Huazhu Group Limited (NASDAQ: HTHT) reported Q3 EPS of $0.20, $0.10 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.30. Revenue for the quarter came in at $427 million versus the consensus estimate of $432.38 million.

Third Quarter of 2019 Operational Highlights

• During the third quarter of 2019, Huazhu opened 548 hotels, including 13 leased (“leased-and-operated”) hotels and 535 manachised (“franchised-and-managed”) hotels and franchised hotels.
• Huazhu closed a total of 62 hotels, including 12 leased hotels and 50 manachised and franchised hotels, during the third quarter of 2019. This was mainly due to three reasons:a) With strategic focus to upgrade product and service quality, Huazhu temporarily closed 10 hotels for brand upgrade and business model change purposes; and removed 18 hotels for non-compliance with Huazhu’s brand and operating standards.b) Property-related issues, including rezoning and expiry of leases, which resulted in the closure of 19 hotels.c) 15 manachised hotels were closed due to operating losses.
• As of September 30, 2019, Huazhu had 697 leased hotels, 4,087 manachised hotels, and 367 franchised hotels in operation in 420 China cities. The number of hotel rooms in operation totaled 504,414, an increase of 23% from a year ago. The rooms under midscale and upscale brands accounted for 45% of total rooms in operation, up 9 percentage points from 36% a year ago.
• As of September 30, 2019, Huazhu had a total number of 1,736 unopened pipeline hotels contracted or under construction, including 52 leased hotels and 1,684 manachised and franchised hotels. The unopened hotels in our pipeline represented 34% of the number of hotels in operation as of the end of Q3 2019 compared to 23% a year ago, an 11-percentage-point increase.
• The ADR, which is defined as the average daily rate for all hotels in operation, was RMB245 in the third quarter of 2019, compared with RMB239 in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year increase of 2.6% was due to an increase in the proportion of midscale and upscale hotels with higher ADR in Huazhu’s brand mix, partially offset by a decrease in ADR of our mature hotels (where mature means those of our hotels which have been in operation for at least 18 months).
• The occupancy rate for all hotels in operation was 87.7% in the third quarter of 2019, compared with 90.7% in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decrease of 3.1 percentage points was mainly due to the deepening China economic slowdown.
• RevPAR, defined as revenue per available room for all hotels in operation, was RMB215 in the third quarter of 2019, compared with RMB217 in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decrease of 0.8% was attributable to higher ADR.
• For all of our mature hotels, the same-hotel RevPAR was RMB211 for the third quarter of 2019, representing a 3.8% decrease from RMB219 for the third quarter of 2018, with a 1.1% decrease in ADR and a 2.5-percentage-point decrease in occupancy rate. The year-over-year weaker performance was mainly due to macroeconomic softness and more promotions during this year’s summer vacation season.
• As of September 30, 2019, H Rewards (Huazhu’s loyalty program) had approximately 139 million members, who contributed approximately 76% of room nights sold during the third quarter of 2019 and approximately 85% of room nights were sold through Huazhu’s direct channels.

Ji Qi, the founder, Executive Chairman and CEO commented: “We are delighted to achieve another quarter with strong growth. Huazhu has reached its first 5,000-hotel milestone and also embarked on its international expansion plan through the opening of the first Ji Hotel in Singapore as well as the recently-announced acquisition of Deutsche Hospitality. By leveraging our brand strength and operational excellence, we aspire to accelerate our growth goal, and establish a global hotel network during the next five years.”

Guidance

• For the full year of 2019, Huazhu maintains the net revenues growth range to be 10%-12%.
• In 2020, Huazhu expects to accelerate the gross number of hotels opened to about 1,700, and about 75%-80% of which will be midscale and upscale brand properties.

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