Marriott International's third quarter improved over its
second-quarter results, as president and CEO Arne Sorenson had predicted it
would during the company's August
earnings call. Marriott reported on Friday that systemwide comparable
constant-dollar revenue per available room fell 65.9 percent year over year as
of Sept. 30, compared with a decline of 84.4 percent as of June 30. The figures
include hotels temporarily closed due to Covid-19.
Third-quarter occupancy was 35.1 percent, a drop of 40.8
percentage points from 2019. Average daily rate fell 26.4 percent to $117.44. In
North America, comparable RevPAR was down 65.4 percent year over year,
occupancy levels reached 37 percent, and ADR fell 27.6 percent to $115.82. "Occupancy
improved each month during the quarter, and we saw a steady climb in demand
through August, then the improvement began to plateau," Sorenson said,
adding that he was pleased with the progress since April. "All chain
scales saw improvements in the third quarter versus the second quarter."
Net income was $100 million versus $387 million one year
prior. The company added more than 19,000 rooms globally during the quarter,
including 1,400 room conversions from competitor brands and 7,600 rooms in
international markets. Net rooms grew 3.8 percent year over year. The
development pipeline totaled more than 496,000 rooms as of Sept. 30, with
approximately 228,000 room under construction.
Greater China continued to lead the recovery, as it had in
the prior quarter. RevPAR for the region fell 25.6 percent year over year,
while occupancy reached 61.4 percent, down just 10 percentage points from 2019.
"Occupancy reached 67 percent in September, which is a bit ahead of last
year," Sorenson said. "That's extraordinary coming from 9 percent in
February." He added that leisure demand was more than 25 percent ahead of
last year, but that business travel and group strengthened each month since
February.
As for group overall, it's down about 30 percent so far for
2021, Sorenson said, with the first quarter looking the worst in terms of group
business on the books. "We are optimistic we could have a vaccine or two
by the end of this calendar year and see it get broadly distributed sometime in
the first half of 2021," he said. "As that takes hold, we're
optimistic that group business will come back."
The group business Marriott sees today is more likely to be
healthcare workers who are connected to the Covid-19 pandemic, or more leisure
focused, such as athletic groups or family groups, he added.
Sorenson also addressed a question about business travel trends
and noted there are three elements. First is what happens with Covid-19.
"We will have a meaningful step up in group and business transient travel
the moment that Covid-19 risk recedes from a threatening horizon," he
said. Then, once that happens, there is the state of the underlying economy.
Third is a function of remote work and the digital tools that have been used to
keep people connected during this pandemic. Sorenson projected that the
long-term effect on business travel would be similar to that of past crises.
"Generally, what we've seen in the few years following
[a crisis] is that most of that group and business travel comes back. But not
all of it. We have seen a couple points shift from business transient and group
combined toward leisure. I suspect we will continue to see that in the year
ahead," he said, adding that still, the industry will see the lion's share
return "because people love to travel."
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