Despite monthly sequential improvements in performance metrics, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts on Thursday reported a $7 million net loss for the fourth quarter and a $132 million loss for full-year 2020.
Global fourth-quarter revenue per available room, in constant currency and including closed hotels, declined 35 percent year over year, compared with a 38 percent decline for the third quarter. Fourth-quarter U.S. RevPAR was down 31 percent year over year, while international RevPAR declined 44 percent. Europe, the Middle East and Africa reported the steepest Q4 year-over-year RevPAR decline, at 66 percent.
U.S. occupancy declines during the quarter continued to narrow on a month-by-month basis compared with 2019 levels. The gaps for October and November were 11 percentage points down year over year for each month, followed by a gap of 9 percentage points (35 percent occupancy compared with 44 percent) for December, and 6 percentage points (38 percent compared with 44 percent) for January 2021.
Similarly, U.S. average daily rates also showed a narrowing gap during the fourth quarter, with October 2020 registering a 14 percent drop from the October 2019 rate, while the January year-over-year difference was 12 percent. These compare with a 16 percent drop in August from prior-year results, and a 23 percent gap reported in April.
Despite leisure accounting for about 70 percent of Wyndham's customer base, president and CEO Geoffrey Ballotti noted that demand from the company's "everyday business travelers" has continued to improve, driving weekday booking and weekday ADR, especially in Wyndham's economy hotels. "Demand from construction crew and utility workers who comprise so much of our infrastructure segments improved 300 basis points from the third quarter," he said. "Demand from trucking, rail and manufacturing workers in the logistics segment remain stable."
For full-year 2020, global RevPAR declined 40 percent year over year in constant currency and including closed hotels. U.S. RevPAR was down 35 percent for the full year, with international RevPAR down 51 percent. Greater China showing the lowest international decline at 41 percent. Europe, the Middle East and Africa declined 61 percent.
Wyndham's global room count declined 4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter to 795,900. U.S. rooms for the fourth quarter were down just over 4 percent to 487,300. International rooms declined nearly 4 percent to 308,600.
The global pipeline rooms as of Dec. 31 stood at 185,000 across about 1,400 hotels. Seventy-five percent of that figure is new construction, of which 34 percent has broken ground. Sixty-four percent is international. Wyndham aims to grow room supply in 2021 by 1 percent to 2 percent, and return to a growth range of 2 percent to 4 percent after the Covid-19 recovery.
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