Hotel CEO Paydays Soared in 2023

10.04.2024 - 04:49 / skift.com / Anthony Capuano / Christopher Nassetta / Mark Hoplamazian / Sean Oneill / Patrick Pacious / Geoffrey Ballotti / Marriott International

Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta was awarded $56.8 million in pay last year, more than CEOs at rival hotel operators Marriott, Hyatt, Wyndham, Choice, IHG, and Accor, according to recent SEC filings.

Most of the seven CEOs received bigger pay packages in 2023 than they did in 2022 — boosted by hefty stock-market gains.

A case in point: Hilton’s stock price rose 42% last year, and Nassetta received $16.3 million in stock awards tied to that performance. The CEO’s base salary was only $1.3 million.

The year before, during a weak stock market, Nassetta was awarded around $8.3 million in total compensation.

Here’s a look at the take-home pay of the executives steering the largest hotel groups in 2023. For U.S.-based hotel companies, Skift uses the “compensation actually paid” figure that companies reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because that calculation captures how much executives’ equity awards changed in value as paper gains and losses.

Hilton’s Nassetta made $56.8 million in 2023. That figure excludes components that he didn’t actually take home, such as share grants that haven’t yet vested.

Nassetta’s pay has varied over time, not unlike the fortunes of the company’s stock price. In 2021, his compensation was about $78.6 million, but in 2020 it was $19.7 million.

Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian earned nearly $56.4 million in 2023, making him the second-best-compensated chief of a global hotel group. Most of his compensation was due to performance-based awards, as Hoplamazian only had a base salary of $1.3 million last year.

Hoplamazian collected around $16.6 million in total compensation the year before, and in 2021 he earned $36 million.

Marriott president and CEO Anthony Capuano tripled his compensation year-over-year to around $55.5 million in 2023.

Most of Capuano’s compensation came from stock awards. During the year, the company’s share price rose 53% to $152. Capuano received around $3.7 million in a cash incentive award essentially based on the growth in the company’s share price and specifically tied to targets such as for adjusted EBITDA. He received about $10.9 million in stock awards.

His base salary rose about 7% to $1.4 million.

Wyndham president and CEO Geoffrey Ballotti made around $16 million in 2023.

Ballotti’s pay has risen and fallen with Wyndham’s fortunes thanks to performance-based targets focused on adjusted EBITDA and net room growth.

In 2022, he earned only around $1.6 million, compared to $33.5 million the year before. In 2020, he collected around $10.7 million.

Ballotti’s base salary rose 8% to around $1.1 million.

Choice Hotels president and CEO Patrick Pacious received $6.2 million in compensation in 2023.

The figure represented an off year for the