Why Hyatt is ‘glass half full’ on NUG in 2026

CHICAGO — Mark Hoplamazian said he has a lot of reasons to be optimistic about Hyatt’s net unit growth.

During the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Hyatt’s President and CEO was asked about whether he still had a “glass half full” opinion on the company’s pipeline and future NUG (which the company projected for 6-7% in 2026), which can drive a lot of value for the big hotel brand companies.

Hoplamazian answered with an emphatic yes, then spelled out the reasons.

“We feel really good about the momentum that we’ve seen. We had a really significant signing quarter in the fourth quarter and we have tremendous momentum in the newly launched brands,” he said.

Hoplamazian noted that the pipeline is not only powered by conversions but a mix of new construction as well (Hyatt Select went from 9 to a pipeline to 32 with all but three being conversions; new-build brand Hyatt Studios went from five to 10 under construction but also 31 under design with the hope that shovels are in the ground soon; Unscripted went from nothing to eight open and eight more in the pipeline; and UrCove had 72 hotels open by the end of the year with 93 more in the pipeline).

We're working really hard to uncover other sources of financing to help our developers who are under design get under construction. We've got so many levers that are all working right now in a positive manner that I feel really good about the overall growth profile, organically.

Mark Hoplamazian

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“The entirety of the upper midscale side of the equation has tremendous positive momentum and I’m particularly encouraged to see the advancement of so many projects through design into construction,” he said.

The other factor that makes Hoplamazian optimistic is the mix of the chain scale. He said Hyatt has about 70% of its existing open hotels in the luxury and upper-upscale categories, and that the same percentage holds for its pipeline as well, with 70% of Hyatt’s pipeline outside the U.S., which is seeing “less sensitivity” to new builds. So, Hyatt is opening new projects in China, throughout Southeast Asia, Europe, and even the Americas (he mentioned several high-profile new-build projects in Mexico as examples).

He said financing new-build projects in the U.S. is still a challenge, but it has now been mostly factored into the equation. Hoplamazian added that Hyatt is working to make that process easier.

“We’re working really hard to uncover other sources of financing to help our developers who are under design get under construction,” he said. “We have so many levers that are all working right now in a positive manner that I feel really good about the overall growth profile, organically.”

That’s not to say Hyatt won’t continue to look at growing through M&A as well, Hoplamazian said, but the current 6-7% project for NUG is really for organic growth.

“We continue to look at portfolio deals. We are very focused on making sure that they are real, meaning we really are not happy to just affiliate but we want to have a deeper relationship and make sure that we are under contract in a way that is providing the owners the best value proposition, which is really to be plugged into our systems and under a franchise arrangement or a management arrangement,” he said.

Hoplamazian said Hyatt has several portfolio transactions under discussion right now.

“Some are quite large, and they would be full-blown management or franchise agreements. Others are smaller,” he said, noting the company is still working hard to fill in Europe on the full-service side.

Hyatt in December sold the Alua Tenerife and other properties in Spain for approximately $140 million.

Digging into RevPAR growth

Hyatt reported systemwide RevPAR growth of 4% in the fourth quarter and 2.9% for all of 2025, as well as net rooms growth of 7.3% as part of its fourth quarter earnings. The company said Q4 RevPAR growth was highest among its luxury and upper-upscale chains, while the leisure transient segment remained the strongest. 

Hoplamazian provided greater detail in his prepared remarks, noting that leisure transient RevPAR increased approximately 6% year-over-year as guests continue to prioritize leisure travel. He said this was especially true across Hyatt’s luxury brands, where the company saw leisure transient RevPAR grow by 9%. Business transient RevPAR declined 1% in the fourth quarter, driven by the negative performance of select-service hotels in the U.S. Full-service hotels were up, led by hotels in international markets and group RevPAR increased 3% YOY.

Hyatt CFO Joan Bottarini said Q4 RevPAR exceeded the company’s expectations with overall RevPAR in the U.S. up 0.5% YOY and full-service hotels up 2% because of a more favorable calendar.

We continue to hear positive feedback from our group and corporate customers about their intent to travel this year, particularly for customer-facing travel. Pace for our all-inclusive resorts in the Americas is up over 9% in the first quarter, reflecting the continued strength of leisure travel.

Joan Bottarini

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Bottarini said international RevPAR remains strong, led by leisure transient travel in Asia Pacific, excluding Greater China, which led all regions with RevPAR growth of more than 13%. Greater China also had its strongest quarter of RevPAR growth for 2025, with domestic travel up in the mid-single digits, a positive shift compared to earlier 2025 trends. Hyatt’s all-inclusive resort also finished strong, growing net package RevPAR 8.3% YOY with excellent performance in both the Americas and Europe.

Group pace is up so far in 2026, Bottarini added.

“We continue to hear positive feedback from our group and corporate customers about their intent to travel this year, particularly for customer-facing travel,” she said. “Pace for our all-inclusive resorts in the Americas is up over 9% in the first quarter, reflecting the continued strength of leisure travel.”

When talk at the end of the call circled back to net unit growth, Hoplamazian mentioned that potential portfolio deals can also help Hyatt grow where it needs to.

“The portfolio deals that I’m talking about are larger and have more infrastructure associated with them,” he said, noting they could include management platforms, either because of geography or the type of hotel, which would be brought into Hyatt's system through a hard or soft brand. He said the deal could also include resources for Hyatt, "if it’s in a geography in which we have relative modest representation, which is exactly the kinds of deals we should be doing.”