Atour: Hotel Recovery, Retail Surge – Has the "Fresh Face" of the Hotel Industry Finally Come into Its Own?

May 23, 2026

Atour: Hotel Recovery, Retail Surge – Has the "Fresh Face" of the Hotel Industry Finally Come into Its Own?

This quarter's performance was quite good.

Before the U.S. market opened on May 13, 2026, Beijing time, Atour (ATAT) released its Q1 2026 earnings report. Overall, Atour's performance this quarter was solid, with RevPAR turning positive year-on-year for the first time in two years, and the company raised its full-year revenue guidance from +20%-24% to +24%-28%.

1. RevPAR turns positive; ADR achieves positive growth for two consecutive quarters

Looking at the most critical operating metric, revenue per available room (RevPAR), Atour's Q1 RevPAR was RMB 312 per night, up 2.4% year-on-year, marking the first quarterly year-on-year positive turn since 2024.

1.2 Steady pace of new openings

From the perspective of franchise expansion, 110 new hotels were opened in Q1, bringing the total number of operating hotels to 2,088, a year-on-year increase of 21%. The mid-to-high-end main brand, including Jianye, was the primary driver of new openings, contributing over 80% of new store growth. Light Residence is currently focused on optimizing its single-unit model, and the company has deliberately slowed the pace of openings for this brand.

2. Retail business surpasses company guidance

2.1 Overall group revenue slightly beats expectations

Atour Group achieved revenue of RMB 2.81 billion in Q1, up 47.5% year-on-year, slightly exceeding market expectations (market expected RMB 2.6 billion).

Breaking down by business segment, the hotel business achieved revenue of RMB 1.7 billion, up 45.3% year-on-year. As RevPAR continued to recover, Atour's recurring management fee contribution share further increased. Meanwhile, according to channel checks, due to the concentrated opening of new stores in Q1 combined with higher centralized procurement penetration (headquarters strengthened unified procurement requirements, with franchisees mandated to purchase core categories through "Atour Market"), supply chain revenue grew nearly 80% year-on-year, far outpacing overall growth. With the reduction of directly-operated stores, direct operation revenue was RMB 120 million, down 8% year-on-year.

The retail business achieved revenue of RMB 1.12 billion, up 51% year-on-year.

2.2 Supply chain costs rise, gross margin dips slightly

Atour's Q1 2026 gross margin was 41%, a year-on-year decline of 1.9 percentage points.

By segment, due to rising supply chain costs and hotel operating expenses (higher core consumable procurement costs and rising labor costs), the hotel business gross margin fell by 4 percentage points to 41%. For the retail business, driven by an increasing proportion of high-margin products (Temperature-Control Comforter, Deep Sleep Pillow Pro 3.0, etc.), retail gross margin rose by 1 percentage point year-on-year to 55%.

2.3 Operating leverage continues to be released

In Q1 2026, Atour's selling expense ratio decreased by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 14.3%. According to research, Atour's ROI on the Douyin channel remained above 3, and the proportion of organic traffic on Tmall and JD.com channels was also rising, indicating that the deepening brand equity of Atour is lowering customer acquisition costs. Administrative expense deployment was also relatively restrained. Ultimately, Atour's adjusted EBITDA reached RMB 710 million, up 61% year-on-year, beating the consensus estimate (RMB 2.34 billion).

Key Performance Metrics at a Glance

Dolphin's Overall View:

First, regarding Atour's fundamental business – the hotel segment – combined with sell-side high-frequency data tracking, the entire hotel industry experienced "off-season not weak" demand in Q1, benefiting from the sustained warming of the Spring Festival holiday (family trips, micro-vacations) and inbound tourism. Additionally, during the Q4 earnings call, management explicitly indicated that both ADR and OCC during the Spring Festival exceeded the same period last year and expected Q1 RevPAR to continue improving. Therefore, market expectations for Atour's Q1 hotel metrics were already not low.

Looking at Atour's actual reported underlying operating data, it was basically in line with the overall Q1 performance of the hotel industry (Dolphin speculates it may have been slightly below some aggressive buy-side expectations, leading to a dip in pre-market trading).

Structurally, since Atour's overall RevPAR (RMB 312/night) was 2.3 percentage points higher than same-store RevPAR (RMB 304/night), it indicates that new openings are performing better overall through brand upgrades, improved locations, and operational optimization. It also means the company's new round of product upgrades is not just "conceptual innovation" but is genuinely being reflected in operating data.

