Meituan, a lifestyle service and hotel booking platform backed by Tencent, reported its first-quarter results on June 2. Revenue for the period rose 25% to more than RMB 46 billion, but operating loss increased 17.7% to nearly RMB 5.6 billion.
Food delivery and in-store, hotel & travel segments reported an operating profit of RMB 5.1 billion for the first quarter of 2022, up from RMB3.9 billion for the same period of 2021.
Revenue from in-store, hotel & travel segment increased by 15.8% year over year to RMB 7.6 billion, and operating profit increased by 26.4% year over year to RMB 3.5 billion, with operating margin being at 45.6%. The growth in revenue and operating profit for the segment was robust in January and February, before adversely affected in March due to the spread of Omicron.
The hotel and travel business was significantly disturbed by the Omicron spread and travel restrictions in March. During the first quarter of 2022, domestic hotel room nights decreased by a single-digit percentage year over year. Demand for local accommodations continued to outpace inter-city travel scenarios.
The company said room night contribution from high-star hotels reached new record high of 17.4%, thanks to continued improvement in products, services, and marketing capabilities.
Selling and marketing expenses were RMB 9.1 billion for the first quarter of 2022 and RMB 7.2 billion for the same period of 2021, and increased by 0.2 percentage points to 19.7% from 19.5% as a percentage of revenues on a year-over-year basis.
The number of overall transacting users grew 21.7% to nearly 693 million, and the number of active merchants rose 26.6% to 9 million.
