High-end travelers wanting to travel a little bit closer to home helped drive hotel revenue growth for Host Hotels & Resorts during the first three months of the year.
During the hotel real estate investment trust's first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Host President and CEO Jim Risoleo said the quarter's results exceeded executives' expectations. Comparable hotel total revenue per available room grew 4.6% year over year, and comparable hotel RevPAR increased by 4.4%, driven by rate growth and continued strength in out-of-room spending.
“RevPAR growth in the first quarter was meaningfully better than expected,” he said. “Strong rate growth was enabled by resilient demand despite estimated weather impacts of approximately 120 basis points in tough comparisons to last year.”
Host’s resorts in Florida and Phoenix had strong performance, and its San Francisco properties did as well thanks to the Super Bowl and the ongoing market recovery, he said. That market in particular achieved 26% RevPAR growth and more than 70% earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization growth.
Transient revenue grew by 5.5%, driven by rate growth particularly at resorts, Risoleo said. Transient results benefited from Easter falling in early April, which compressed spring break demand in March, contributing to 9% transient revenue growth at its resorts.
“Feedback from our properties indicates that ongoing geopolitical uncertainty supported travelers’ favoring U.S. luxury destinations over international destinations,” he said. “As a result, resort properties delivered particularly strong performance in the first quarter.”
In Maui, RevPAR grew 1.5% and TRevPAR grew 1.6% as the island dealt with heavy rainstorms in March, he said. Before the storms, overall demand at Host’s Maui resorts was tracking ahead of expectations for the quarter. Following the rain, there has been strong rebooking activity, and the company expects Maui to contribute approximately $120 million of EBTIDA this year.
Business transient revenue grew 4% due to strong rate growth as the ongoing mix shift moves from government to corporate negotiated, Risoleo said. Group room revenue in the quarter grew 2.4%, driven by both improvements in demand and rate. The portfolio sold 1.1 million group roomnights during the quarter, and group roomnights on the books for 2026 stand at 3.5 million with total group revenue pace up nearly 4% year over year.
Food-and-beverage revenue grew by 5% and other revenue grew 6%, with broad-based strength across departments, he said. These results demonstrated the continued strength of the affluent customer.
Improved outlook
“We continue to expect strong leisure demand, bolstered by special events, modest improvements to short-term group booking trends and stable business transient demand,” Risoleo said.
Because of this, Host has raised its 2026 comparable hotel RevPAR outlook range to 3% to 4.5% and comparable hotel TRevPAR growth range to 3.5% to 5%, he said.
“Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we are optimistic about the travel environment,” he said. “High-end consumers continue to prioritize experiences, and supply across our markets and chain scales remains at historically low levels.”
The midpoint of Host’s outlook assumes a stable operating environment with the continuation of trends experienced in the first quarter, said Sourav Ghosh, executive vice president and chief financial officer. This includes leisure transient trends driven by special events, such as FIFA World Cup matches, modest improvements in short-term group booking trends and stable business transient demand.
The low end of the outlook assumes no improvement in short-term group booking trends and weaker special event demand, he said. The high end assumes improving short-term group booking trends and increased demand around special events.
Host expects second-quarter RevPAR growth to be similar to the first quarter’s results, driven by the World Cup, he said. The outlook for April hotel RevPAR projects a 4.4% year-over-year increase. For the second half of the year, the company expects RevPAR growth to be in the low single digits.
“We continue to expect an estimated 40 basis point net benefit from special events for the full year, with an estimated 60 basis point lift from the World Cup, partially offset by a 20 basis point headwind from the presidential inauguration in the first quarter of 2025,” he said.
The bulk of the World Cup-related demand should materialize within the 30-day booking window, he added.
“That said, we are encouraged that transient revenue pace for our portfolio in World Cup markets is up nearly 40% year over year and has been steadily picking up occupancy as we get closer to the match date,” he said.
Portfolio investment
Host completed the comprehensive renovation of its Hyatt Regency Reston during the quarter, Risoleo said. By the end of March, the company had completed more than 80% of its Hyatt Transformational Capital Program, which is tracking on-time and under budget. The company has finished renovations at four out of the six properties in the program, including the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, the Hyatt Regency Austin and the Hyatt Regency Reston.
The work on the Grand Hyatt Washington, D.C., is projected to be complete later this month, he said. The Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego is going through a phased renovation to mitigate business interruption, and the project should be substantially complete by the end of the year.
Host’s second Marriott Transformational Capital Program is well underway, with guestroom renovations at the New Orleans Marriott in progress and scheduled to be complete in the third quarter. Renovations at the Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburon and the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa are scheduled to start later this month.
The company is also nearing completion of the condo development of the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort, which it sold for $1.1 billion along with the 125-key Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole in February 2026. To date, the company has closed on the sale of 20 out of 31 units in the mid-rise building, and it has deposits and purchase agreements for eight of its nine villas.
The condo project is on budget and expected to sell out by the end of the year, he said, adding remaining development costs for this amount to an estimated $15 million.
Host’s capital expenditure outlook range for the year is $545 million to $655 million, Risoleo said. Within that is $250 million to $300 million of investment focused on redevelopment, repositioning and return-on-investment projects as well as $20 million to $30 million for property damage reconstruction related to the storms in Maui along with $5 million in anticipated remediation costs.
Once the second Marriott Transformational Capital Program is finished, Host will have invested $2.1 billion in comprehensive renovations at 34 of its hotels, he said. They are expected to contribute approximately 60% of Host’s total hotel EBITDA in 2026. The stabilized post-renovation data on 21 hotels shows an average RevPAR index share gain of nearly 9 points.
By the numbers
For the quarter, Host reported $1.65 billion in revenue, a 3.2% year-over-year increase, according to its earnings release. It also reported net income of $501 million, a 99.6% increase over the first quarter of 2025.
The company achieved comparable hotel EBITDA of $505 million, up from $472 million the year before. Adjusted EBITDA for real estate was $543 million, up from $514 million.
As of March 31, Host’s total assets were valued at $13.2 billion. It had a debt balance of $5.1 billion, with a weighted average maturity of 4.9 years and a weighted average interest rate of 4.8% with no maturities in 2026.
The company had total available liquidity of about $3.4 billion, including $151 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment escrow reserves as well as $1.5 billion under the revolver portion of its credit facility.
Host repurchased 4 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $18.97 per share for a total of $75 million. As of March 31, it had $405 million remaining in its repurchase program.
As of press time, Host’s stock was trading at $21.71 per share, up 22.4% year to date and 48.6% year over year. The NASDAQ Composite was up 10.9% and 45.3% for the same respective periods.