Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brian Kucaj - Senior Director, Investor Relations

Christopher Nassetta - President and CEO

Kevin Jacobs - CFO and President, Global Development

Conference Call Participants

Carlo Santarelli - Deutsche Bank

Joseph Greff - JPMorgan

Shaun Kelley - Bank of America

Smedes Rose - Citigroup

Stephen Grambling - Morgan Stanley

David Katz - Jefferies

Robin Farley - UBS

Brandt Montour - Barclays

Bill Crow - Raymond James

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Hilton's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Kucaj, Senior Director, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Brian Kucaj

Thank you, Chad. Welcome to Hilton's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that our discussions this morning will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements. For a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see the Risk Factors section of our most recently filed Form 10-K.

In addition, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures discussed in today's call in our earnings press release and on our website at ir.hilton.com.

This morning, Chris Nassetta, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an overview of the current operating environment and the company's outlook. Kevin Jacobs, our Chief Financial Officer and President, Global Development, will then review our first quarter results and discuss our expectations for the year. Following their remarks, we will be happy to take your questions.

With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Chris.

Christopher Nassetta

Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. We're pleased to report that demand for travel remains strong, maintaining the trend that we saw in the back half of last year, which led to both our top and bottom line results finishing the quarter above the high end of our guidance. As we move forward, fundamentals remain strong, and we expect secular tailwinds to continue to support growth. Despite continued macroeconomic uncertainty, we're optimistic that the power of our network effect, our industry-leading RevPAR premiums and our fee-based capital-light business model will continue to drive strong operating performance, unit growth and meaningful cash flow, enabling us to return an increasing amount of capital to shareholders.