Why Hyatt is ‘glass half full’ on NUG in 2026
CHICAGO — Mark Hoplamazian said he has a lot of reasons to be optimistic about Hyatt’s net unit growth.
During the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Hyatt’s President and CEO was asked about whether he still had a “glass half full” opinion on the company’s pipeline and future NUG (which the company projected for 6-7% in 2026), which can drive a lot of value for the big hotel brand companies.
Hoplamazian answered with an emphatic yes, then spelled out the reasons.
“We feel really good about the momentum that we’ve seen. We had a really significant signing quarter in the fourth quarter and we have tremendous momentum in the newly launched brands,” he said.
Hoplamazian noted that the pipeline is not only powered by conversions but a mix of new construction as well (Hyatt Select went from 9 to a pipeline to 32 with all but three being conversions; new-build brand Hyatt Studios went from five to 10 under construction but also 31 under design with the hope that shovels are in the ground soon; Unscripted went from nothing to eight open and eight more in the pipeline; and UrCove had 72 hotels open by the end of the year with 93 more in the pipeline).
“The entirety of the upper midscale side of the equation has tremendous positive momentum and I’m particularly encouraged to see the advancement of so many projects through design into construction,” he said.
The other factor that makes Hoplamazian optimistic is the mix of the chain scale. He said Hyatt has about 70% of its existing open hotels in the luxury and upper-upscale categories, and that the same percentage holds for its pipeline as well, with 70% of Hyatt’s pipeline outside the U.S., which is seeing “less sensitivity” to new builds. So, Hyatt is opening new projects in China, throughout Southeast Asia, Europe, and even the Americas (he mentioned several high-profile new-build projects in Mexico as examples).
He said financing new-build projects in the U.S. is still a challenge, but it has now been mostly factored into the equation. Hoplamazian added that Hyatt is working to make that process easier.
“We’re working really hard to uncover other sources of financing to help our developers who are under design get under construction,” he said. “We have so many levers that are all working right now in a positive manner that I feel really good about the overall growth profile, organically.”
That’s not to say Hyatt won’t continue to look at growing through M&A as well, Hoplamazian said, but the current 6-7% project for NUG is really for organic growth.
“We continue to look at portfolio deals. We are very focused on making sure that they are real, meaning we really are not happy to just affiliate but we want to have a deeper relationship and make sure that we are under contract in a way that is providing the owners the best value proposition, which is really to be plugged into our systems and under a franchise arrangement or a management arrangement,” he said.
Digging into RevPAR growth
Hyatt reported systemwide RevPAR growth of 4% in the fourth quarter and 2.9% for all of 2025, as well as net rooms growth of 7.3% as part of its fourth quarter earnings. The company said Q4 RevPAR growth was highest among its luxury and upper-upscale chains, while the leisure transient segment remained the strongest.
Hoplamazian provided greater detail in his prepared remarks, noting that leisure transient RevPAR increased approximately 6% year-over-year as guests continue to prioritize leisure travel. He said this was especially true across Hyatt’s luxury brands, where the company saw leisure transient RevPAR grow by 9%. Business transient RevPAR declined 1% in the fourth quarter, driven by the negative performance of select-service hotels in the U.S. Full-service hotels were up, led by hotels in international markets and group RevPAR increased 3% YOY.
Hoplamazian said Hyatt has several portfolio transactions under discussion right now.
“Some are quite large, and they would be full-blown management or franchise agreements. Others are smaller,” he said, noting the company is still working hard to fill in Europe on the full-service side.
Bottarini said international RevPAR remains strong, led by leisure transient travel in Asia Pacific, excluding Greater China, which led all regions with RevPAR growth of more than 13%. Greater China also had its strongest quarter of RevPAR growth for 2025, with domestic travel up in the mid-single digits, a positive shift compared to earlier 2025 trends. Hyatt’s all-inclusive resort also finished strong, growing net package RevPAR 8.3% YOY with excellent performance in both the Americas and Europe.
Group pace is up so far in 2026, Bottarini added.
“We continue to hear positive feedback from our group and corporate customers about their intent to travel this year, particularly for customer-facing travel,” she said. “Pace for our all-inclusive resorts in the Americas is up over 9% in the first quarter, reflecting the continued strength of leisure travel.”
When talk at the end of the call circled back to net unit growth, Hoplamazian mentioned that potential portfolio deals can also help Hyatt grow where it needs to.
“The portfolio deals that I’m talking about are larger and have more infrastructure associated with them,” he said, noting they could include management platforms, either because of geography or the type of hotel, which would be brought into Hyatt's system through a hard or soft brand. He said the deal could also include resources for Hyatt, "if it’s in a geography in which we have relative modest representation, which is exactly the kinds of deals we should be doing.”
Owner of Waldorf Astoria New York reportedly eyes a sale
An iconic Manhattan hotel is rumored to be for sale, and once the Waldorf Astoria New York hits the market, all eyes will be on it to see who steps up to buy.
The recently renovated hotel reopened to the public last year after a multibillion-dollar transformation that included converting the existing 1,400 hotel rooms into 375 guest rooms and 372 luxury residential condos. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the hotel will soon be up for sale. The owner is reportedly working with investment bank Eastdil Secured to market the hotel.
