Booking loses $130 million in Trip.com equity sales
>> Booking Holdings said its Q1 results have been significantly impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gross travel bookings plummeted 51% in the quarter and room nights booked decreased 43% over a year ago. Booking Holdings has sold its USD 655 million equity investment in Trip.com Group with a net loss of USD 130 million. But the company said it did not plan to sell its investment in Trip.com Group's convertible debt securities prior to their anticipated recovery.
Investor lowers stake in Trip.com Group
>> UK-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford, a major shareholder of the Trip.com Group, reported that its stake in the Chinese online travel company has decreased from 7.7% as of February this year to 4.32% as of April 30. Baillie Gifford boosted its stake in Chinese lifestyle service provider Meituan from 4.97% to 5.08% earlier last month.
Alibaba-invested repricing startup eyes expansion in China
>> Hotelmize, an Israel-based hotel repricing startup said it takes 50% of the incremental income it generated for clients. CEO Dor Krubiner thinks the company has two technological advantages: room mapping and price prediction.
Wyndham Hotel merges its China unit into Asia Pacific
>> Wyndham Hotel Group said it will combine its Greater China unit with Southeast Asia Pacific Rim as Asia Pacific and after that Greater China president Leo Liu will soon leave the company. CEO Geoff Ballotti said the reorganization aims to "further streamline overhead expenses" in face of the COVID-19 pandemic. China represents just 2% of the company's adjusted EBITDA, Ballotti said during Wyndham's fourth-quarter earnings call back in February this year.
IHG's first-quarter RevPAR drops 65.3% in China
>> InterContinental Hotels Group said it had 15% or 1,000 hotels closed as of end of April but just 2% or 10 hotels closed in Greater China. First-quarter RevPAR in Greater China was down 65.3%. RevPAR was down 89% in February, improving modestly to an 81% decline in March and to an expected ~75% decline in April.
Hyatt Hotels sees occupancy improvement in Greater China
>> Hyatt Hotels said its comparable RevPAR decreased 28.1% in the first quarter of the year. System-wide occupancy rates as of April 30 were around 15% for hotels that remain operational. Occupancy in Greater China have shown gradual improvement over the past few weeks, with occupancy approaching 25% at the end of April.
Hilton sees recovery in Asia Pacific
>> Hilton said its first-quarter results were not significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic until March 2020, with the exception of the Asia Pacific region. The company has begun to see a recovery in Asia Pacific. In China, occupancy as of May 4 was about 40%, up from about 9% in early February, and nearly all of the approximately 150 hotels that had suspended operations have reopened.
Huazhu announces offering of $450 million convertible notes
>> Chinese hotel giant Huazhu Group announced the offering of up to USD 450 million of convertible senior notes due 2026. The company plans to use the net proceeds from the notes offering to repurchase its convertible senior notes due 2022, and to repay part of the principal and interest of its loans.
Deutsche Hospitality accounts for 25% of Huazhu's annual revenues
>> Germany-based hotel group Deutsche Hospitality reported annual revenue of EUR 484 million (RMB 3,783 million) last year, making up 25.2% of Huazhu's consolidated revenues for the year. The Chinese hotelier completed the acquisition of Deutsche Hospitality on January 2, 2020. Huazhu scheduled to issue a shareholder loan of € 20 million to Deutsche Hospitality and issued a Letter of Guarantee to ensure the liquidity of Deutsche Hospitality to meet all its obligations for the next twelve months.
China Eastern became the world's largest airline by seat count
>> The coronavirus has affected global aviation in a way that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. This week, China Eastern beat out U.S. carrier Southwest for the title of the biggest airline in the world in terms of number of seats available. The likely temporary title for China Eastern comes after low-cost giant Southwest grounded many of its flights, leading to a reduction of over one million seats, according to OAG.
United Airlines hopes to resume four flights to three Chinese cities
>> United Airlines wants to make a strong return to China in June and will “pencil in” a relaunch of passenger service with four flights to three cities – Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai. United did not specify how many times a week it would fly to China, but its plan is more ambitious than China presently allows. China has implemented the so-called “Five One” rule for international passenger flights. That limits one airline to serving one country from one Chinese city to one foreign city with no more than one flight a week.
Shanghai Disney theme park to reopen on May 11
>> Disney said it will begin a phased reopening of its Shanghai theme park next week, a move that comes at the same time the company reported significant losses due to the closure of its parks worldwide. The company's largest international park is slated to reopen under "enhanced safety measures" for the first time in more than three months on May 11. More than 11 million people visited Disney's Shanghai park in 2018, according to an estimate by AECOM.
China's tourism revenue drops 60% in first major holiday
>> Millions of Chinese people kept their spending down during the first major holiday in China since the coronavirus outbreak. During the May Day holiday from May 1-5 this year, China recorded 115 million tourist trips domestically, raking in tourism revenue of RMB 47.56 billion (USD 6.79 billion). That’s a 59.58% slump from the RMB 117.67 billion recorded for last year’s Labor Day holiday, which was one day shorter.