Second, for the retail business, the market had previously generally worried about two issues: one, the natural deceleration in growth after the penetration rate of core products like pillows and comforters increases; two, traditional home textile leaders increasing their efforts on channels like Douyin could seize Atour's share. However, combined with the high-frequency data tracked by sell-side analysts in Q1 2026, it shows that Atour has not been "caught up" in the short term; instead, it further expanded its market share during a period of industry demand pressure. Jiuqian data shows that in March 2026, Atour's retail sales across all online channels increased by 43.4% year-on-year, while the overall home textile market declined by 26% over the same period, with Shuixing and Luolai down -36.1% and -36.7% respectively. In Dolphin's view, this ability to "capture share counter-cyclically" demonstrates that while home textile peers can sell similar pillows or summer comforters, it is extremely difficult to simultaneously replicate Atour's brand narrative, livestream conversion, user trust, and hotel-scenario traffic diversion.

Additionally, there are two noteworthy points:

a. Retail gross margin continued to climb to 54.5% (up 0.8 percentage points year-on-year): This indicates that the proportion of high-margin products (Temperature-Control Comforter, Deep Sleep Pillow Pro 3.0, etc.) is still increasing, and Atour is not relying on price cuts and promotions to drive growth.

b. Category expansion is turning from "story" into "numbers." In Q1 2026, Atour launched the Deep Sleep Summer Cool Comforter Pro 3.0 and the summer version of Deep Sleep Pajamas, with new products rapidly scaling up. This shows that the brand equity of Atour Planet has expanded from "pillow = Atour" to "deep sleep = Atour." The logic behind this is that when consumers start paying for a "sleep solution" rather than a single SKU, the category ceiling is opened up. Therefore, overall, Dolphin believes the growth quality of Atour's retail business is clearly higher.

Detailed analysis below

1. RevPAR turns positive, ADR achieves positive growth for two consecutive quarters

1.1 RevPAR achieves year-on-year positive growth

Breaking it down, ADR reached RMB 427 per night, a year-on-year increase of 2.2%, achieving positive growth for two straight quarters and remaining the core driver. On one hand, the slowdown in industry supply growth has shifted pricing power toward branded players; on the other, the rising proportion of Atour's high-end product lines (Jianye, Savhe) structurally lifted ADR. OCC rose 0.4 percentage points year-on-year; although the magnitude is small, considering Q1 is traditionally a slow season (post-Spring Festival business travel ramp-up period), achieving year-on-year positive growth already indicates that demand is stabilizing. Combined with the recovery in leisure demand driven by the Qingming Festival plus spring break overlap since April, Dolphin expects Q2 OCC performance to improve further.

1.2 Steady pace of new openings

From the perspective of franchise expansion, 110 new hotels were opened in Q1, bringing the total number of operating hotels to 2,088, a year-on-year increase of 21%. Breaking it down, the mid-to-high-end main brand, including Jianye, was the primary driver of new openings, contributing over 80% of new store growth. Light Residence is currently focused on optimizing its single-unit model, and the company has deliberately slowed the pace of openings for this brand.

Specifically, after initial model validation, Atour 4.0 (Jianye) entered a phase of large-scale implementation in 2025, adding another 7 stores in Q1 to reach 55. Dolphin believes the greatest value of Jianye is not just a higher RevPAR, but that it helps Atour extend its brand narrative from "business travel accommodation" to "urban vacation," which is clearly more important given the stronger resilience of leisure demand. For Light Residence, the company's 2026 focus is on implementing a refined cost model to enhance operational efficiency and product competitiveness, thus deliberately slowing the pace of Q1 openings.

Overall, the significance of Atour's current pace of openings lies not in "speed," but in higher quality. Against the backdrop of the industry widely emphasizing the optimization of underperforming stores, if Atour can maintain steady net growth in core cities and core business districts while driving higher single-store quality and stronger supply chain monetization, the quality of this growth will be higher than simply running up store counts.

2. Retail business exceeds company guidance

2.1 Overall group revenue slightly beats expectations

Atour Group achieved revenue of RMB 2.81 billion in Q1, up 47.5% year-on-year, slightly exceeding market expectations (market expected RMB 2.6 billion).

The retail business achieved revenue of RMB 1.12 billion, up 51% year-on-year. Dolphin believes there are two key things to watch next for the retail business:

First, whether the summer product lineup can capture Q2 demand: The Deep Sleep Summer Cool Comforter Pro 3.0 and summer pajamas have already been launched in Q1. If new products continue to scale, it will prove that Atour retail is transitioning from the strong seasonality of winter bedding to year-round operations.

Second, whether supply chain capabilities continue to translate into margin improvement: Since management clearly stated that in 2026, they will systematically promote refined supply chain management to ensure product consistency and reliable delivery, this also means the profitability of the retail business will be further unleashed in the coming quarters.