Anbang Insurance Group — at the time a Chinese company seeking foreign real estate investment opportunities — bought the Waldorf Astoria New York in February 2015 for $1.95 billion. It then closed the hotel in 2016 for renovations that were planned to take approximately five years.
In 2018, the Chinese government took control of Anbang, and the company's ex-chairman, Wu Xiaohui, was found guilty of fundraising fraud and embezzlement. In 2020, Reuters reported that the company was disbanded and liquidated, with ownership of its assets transferred to the government-controlled Dajia Insurance Group, its current owner through subsidiary Strategic Hotels & Resorts.
According to the WSJ's reporting, the sale would include the 375 guest rooms, as well as the Waldorf Astoria New York's food-and-beverage concepts, shops and spa, which were all also included in the recent overhaul. The luxury condos, however, will be sold separately.
The potential sale comes at an interesting time as luxury and ultra-luxury hotels continue to perform well in the K-shaped economy, said Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics for CoStar.
"I think what the post-COVID era has shown is that the K-shaped economy has produced a lot of households with a lot of high net worth that are very interested in spending on experiences," he said.
According to CoStar data, the New York market continues to perform well, especially when it comes to luxury hotels. Average daily rate for luxury hotels in New York is up 8.8% to $580.33 over the 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2025. Revenue and revenue per available room is also up 12.1% and 9.4%, respectively, for the same period.
Freitag explained that he doesn't think the Chinese government is going to target getting its return on investment for the recent renovation, but there is a small pool of entities that are going to be able to and be interested in purchasing the Waldorf Astoria New York.
He said it's likely not going to be a hotel real estate investment trust and, aside from a high-net-worth individual making an ego purchase, it will likely be another foreign investor. Some of the bigger funds that could write that check aren't likely to be tempted away from other real estate purchases like an artificial data center considering recent returns on investment in the hotel industry,
"This is such a unique trophy property and sort of once-in-a-lifetime acquisition," Freitag said.
After closing out 2025 with a fourth quarter that exceeded expectations, Expedia Group is targeting growth as the travel booking platform expands its business-to-business partners, adding to its supply, integrating artificial intelligence and strengthening consumer brands.
"We're confident that our work to make our products even more personalized and intuitive, along with our work on supply, customer service and loyalty, will keep in our competitive advantage," CEO Ariane Gorin said on Expedia Group's earnings call Thursday. "We enter 2026, our 30th year as a company, well-positioned to extend our momentum."
In the fourth quarter, both revenue and gross bookings on Expedia grew 11%, while booked room nights grew 9%. Lodging gross bookings increased 13% in the fourth quarter.
Scott Schenkel, chief financial officer of Expedia Group, said the company's fourth quarter 2025 "exceeded the high end of our guidance range. ... Our outperformance was driven by sustained market strength through year end and disciplined execution across the company. We grew share in the U.S. for both hotel and VRBO, and held lodging share globally."
For full-year 2025 results, Expedia Group posted an 8% increase in revenue and gross bookings, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increasing 19%. The company repurchased 9 million shares for $1.7 billion in 2025.
Gorin gave an update on Expedia Group's AI strategy, which continues to have a focus on internal operations optimization to, as she said, "give our team superpowers and make our offerings to travelers and partners even more competitive."
"As we grow our business and increase our use of AI, we're keeping a close eye on cost, and we've been able to optimize our cloud spend through technology improvements and more disciplined cloud operating," she said.
Expedia Group's tech optimization aligns with the company's focus on delivering value to customers, and Gorin emphasized the importance of recent website and app updates that have made quite a difference to user experience.
"Our sites and apps are 30% faster than they were a year ago," she said. "We've upgraded our checkout path and added new payment options, giving travelers more flexibility and making booking even easier."
She also emphasized how the company has improved automation of help center capabilities across brands, so users can make travel changes independently.
Expedia Group is also homing in on its marketing efforts, Gorin said.
"We're taking a more disciplined and data-driven approach to our marketing, and it's even more grounded in customer insights. ... The work that we've done to sharpen our brand value propositions with stronger creative makes our spend more effective," she said.
Gorin pointed specifically to Hotels.com's relaunch featuring its new mascot, a bell-shaped bellboy. She said the company's Super Bowl commercial for Hotels.com was among the most watched.
As far as what the future holds, Expedia Group is anticipating gross bookings growth between 10% to 12% in the first quarter and a 6% to 8% increase in bookings for the full-year 2026.
The company's outlook includes a similar pace of growth for revenue, with an expected 11% to 13% increase in the first quarter and a 6% to 9% growth in revenue for the full year.
“Our guidance reflects strong bookings momentum as we enter Q1 while remaining appropriately cautious, given ongoing macro uncertainty," Schenkel said, explaining that the higher end of the outlook implies stability while the lower end reflects "a more cautious view."
As of press time, Expedia's stock was trading at $227.24 per share, up 11.8 year over year. The NASDAQ Composite was up 13.3% for the same period.
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