Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian Talks 2025 Profit Growth

Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt Hotels CEO says they now expects to log a profit of $135 million to $165 million for 2025, up from a previous estimate for $95 million to $150 million. He discusses what the latest wave of tariffs means for their future growth with Bloomberg's Dani Burger, Lisa Abramowicz and Annmarie Hordern.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Turning to the travel industry, Hiatt reinstating it's full year
guidance after its second quarter earnings beat estimates. Bloomberg standy
Berger joins US now with a special guest standing Lisa,
Thank you so much. It is such an important earning
season for just that understanding the consumer and their sensitivity
to this economy. I'm pleased to say joining us now
is someone who understands the consumer very well. It is

(00:28):
Mark Hopomajian, the CEO and president of Hyatt. Mark, thank
you so much for joining this morning. You're out with
earnings moments ago. Earlier this year you had to cut
earnings because of your outlook on some of the weaker
reservation trends going forward. You've mostly held on to that look.
So what if anything has changed for the consumer and
the demand you're seeing?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, Danny, first of all, thanks for having me. You know,
the first point that I have to make is that
travel is extraordinarily resilient. It's become a necessity for both
leisure travelers and for business travelers. The second quarter was
a weaker quarter for business travel, but leisure held up really,
really strongly. And our US resorts were up mid single

(01:10):
digits for the first half of the year. Europe was
up almost seven percent in leisure, so leisure, especially the
luxury segment. In the luxury segments, which luxury has been
up about six or seven percent year to date as
well the higher end customer, which is that our core
customer base with seventy percent of our portfolio and luxury

(01:31):
and full service is alive and well. So I would
say a couple of things have happened right now. The
first is that our largest corporate customers have told us
they're not they're going to lean in and continue to travel,
and they're making more commitments, especially for customer facing events
and meetings. The second thing that happened is that we

(01:55):
saw bookings for twenty twenty six really improve for big
group meetings. And third, the Conference Board and the and
the Business Council released the CEO their CEO Sentiments surveyed
this morning and things have turned now. Tariffs and volatility
have declined to number three on the list from number one,

(02:18):
and their outlook with respect to potential recession has dropped dramatically.
So I think the attitude and mindset for a lot
of CEOs is shifting mark.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
That's very fascinating because the tariff picture is still evolving
as we go on. So are there any pockets where
you're still seeing those fears of economic anxiety or to
your point, is it now confidence restored?

Speaker 1 (02:39):
No, we are, And in a word, it's China. The
caution and conservatism in China is clear, and a lot
of people are uncertain about what a so called tariff
war or the tariff picture might do to the economy. Overall,
there's an increasing I think body of thought that says

(03:02):
that Beijing pays a lot of attention to sentiment, and
the sentiment is definitely one of a very significant caution
right now. So I think there's an expectation that sometime
in the fall there may be policy shifts that alleviate
some of that and bring back a stimulus for growth.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So I would say you jump in because I wanted
to get to luxury, because you mentioned that this is
one of the strong suits and really resilient. Of course
you've doubled down on the luxury strategy too, but it
is a time where there is more competition and maybe
that aspirational traveler needs a little bit more convincing that
they should be paying up for the one thousand plus
a night type of all inclusive resorts. So what do

(03:42):
you need to do in terms of strategy to convince
them that paying up is worth it.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, our awn inclusive business is up six or seven
percent year to date, eight percent if you include Europe.
It's been wildly resilient. We are the leader in five
star luxury all inclusive resort where I think the certainty
of what your vacation will cost you and the experience
on property where our colleagues are not thinking about or

(04:11):
engaged in how much something costs, but rather full on
human to human service makes a difference to people. And
so the format has really really proven to be very,
very popular and will continue to do so. We just
closed on the acquisition of apply To Hotels and Resorts
twenty six hundred new hotel rooms in premier beachfront locations,

(04:34):
and we have a deal to sell all of real
estate so we will maintain our asset lite status. It's
a great deal and adds sixty five million dollars in
new fees to our run rates, so I think we're
quite pleased with that. So we're definitely doubling down on luxury,
and we're definitely doubling down on all inclusive well mark.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Just to that point, it's been a really hot summer,
a really hectic summer. I think a lot of people
are looking for inspiration of where to travel right now?
Where is the most demands? Where are you seeing most
people go to? What's in fashion right now?

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah? I would say the US traveler has headed to
Europe this summer. We thought we would see a massive
decline from last year, be given the Olympics and Taylor Swift,
but they're back in Europe and Europeans are staying in Europe.
But I would say the diversity of destinations has increased,

(05:27):
a lot of interest in Central and South America and
the Caribbean, and Mexico continues to be in great demand
both amongst Europeans, and the Canadian volume into our Mexican
and Caribbean resorts is significantly above last year. A lot
of people have talked about the flyover effect where Canadians

(05:47):
are heading over the US to get to Mexican and
Korean destinations, and we're seeing it significantly.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
All right, So europe staying in Europe, Canadians skipping over
the US. Definitely a trend there. Mark, thank you so
much for joining us this morning. Mark Hoplomacian, the CEO
of Hyatt