Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (HST) Business Profile

What it does

Host Hotels & Resorts is a self-managed real estate investment trust, or REIT, that owns luxury and upper-upscale hotels. It was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Bethesda. James F. Risoleo is president and chief executive officer.

The company owns its hotels and conducts operations through Host L.P., in which it is the sole general partner and held approximately 99% of partnership interests at December 31, 2025. It had 76 primarily luxury and upper-upscale hotels with approximately 41,700 rooms as of February 20, 2026, as well as non-controlling interests in seven domestic lodging joint ventures.

Host does not run the hotels itself: third-party hotel managers employ hotel staff, set room rates, take reservations, buy supplies, market the properties and prepare hotel operating budgets. Host supplies capital, approves specified budgets and commitments, and makes portfolio and capital-allocation decisions. Its hotels are primarily operated under Marriott and Hyatt brands, alongside hotels associated with Hilton, 1 Hotels and AccorHotels and selected independent operators.

The portfolio concentrates on destination resorts, convention-oriented urban and resort hotels with meeting facilities, and high-end urban hotels serving business and leisure travelers. Host is prohibited by REIT rules from operating and managing hotels directly.

How it makes money

Host earns hotel revenue when guests pay for rooms, food and beverage, and services such as parking, spa, golf and other guest activities. Rooms revenue was $3.6 billion in FY2025, or 59.0% of revenue, while food and beverage revenue was $1.8 billion, or 29.5%. The company also recognized $99.0 million of condominium sales revenue in FY2025 from units adjacent to the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World® Resort.

Host has one reported segment, Hotel Ownership, which generated $6.1 billion of revenue in FY2025. Hotels represented approximately 98% of total 2025 revenue, with condominium sales accounting for the remainder. FY2025 Hotel Ownership revenue was $6.1 billion; in Q2 2026, adjusted EBITDAre was $525 million and adjusted FFO per share was 63 cents.

Room pricing and occupancy are central to revenue. Host tracks average daily rate, occupancy and revenue per available room, or RevPAR. It also uses Total RevPAR, which includes rooms, food and beverage, and ancillary services. Higher room rates generally have a greater effect on profitability than higher occupancy because additional occupied rooms bring housekeeping, utility and amenity costs.

Hotel managers generally receive a base fee tied to hotel revenue and an incentive fee tied to hotel profitability. Host receives monthly cash distributions from managers after hotel-level operating expenses, excluding depreciation. The company funds working capital, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and major renovations. As a REIT, it is required to distribute 90% of taxable income other than net capital gain each year, and it uses hotel cash flow, asset sales, debt and equity to fund capital needs and growth.

Customers and how it sells

Host serves three customer groups: transient, group and contract customers. Transient customers are individual business and leisure travelers, booked at retail, discounted, corporate-negotiated, government, wholesale and online-travel-agency rates. Group business consists of blocks generally involving at least 10 rooms, including association conventions, corporate meetings and SMERF groups. Contract business includes extended blocks at discounted rates, such as airline crew demand at airport hotels.

Transient, group and contract customers accounted for approximately 61%, 34% and 5%, respectively, of 2025 room sales. In Q2 2026, group room revenue rose 7% from the prior-year quarter, and the company had 3,800,000 definite group room nights on the books for FY2026.

The portfolio is concentrated in the United States, particularly central business districts, airport areas, resort destinations and conference markets. Domestic revenue was $6.0 billion in FY2025, representing 98.3% of revenue. Canada contributed $76.0 million and Brazil contributed $28.0 million. Five hotels were outside the United States as of February 20, 2026, in Canada and Brazil.

The company uses brand reservation systems, direct hotel channels, negotiated corporate arrangements, group sales and online travel agencies. Its brands provide marketing support and centralized reservation systems, while third-party managers handle hotel-level sales and marketing.

Suppliers and costs

Third-party hotel managers are central operating partners. They run day-to-day hotel activities, employ hotel staff, establish room rates, procure inventories and services, and provide reservation, marketing, accounting, staffing and training support. Brand-owner managers typically receive base fees generally equal to 2-3% of annual gross revenue and incentive fees generally equal to 10-20% of operating profit after the owner receives a priority return.

Host funds hotel working capital, including inventory, wages, utilities, property taxes and other hotel-level expenses. It also funds furniture, fixtures and equipment replacements, major building repairs and renovation programs. A specified percentage, typically 4-5%, of hotel gross revenue is generally deposited into reserves for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Hotel operating expenses represented approximately 97% of total operating costs and expenses in 2025. Wage and benefit costs, spread across rooms, food and beverage, departmental and support expense lines, represented approximately 58% of those costs. The company expects wage rates to increase approximately 5% in 2026. It budgeted $525 million to $625 million of capital expenditures for 2026 and later guided to approximately $550 to $630 million.

