Following the announcement of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (Hilton) Q1 2019 results;

Nick Wyatt, Head of Travel & Tourism at GlobalData, offers his view:

“Much has been made of the headwinds facing hotel operators this year, but Hilton has been able to raise prices while still growing occupancy rates in Q1.

“Attracting more customers while getting them to pay more is a recipe for success and Hilton is confident it can sustain the momentum achieved in the first quarter.

“Revenue per available room (RevPAR) has grown by 1.8% in Q1, driven by increases in both its average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy which grew 0.5% compared to Q1 2018.

“RevPAR is a key indicator of pricing power and the fact that system-wide ADR grew 1.1% without occupancy falling shows that Hilton’s brand equity and service offering allow it to move pricing in its favour.

“The company expects RevPAR, to increase between 1% and 3% on a comparable basis for the year, very much in line with analyst expectations, and although there are other indicators to be examined in the results, the positive RevPAR performance bodes very well for Hilton.’’