Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

Earnings rolled out at a rapid pace with  Hyatt, Wyndham, Host and Hersha reporting results. Hyatt reported above expectations and sounded very confident on the conference call. The lodging stock star of the day was definitely  Service Properties Trust . SVC owns nearly 8% of Travel Centers of America and RMR has 1.67%. Travel Center agreed to be bought by BP for $1.3 billion. CBRE is raising its forecast for hotel performance on the heels of industry gains in Q4 2022 and the expectation of slightly positive GDP growth in 2023.

Lodging stocks were higher led by AHT, up another 10%. ABNB and PLYA were both up 7% on the day while VCSA was up 6% and HST rose 5%. Truist gave their 2023 lodging preview , saying they see a mixed bag for demand/pricing/supply trends for the lodging companies. Similar to the past nine months, they see “macro over micro” at the moment. DiamondRock Hospitality said their preliminary 4Q22 comparable revenue grew 23.4% year over year and 8.5% compared to 2019.

Jefferies downgraded both Marriott and Hilton to Hold , leaving only Wyndham with a Buy rating in their C-Corp coverage. They continue to favor Host Hotels and Hersha Hospitality. 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay is opening on February 15 on Kauai’s north shore. The resort will be the flagship hotel for 1 Hotels. The DJIA fell 113 points, Nasdaq was up 66, the S&P 500 was down 3 points and the 10-year treasury yield was down .05 to 3.52%. How was that for a mixed market?

The DJIA fell 350 points, Nasdaq was down 154, the S&P 500 fell 45 points and the 10-year treasury yield was up .01 to 3.72%. Mizuho cut their price target on Airbnb to $110 from $125. They maintained their Neutral rating on the stock. STR reported US lodging data for the week ended 12/31. US hotel RevPAR was up 4.2% year over year while up 35.6% versus the same week in 2019.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust cut their guidance for 4Q , citing a demand impact from Hurricane Nicole in November and weaker business/leisure demand at the end of that month. STR said US hotel RevPAR the week ended 12/17 was up 12% year over year while up 35% over the week in 2019 . U.S. hotel occupancy for Christmas and New Years mirrors 2019 trends , with warm destinations proving popular according to Amadeus .

Lodging stocks were modestly lower. SOND fell -8%, the biggest mover in the group Friday. SLNA traded down to yet another new low. Both Hersha Hospitality Trust and Host Hotels announced special dividends. HT announced its board of trustees approved a special dividend of $0.50 per common share for the year 2022. Deutsche Ban k said 2022 was a year when the lodging recovery was swiftly realized.

Morgan Stanley re-launched coverage on the lodging sector, saying they prefer C-Corps over REITs . Truist updated their estimates and price targets on some hotel names in their coverage. According to the NY Daily News, more than 10,000 Airbnb listings for short-term rentals in New York City are likely to disappear when tight new housing rules take effect next year.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Dream Hotel Group announced an agreement for a Hyatt affiliate to acquire Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle hotel brand and management platform. Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced the opening of Rancho Pescadero , the first Hyatt branded luxury resort to debut in Todos Santos in Mexico . The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa , located in South Carolina , has embarked on a $10 million renovation.

MCG and INN both were up 6% while SVC and SLNA were up 5% each. SOND fell -5% on the day. Xenia Hotels & Resorts announced its board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $100 million of the company’s outstanding common shares. With the additional authorization U.S. lodging REIT management teams did express concerns about cracks in demand forming with technology customers soon after recent layoff announcements.

Lodging stocks were lower again. SLNA looks like it is going to go down to penny stock status, down another -28% to another new low. The last 24 hours had a barrage of earnings reports and not many of them were taken well. Hyatt was picked as the best of the group even with results some deemed as weaker than expected which says a lot about the other reports. Marriott’s 3Q was in line but net rooms growth was trimmed for the full year with China blamed.