Executives on earnings call see most slippage in upscale and select service brands

Business travel bookings in the US at Hyatt hotels have been down in the “high single-digits” in the last few weeks versus 2024, according to CEO Mark Hoplamazian, speaking on a first-quarter earnings call. The slowdown, he said, mostly involves the company’s upscale and select service brands.

Despite the softness, Hyatt’s systemwide business travel revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 12% year over year, driven, said Hoplamazian, by large corporate customers. Also helping with the rise was the fact that the Easter holiday, usually a slower time, was in the second quarter of this year and in the first quarter of last year.

Business travel bookings at luxury and upper upscale hotels, said Hoplamazian, seem solid through the end of May, though they represent a smaller share of all volume.

“The place where it’s negative is in upscale. It’s in select-service,” said Hoplamazian. The biggest accounts are actually positive in select service, he said, but the overall business transient pace is definitely off on the select-service side.

Hyatt’s business and leisure transient in international markets, according to CFO Joan Bottarini, has been “notably stronger” than in the US.

On the meetings side, Hoplamazian said corporate meetings are up, especially for bookings into the future. First-quarter group RevPAR increased 9% year over year — a figure also aided by the Easter shift — and the group booking pace at Hyatt’s full-service managed properties for the balance of 2025 is up 3%, Hoplamazian said. Bookings for 2026 and beyond are up “double-digit” percentages, he said, “driven by corporate bookings.”

Hyatt’s systemwide first-quarter RevPAR increased 5.7% year over year to $134.55, while average daily rate increased 2.3% to $201.91, and occupancy rose 2.1 percentage points to 66.6%.