Marriott International today reported strong revenue growth for the second quarter of 2007, but at the same time continued to lower its domestic revenue growth expectations for the rest of the year.
Boosted by higher room rates, total revenues rose to $3.2 billion for the quarter, up 11 percent from the $2.9 billion in revenues reported in the second quarter of 2006. Revenue per available room was up 7.5 percent worldwide, and average daily rates rose 7.4 percent. Occupancy also increased slightly to 76 percent.
"A continued favorable pricing environment, combined with unit growth, increased property-level revenues," Marriott chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott Jr. said in a prepared statement. "Using technology and leveraging system size to improve efficiency, hotel profits continued to climb."
Even with the strong showing, however, Marriott decreased the range of its North American RevPAR growth expectations for the year to between 6 percent and 7 percent, compared to the 6 percent to 8 percent range the company forecasted in the previous quarter. That range had already been slightly lowered from projections at the start of the year
(BTN, May 7).
Still, despite these growth expectation adjustments, hoteliers and analysts have said the hotel seller's market will continue for a few more years at least
(BTN, June 11).