After a fourth quarter in which business transient revenue per available room increased 3 percent globally year over year, Marriott International executives projected 2025 RevPAR for the segment would grow in the "low single digits," they said Tuesday on an earnings call.
After calling full-year 2024 business transient performance "very strong" for the hotel company, CFO Leeny Oberg projected such business in 2025 to be "sturdy" and with a higher growth rate than leisure travel, driven more by gains in average daily rate than occupancy.
Meanwhile, Oberg suggested Marriott's business transient volume has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
"Business transient has recovered to 2019 levels, just in a little bit different form," she said, noting the quicker recovery of small and midsize companies than "the largest corporates." For larger clients, "you still see their nights being behind 2019 levels, although I will say that some other of those large corporates, like in the financing sector of the economy, they are actually back to more than recovered, so overall the business has recovered."
Oberg noted that overall room night volume on traditional business travel days of Monday through Wednesday remain below pre-pandemic levels, though it's balanced by higher levels on other days.
"We continue to see, bit by bit, additional recovery in those large corporates during the year and we expect that to continue into '25," Oberg said, "but they are still not back to the level of 2019, while BT overall is."
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Business transient stays in the fourth quarter represented 33 percent of Marriott's global room nights, Marriott president and CEO Anthony Capuano said Thursday.
Marriott Q4, Full-Year 2024 Metrics
Marriott's systemwide fourth-quarter RevPAR increased 5 percent year over year to $126.26, while average daily rate increased 3.2 percent to $185.42 and occupancy increased 1.2 percentage points to 68.1 percent.
In the United States and Canada, fourth-quarter RevPAR increased 4.1 percent year over year to $126.05, while ADR increased 2.8 percent to $188.13 and occupancy increased 0.8 percentage points to 67 percent.
For full-year 2024, systemwide RevPAR increased 4.3 percent year over year to $128.23, while ADR grew 2.8 percent to $183.58 and occupancy increased 1 percentage point to 69.8 percent.
In the U.S. and Canada, 2024 RevPAR grew 3 percent to $131.26, while ADR increased 2.4 percent to $187.14 and occupancy grew 0.4 percentage points to 70.1 percent.
Marriott projected global first-quarter RevPAR to increase 3 percent to 4 percent year over year; Oberg noted January RevPAR increased 6 percent. For the full year, Marriott projected RevPAR growth of 2 percent to 4 percent, with the international growth figure higher than that of the U.S. and Canada, she said.
Total fourth-quarter revenue increased about 5 percent year over to more than $6.4 billion, while net income was $455 million compared with $848 million one year prior.
Marriott at year end had 9,361 properties in its global portfolio, totaling more than 1.7 million rooms. It projected global 2025 net rooms growth of 4 percent to 5 percent year over year.
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