Marriott International reported fourth-quarter 2019 systemwide comparable global revenue per available room growth of 1.1 percent year over year in constant dollars to $112.09. Occupancy was up 0.8 percentage points to 70.6 percent, and average daily rate dipped 0.1 percent to $158.69.
For full-year 2019, comparable systemwide constant dollar RevPAR rose 1.3 percent to $117.30, occupancy rose 0.4 percentage points to 73.1 percent, and ADR increased 0.8 percent to $160.55.
North America, which represents about 66.5 percent of Marriott's total room supply, saw RevPAR grow 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2018, and was up 1 percent for the full year.
Fourth-quarter year-over-year net income was down 12 percent at $279 million. Full-year net income declined 33 percent to $1.28 billion.
Marriott added more than 78,000 rooms globally in 2019 for a nearly 5 percent increase over 2018, including about 14,300 rooms converted from competitor brands and 34,000 in international markets. The company's total inventory as of Dec. 31 was 1,380,921 rooms across 7,349 properties, with approximately 515,000 rooms in the pipeline.
Marriott Bonvoy loyalty members accounted for 52 percent of occupied rooms in 2019, a 250 basis-point increase, year over year. Member share reached 58 percent in North America, up 320 basis points. Direct bookings in 2019 accounted for approximately three-quarters of total room nights booked.
2020 Outlook
As was the case with other hotel companies during this earnings period, Marriott's 2020 guidance does not take into account the coronavirus. On a constant-currency basis, the company expects global systemwide RevPAR to increase between 1 percent and 2 percent year over year in the first quarter, and that it will be in the range of flat to up 2 percent for the full year. North American RevPAR is anticipated to increase in the middle of that range, or by about 1 percent. The company expects room additions of between 5 percent and 5.5 percent.
"Given those assumptions, our base case assumes gross fee revenues in 2020 could total $4 billion, a 5 percent increase compared to 2019," said CEO Arne Sorenson in a statement. "However, assuming the current low occupancy rates in the Asia-Pacific region continue, with no meaningful impact outside the region, we estimate the company could earn roughly $25 million in lower fee revenue per month, compared to our 2020 base case outlook."
Other than that potential impact, Sorenson and CFO Leeny Oberg each said during Marriott's earnings call on Thursday that it was too soon to provide other estimates on what the affect COVID-19 might have on the company's 2020 performance. About 90 of Marriott's 375 properties across Greater China currently are closed.
In February, RevPAR in Greater China declined nearly 90 percent compared to the same period last year. In Asia-Pacific outside of China, February RevPAR was down roughly 25 percent. The RevPAR figure for the entire region was down about 50 percent, year over year. Outbound travelers from China in 2019 made up less than 1 percent of room nights in Marriott's system outside of Asia-Pacific and around one half of 1 percent of room nights in North America.
"To date, apart from a handful of citywide event cancellations, we have not seen a significant impact on overall demand outside of the Asia/Pacific region, so the situation obviously remains fluid," Sorensen said.
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