Host Hotels & Resorts reported a 7% increase in comparable hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the second quarter of 2026 versus the prior year. The company’s adjusted EBITDAre advanced 5.8% to $525 million and adjusted funds from operations (FFO) per share rose 8.6% to $0.63. Total revenues grew 3.4% year-over-year to $1.64 billion, while net income in Q2 reached $241 million, a 7.1% increase. The comparable hotel EBITDA margin expanded by 60 basis points to 31.9%, reflecting lower fixed costs combined with top-line gains.
Revenue Management Strategy and Market Drivers
Host’s CEO Jim Risoleo attributed the RevPAR growth to a targeted revenue management strategy
emphasizing rate increases especially at luxury resorts and markets connected to the FIFA World Cup. The World Cup contributed approximately 160 basis points to second-quarter RevPAR, with host-city hotels seeing a 15% RevPAR rise in June. Resort properties posted a 9% RevPAR increase, led by 14% growth in Maui and strong performances at 1 Hotel South Beach and Florida Gulf resorts. Maui’s occupancy grew more than eight percentage points, with golf revenue exceeding pre-fire levels by 9%.
Transient revenue increased 7%, marking its strongest quarterly gain in seven quarters despite a slight decline in room nights. Business transient revenue expanded
4%, driven by a 14% jump in business transient room nights at the New York Marriott Marquis, fueled by tech, consulting, and finance sector demand. Group room revenue rose 7%, evenly divided between rate increases and room-night growth.
Host’s CFO Sourav Ghosh reported 210,000 additional group room nights booked in the second quarter for the remainder of 2026, compared to 167,000 a year earlier. Corporate groups accounted for two-thirds of the revenue uplift. The company’s definite group room nights for 2026 rose to 3.8 million, up 8% since the end of March. Holiday bookings for Q4 2026, including Labor Day,
Thanksgiving, and festive periods, show double-digit increases.
Capital Allocation, Asset Sales, and Dividend
Host Hotels completed the sale of the Sheraton Parsippany asset for roughly $12 million as part of its asset pruning strategy focused on lower-growth properties. In Q2 2026, the company generated $8 million of EBITDA and $53 million in revenues from the sale of seven villas adjacent to Four Seasons Orlando. Full-year condominium EBITDA guidance for Orlando was revised to $16 million to $20 million due to some closings shifting into 2027.
Host’s ongoing $2.1 billion reinvestment program is progressing on schedule and under budget. The Hyatt transformational capital program is approximately 90%
complete, while the Marriott program has reached 37% completion. The company’s capital expenditures totaled $243 million in the first half of 2026, with a full-year forecast of $550 million to $630 million.
In July 2026, Host paid a total dividend of $0.92 per share, comprising a $0.20 quarterly dividend and a $0.72 special dividend from the taxable gain on the Four Seasons sale. CEO Jim Risoleo described this as an example of disciplined and opportunistic capital allocation.
Financial Position and Outlook
Host ended Q2 2026 with approximately $3.6 billion in available liquidity. Total debt was $5.1 billion with a weighted average interest rate of
4.8% and maturity of 4.7 years. The leverage ratio stood at 2.2 times after the July dividend payment. The company holds 9.4 million common operating partnership units convertible to common shares.
The company raised its full-year 2026 comparable hotel RevPAR growth guidance to a range of 4.75% to 5.25%, a 125 basis point increase at the midpoint. The adjusted EBITDAre guidance midpoint was increased by $20 million to $1.83 billion. Host expects comparable hotel EBITDA margin expansion of 40 to 50 basis points for the full year, up 20 basis points from the previous outlook.
July comparable hotel RevPAR is
forecast to rise approximately 10% year-over-year, about three percentage points of which are attributable to the World Cup. July and the fourth quarter are expected to sustain mid-single-digit RevPAR gains with overall rate growth near 4% and occupancy increases of 60 basis points.
CEO Jim Risoleo emphasized a cautious approach to acquisitions, noting the company has underwritten numerous transactions but maintains a high internal hurdle rate based on unlevered internal rate of return (IRR). Risoleo said: “The bar remains high. The math needs to work on an unlevered IRR basis.” He added that being an all-cash buyer enables Host to
be patient and selective in capital deployment.
