Marriott International expects March worldwide revenue per available room to have decreased 60 percent year over year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the company announced Tuesday.
Regionally, March RevPAR for North America declined 57 percent year over year, with drops of 71 percent in Europe, 57 percent in the Caribbean and Latin America, and 56 percent in the Middle East and Africa. March RevPAR declined 74 percent for the Asia/Pacific region, with Greater China down 83 percent and the rest of the region down 68 percent.
The update comes about a month after the company announced employee furloughs and hotel closures. Roughly 25 percent of the company's 7,300 hotels are temporarily closed, and Marriott anticipates further closures and additional erosion in RevPAR performance, with no material improvement until the spread of Covid-19 has moderated and governments have lifted restrictions. "Marriott cannot presently estimate the financial impact of this unprecedented situation, which is highly dependent on the severity and duration of the pandemic, but expects that it will continue to be material to the company's results," according to the company.
Marriott is seeing signs of improvement in Greater China, where the outbreak started, and reported improving RevPAR trends there through March and into April. Occupancy there in the first week of April rose to about 20 percent as quarantine measures and travel restrictions have begun to ease and some workers return to their jobs. The company had closed about 90 hotels at the peak of the outbreak in Greater China, and about 20 remain closed today.
The view elsewhere around the world is less positive. North American occupancy levels are around 10 percent, and more than 870 hotels, or 16 percent, are temporarily closed, with more closures expected. Occupancy in Europe is less than 10 percent, with around 500 hotels, or 79 percent, temporarily closed. In the Middle East and Africa, about 54 percent, or 150 hotels, are temporarily closed, while in the Caribbean, it's nearly 200, or 69 percent.
Many group customers tentatively are rebooking for later in the year, the company reported, and group cancellations for 2021 related to Covid-19 "have not been meaningful."
Marriott has extended its transient cancellation window to June 30, 2020, for all existing reservations and is allowing cancellations without charge until 24 hours before the scheduled arrival for new reservations made before June 30. For Marriott Bonvoy members, elite status earned in 2019 has been extended until February 2022, and the expiration of Bonvoy points has been paused until February 2021, at which time points will expire only if the account has been inactive for at least 24 months.
The company also is assisting health care workers with free rooms in areas of the U.S. most impacted by the virus with its $10 million Rooms for Responders program and with special rates for first responders and healthcare professionals in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America with its Community Caregiver program, in which nearly 2,500 hotels are participating.
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