The U.S. government’s 43-day shutdown drove a 3 percent year-over-year decline in business transient revenue per available room in the U.S. and Canada during the fourth quarter, Marriott International reported on its earnings call on Tuesday.
Government RevPAR in particular declined more than 30 percent during the shutdown, but since has “moderated to down around 15 percent,” according to CEO Anthony Capuano. Fourth-quarter RevPAR for the U.S. and Canada overall was flat, bolstered by a 1 percent year-over-year bump in group and a 2 percent increase in leisure transient.
Globally, fourth-quarter business transient RevPAR declined year over year, while group and leisure grew 2 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
In response to a question about broad business transient trends, Marriott CFO Leeny Oberg said she expects business travel demand will eventually return to 2019 levels, but added, “I think leisure is going to continue to be stronger.”
Looking ahead, Oberg said group pace is up 6 percent going into 2026 and Marriott projects full-year RevPAR growth in the low single digits year over year across group, leisure and business transient.
Marriott Updates on AI with Google and OpenAI Collabs
During his prepared remarks, Capuano said the company sees AI as “an opportunity to potentially redefine the customer acquisition paradigm that has governed our industry for the past several decades.”
Capuano said Marriott plans to deploy natural-language search on its website and through its Bonvoy mobile app during the first half of 2026.
“We're optimistic about the potential for AI to bring more consumers into the Marriott Bonvoy ecosystem,” Capuano said, “and help strengthen our direct booking channels in a very efficient manner.”
The hotelier is also working with numerous tech companies within the AI space, including Google and OpenAI.
The Marriott-Google collaboration centers around designing a property search experience that will help facilitate bookings through Google’s AI mode.
“As part of that experience, users will get to describe exactly what they're looking for in plain language, and then they'll get to compare different hotels and browse information… room photos, amenities, reviews, prices and the like,” Capuano said. “Then they'll be able to follow up and refine those options, and then the booking will be processed through AI mode.”
Marriott is also participating in OpenAI’s advertising pilot, which would organically integrate ads into free versions of ChatGPT.
Marriott Q4 and Full-Year Metrics
Marriott's systemwide fourth-quarter RevPAR increased 1.9 percent year over year to $127.64. Average daily rate increased 2.5 percent year over year to $189.27 and occupancy decreased 0.4 percentage points to 67.4 percent.
Systemwide full-year RevPAR increased 2 percent year over year, driven by a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase in ADR while occupancy remained flat at 69.3 percent.
Looking ahead, Marriott projects RevPAR will increase 1 percent to 2 percent year over year in the first quarter and 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent for full-year 2026.
Total fourth-quarter revenue increased 4 percent year over year to nearly $6.7 billion, while full-year total revenue grew 4.3 percent to more than $26 billion. Net income decreased to $445 million in the fourth quarter from $455 million one year prior, while full-year net income reached $2.6 billion, up from nearly $2.4 billion in 2025.
At the end of 2025, Marriott had 9,800 properties in its global portfolio, made up of nearly 1.78 million rooms.
Marriott Bonvoy gained 43 million new members in 2025, growing the program’s membership base to 271 million members worldwide.
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