Strong leisure demand and a high-end portfolio helped Host Hotels & Resorts come into 2026 on a high note.
Host’s full-year results came in above guidance, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for real estate of more than $1.7 billion, a 4.6% increase over 2024, President and CEO James Risoleo said during the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call. Comparable hotel total revenue per available room grew by 4.2%, and comparable hotel RevPAR grew 3.8%.
Full-year RevPAR and adjusted EBITDAre exceeded Host’s initial 2025 guidance by 2.3 percentage points and 8.5%, respectively, he said.
“Notably, our portfolio outperformed the upper-tier industry RevPAR growth by approximately 200 basis points for the year,” he said.
During the fourth quarter, comparable hotel total RevPAR improved 5.4% year over year, Risoleo said. Comparable hotel RevPAR was up 4.6%, driven by strong leisure transient demand, higher room rates and increased out-of-room spending.
Transient revenue grew by 6%, driven almost entirely by rate increases, he said. Maui, New York and San Francisco showed particularly strong performance.
“In fact, Maui was a standout market, contributing more than one-third of the transient revenue growth in the fourth quarter,” he said, adding RevPAR grew 15% and TRevPAR grew 13%, driven by strong demand growth.
Maui contributed $111 million of EBITDA for the year, slightly ahead of its most recent forecast and significantly ahead of its initial $90 million expectation at the start of 2025, he said. Looking forward, Host expects Maui to contribute approximately $120 million of EBITDA in 2026.
Business transient revenue was up 1% during the fourth quarter as a decline in room nights offset an increase in rates, he said. Group revenue was also up about 1% with rate increases offset by group room night declines due to renovations and softness in citywide events.
Portfolio update
Host shared the news Wednesday that it sold the 444-key Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort and 156-key Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole for a combined $1.1 billion. The REIT bought the properties in 2021 and 2022, respectively, for a total of $925 million with no significant capital expenditure required under its ownership.
It has retained the ongoing condo development at the Four Seasons resort in Orlando, Risoleo said. Last year, it recognized $17 million of net adjusted EBITDAre from the sale of 16 condo units, and it expects another $20 million to $25 million when the remaining units sell.
Host expects to recognize a taxable gain of about $500 million from the sale of the two Four Seasons resorts subject to final prorations, he said. It has 45 days to identify another property for a reverse 1031, or reverse like-kind, exchange. If it can’t do so, it will return the taxable gain to shareholders through a special dividend. The leadership team will evaluate the best path forward based on market conditions for the remaining sale proceeds, including returning additional capital to shareholders through special dividends or share repurchases, reinvestment in the portfolio of accretive acquisitions.
Host also completed the previously announced sale of the St. Regis Houston, now the Houston Grand Hotel — River Oaks, for $51 million, a 25-times multiple on the trailing 12-month EBTIDA, he said. It has the Sheraton Parsippany under contract to sell for $15 million during the second quarter. Last year, Host sold the Westin Cincinnati and Washington Marriott at Metro Center for a combined $237 million, providing $114 million of seller financing for the Washington Marriott at a 6.5% interest rate.
Since 2018, Host has sold approximately $6.4 billion of hotels and resorts at a blended 16.7-times EBITDA multiple, including foregone capital expenditures of $1.2 billion, Risoleo said. That’s compared to the $4.9 billion of acquisitions it has completed of the same period at a blended 13.6-times EBITDA multiple.
Through 2025, Host invested roughly $644 million in capital expenditures, resiliency initiatives and hurricane restoration work across its portfolio, Risoleo said. By the end of the fourth quarter, its Hyatt Transformation Capital Program was more than 75% complete and tracking on time and under budget. It is nearing completion of the Hyatt Regency Reston and the Grand Hyatt Washington, D.C., both of which should finish in the first half of this year. The Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego is the final property in the program, and the phased project should be substantially complete by the end of the year.
It started the transformational renovation of the New Orleans Marriott in the third quarter of 2025, part of its second Marriott Transformational Capital Program, he said. During the fourth quarter, it received $3 million of operating guarantees related to its transformational capital programs, bringing the total to $26 million in 2025.
Host completed several major return on investment projects over the course of 2025, including the ocean front ballroom expansion at The Don Cesar, the new Aviv restaurant at the 1 Hotel South Beach and the meeting space expansion and reopening of the View Restaurant at the New York Marriott Marquis.
For 2026, its capital expenditure guidance range is $525 million to $625 million, which includes about $250 million to $300 million of investment focused on redevelopment, repositioning and return-on-investment projects.
Host completed 23 transformational renovations between 2018 and 2023, Risoleo said. Of the 21 hotels that have stabilized following renovations, the average RevPAR index share gain is 8.7 points, beating its targeted gain of 3 to 5 points.
Transaction outlook
Even with how investors generally are treating REIT stocks and how slow the transaction environment is, its still possible to realize the value created through its sale of the two Four Seasons properties, Risoleo said. The company is constantly testing the market with dispositions, and everything is for sale at the right price.
“This was an opportunistic transaction to create immediate and tangible value for our shareholders,” he said. “We're looking for an opportunity to realize that value, and we found one and we executed on it.
“So, even though the two Four Seasons were top performers for Host, and we fully expect luxury to continue outperforming, we believe that it was prudent to maximize value for our shareholders by selling these assets in an attractive profit and accretive multiple.”
Host sold these two resorts for $175 million more than what it paid for them, a 14.9 multiple and a 5.9 capitalization rate that is four times higher than where Host’s stock has been trading, he said. That provides a favorable read-through on the value of its portfolio. It generated an 11% unlevered internal rate of return on them, demonstrating its ability to create value.
The Four Seasons resort in Orlando, based on 2019-year EBIDA, saw an 18.4% compounded annual growth rate through Host’s entire ownership period.
Host will continue to be opportunistic as the buyer pool for these types of properties is much deeper than people realize, Risoleo said. There are a lot of sovereign wealth funds, high-net-worth individuals and private equity firms interested in luxury properties.
“There are a couple big private equity firms that have a lot of capital that has been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the inflection point to jump back into the market,” he said. “We are hopeful that this is the inflection point that we can prove out that there is value here, value to be created.”
The overall deals market is generally better than it was last year, but it’s still not robust, Risoleo said. Host has an opportunity to perform a reverse like-kind exchange if it can identify an accretive property acquisition within 45 days.
“I want to make that point very clear,” he said. “If we do a reverse like-kind exchange, it is going to be an accretive transaction. We’re not going to acquire an asset just to effectuate a [reverse] like-kind exchange.”
Host will look at what’s out there relative to its current trading multiple, but the company is comfortable returning $500 million in the form of a special dividend to its shareholders, he said.
“I mean, that is tangible,” he said. “It's 72 cents a share, roughly. It's meaningful, and it is a piece of total shareholder return. So, I'd say, stay tuned, but at this point in time, I think it's more likely than not that we will pay the special dividend.”
By the numbers
As of Dec. 31, 2025, Host reported total assets valued at $13 billion, according to its earnings release.
The REIT had a debt balance of $5.1 billion, with a weighted average maturity of 5.1 years and a weighted average interest rate of 4.8%. It maintained its balanced maturity schedule by refinancing its maturing $400 million 4.5% Series F senior notes through the issuance of $400 million 4.25% Series N senior notes due in 2028. It has no maturities in 2026.
Host reported total available liquidity of approximately $2.4 billion, including furniture, fixtures and equipment escrow reserves of $167 million and $1.5 billion available under the revolver portion of the credit facility.
As of press time, Host's stock price was trading at $20.07 per share, up 17.5% year over year. The Nasdaq Composite was up 13.1% for the same period.