Host Hotels Raises Guidance as World Cup and Group Demand Fuel RevPAR Growth
Q2 2026: RevPAR +7%, full-year guide up 125 bps; expense items and IMF temper flow-through, but Marriott partnership offers cost savings.
HST · Earnings Call · 2026-08-06
RevPAR Surge and Guidance Raise
Host Hotels reported strong Q2 results, with RevPAR up 7% and total RevPAR up 5.9%. The company raised its full-year guidance by 125 basis points for RevPAR growth to 4.75%-5.25%. “Comparable hotel RevPAR improved 7% compared to the second quarter of 2025 and comparable hotel total RevPAR improved 5.9% driven by rate growth and higher food and beverage revenue.” — James F. Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-06 The World Cup contributed approximately 160 basis points to Q2 RevPAR, and management upped the expected full-year contribution to 70 bps from 60 bps. World Cup markets saw RevPAR growth of 15% in June, outperforming non-host cities. The company also raised its EBITDAre guidance by $20 million to a $1.83 billion midpoint. “Our 2026 full year adjusted EBITDAre, midpoint is $1.83 billion. This implies a $20 million or 1% improvement over our prior guidance midpoint.” — Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-06Expense Dynamics and Fee Pressures
While the top line was strong, the flow-through to EBITDA was partially offset by two expense items. As CFO Sourav Ghosh explained, “1 was just higher IMF because of the outperformance of certain properties in terms of top line. We did hit IMF for those assets, and therefore, it did impact overall flow through. But that is only a piece of it. The other piece was given the short term pickup in transient demand, particularly related to the World Cup, the travel agent commissions, expense that we incurred was a little bit higher than expected, and we do not expect that to continue into the second half.” — Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-06 This highlights that expense growth remains a watch item. Wage rate growth is still expected at 5% for the year, but absolute wage and benefit growth is lower due to productivity gains. Total expense growth is projected at 4.2% against 5% revenue growth.Marriott Partnership and Capital Allocation
The company discussed the benefits from Marriott’s recent loyalty and incentive programs. Since January 2025, Marriott reduced its loyalty charge out rate by 20 basis points, worth $3-3.5 million annually. Additionally, they expect about $7 million in savings over the next few years from Marriott taking procurement in-house. The new intent-to-recommend reimbursement could provide up to 50 basis points back to owners. This aligns with Host’s ongoing second Marriott transformational capital program, which is 37% complete. Capital allocation remains disciplined: the company sold the Sheraton Parsippany and paid a special dividend of $0.72 per share, part of the $500 million taxable gain from the Four Seasons sale. As Jim Risoleo noted, “Our focus remains unchanged. I mean we're disciplined, we're return-focused and we're very cycle-aware when it comes to capital allocation.” — James Risoleo, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-07 The balance sheet remains fortress-like, with leverage at 2.2x and strong interest coverage. Host's interest coverage stands at 8.8x, up 76% year-over-yearSo in terms of the flow through for the second quarter, 1 thing I want to point out is sort of 2 pieces on the expense side. 1 was just higher IMF because of the outperformance of certain properties in terms of top line. We did hit IMF for those assets, and therefore, it did impact overall flow through. But that is only a piece of it. The other piece was given the short term pickup in transient demand, particularly related to the World Cup, the travel agent commissions, expense that we incurred was a little bit higher than expected, and we do not expect that to continue into the second half.