Competitive position

Host competes hotel by hotel in urban and resort markets, primarily in luxury and upper-upscale lodging. Competition is based on location, brand, facilities and amenities, service, room rates and the quality of accommodations. Its hotels also compete with lower-tier hotels in some markets, online short-term rentals, and hotels that its own managers may own, manage, franchise or develop.

The company also competes with public and private real estate investors and other REITs for hotel acquisitions and investment opportunities. No individual lodging REIT competitors are named in the available company information.

Host’s stated operating resources include a geographically diverse portfolio, enterprise analytics, asset management, capital investment programs, brand affiliations and an investment-grade balance-sheet objective. Its analytics team benchmarks similar hotels, identifies revenue and cost opportunities, conducts investment underwriting, and works with managers on business mix and market-share targets. Brand relationships provide worldwide presence, reservation infrastructure and marketing support.

Our reading: Geographic diversification and a 76-hotel portfolio provide operating data and market coverage that support benchmarking, but hotel demand and competition remain market-specific.

Our reading: Brand distribution systems and large-scale capital programs are meaningful operating tools, although third-party managers control daily hotel operations and may operate competing hotels.

Our reading: Financial flexibility supports acquisitions and renovations through lodging cycles, but continued access to external capital is important because the REIT structure requires distributions of taxable income.

Growth opportunities

Host’s growth approach combines hotel acquisitions, selective development, property sales, joint ventures and reinvestment in existing hotels. It targets upper-upscale and luxury hotels in major urban and resort markets with diverse demand generators, supply constraints and projected RevPAR growth. It may fund acquisitions with hotel-sale proceeds, cash, debt, equity, OP units or its credit facility.

Reinvestment includes renovations, expansions, meeting-space improvements, food and beverage projects, guest-room upgrades, mechanical systems, energy and water projects, and conversions of underused space. Renewal and replacement projects are intended to maintain hotel quality and competitiveness and generally occur at intervals of approximately seven to ten years.

For FY2026, the company has 3,800,000 definite group room nights on the books, with total group revenue pace up more than 5% from the same time a year earlier. The company expects comparable hotel RevPAR and Total RevPAR growth of 4.75% to 5.25% over 2025. It expects rate growth to normalize in the second half of 2026.

The Hyatt Transformational Capital Program was nearly 90% complete in Q2 2026, with the final Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego project expected to be substantially complete by year-end. The second Marriott Transformational Capital Program was approximately 37% complete. Once that program is completed in 2029, the company expects to have reinvested approximately $2.1 billion across 34 hotels, which it expects to contribute approximately 60% of 2026 hotel EBITDA.

Structural risks

• Hotel revenue and real-estate values are exposed to lodging cycles. Economic activity, business investment, corporate profits, employment, travel patterns and international inbound travel influence demand, while supply can rise after new development pipelines are financed and completed.

• Hotels face local competition on access, location, rooms, amenities, service and pricing. Online short-term rentals add non-traditional supply, and managers may own, manage, franchise or develop other hotels in Host’s markets.

• Reduced business travel or fewer in-person meetings could lower demand. Hybrid and remote work, virtual meetings and changes in corporate travel practices may affect business-transient and group demand.

• Hotel ownership requires recurring capital spending. Renovations, replacement reserves, property repairs, accessibility upgrades, environmental compliance and weather-related restoration can require substantial expenditures and can cause partial or total closures.

• Financing conditions matter because Host relies on cash from operations and external capital for growth. Interest-rate increases, financial-market disruptions, covenant restrictions or credit-rating downgrades could increase borrowing costs or restrict financing, dividends, acquisitions and investments.

• Natural disasters, extreme weather and environmental liabilities can damage assets, interrupt operations or create losses that are uninsured or exceed insurance limits. The company also faces exposure to changes in property taxes, zoning, building codes and other real-estate regulations.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: Host is an asset-owning hotel REIT rather than a hotel operator: third-party managers run properties while Host controls the portfolio, capital spending and financing. Its revenue is concentrated in U.S. luxury and upper-upscale hotels, with rooms as the largest revenue source and group, transient and ancillary spending all relevant to results.

Our reading: The business depends on travel demand, local hotel supply, room-rate discipline and recurring property investment; its scale, brands, diversification and capital platform support execution but do not remove lodging-cycle, weather or financing exposure.