quarter, with three hotels each under the Taj and Ginger brands, and two hotels each under the SeleQtions and Vivanta brands, and expects to sign 15 more for the rest of the year.

With its presence in over 100 locations in India, Indian Hotels Company has further strengthened its pan-India footprint with the opening of four new hotels in the current fiscal.

“So our pan India footprint is stronger and is getting even further stronger as each month and each quarter goes by through our aggressive asset-light growth strategy that has been in place,” Chhatwal said, adding that the asset-light model is not only driving growth, but is also helping the brand find the right balance which is in line with its Ahvaan 2025 strategy.

Even as IHCL is getting ready to launch a new website and a new mobile app, the hospitality brand is clear that the backbone of the company was, is and in the foreseeable future remains the Taj.

“We are very clear that all brands associated directly or indirectly with the Taj are perceived as premium brands in their respective segment,” Chhatwal said during the first quarter earnings call.

“One thing which we have been very careful about in the last few years is the premiumization of our portfolio. Any business that we enter in we want our offering to be in the premium level in their relative positioning.”

The company’s long-term growth will also focus significantly on digital enablers such as the super app — Tata Neu. “The Tat Neu integration has enabled us to get one million new members in four months and a 50 percent growth in our loyalty base,” Chhatwal said.

Another quarter, another step in the right direction for IHG Hotels & Resorts, which is “very close” (or 10.5 percent) to global pre-pandemic RevPAR — or revenue per available room, a key industry metric.

But recovery in demand and pricing across its hotels in the Americas has led to group profit more than doubling versus 2021, with profitability now ahead of 2019 for that region, said CEO Keith Barr in a statement Tuesday, as it posted its interim 2022 first-half results.

For its second quarter, Americas RevPAR was up 3.5 percent on the 2019 second quarter.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa saw an “excellent improvement in performance” but Greater China had a “tough period” due to Covid-related travel restrictions.

“We have since seen a strong recovery in the most recent months, although risk of further volatility in trading in the region still remains,” Barr said.

IHG, which now operates 6,028 hotels, reported group revenue of $1.794 billion for the six months ended June 2022, which is a 52 percent increase on the $1.179 billion in the 2021 first-half.

Operating profit soared from $138 million in the second half of 2021 to $361 million in this year’s second half, an upswing of 162 percent.

That’s up 2.6 per cent on the comparable period in 2019.

Check back later today for more updates