Marriott has brighter outlook on 2018

The performance of hotels in Marriott International’s global system exceeded expectations enough for the company to revise its 2018 full-year revenue-per-available-room growth outlook by 1.5 percentage points.

President and CEO Arne Sorenson told analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call the company is “very pleased” with the results of the first quarter.

During Q1, worldwide comparable systemwide constant-dollar RevPAR grew 3.6% year over year, according to the company’s earnings release, which breaks down to 2% in North America and 7.5% outside of North America. Net income increased 7% to $398 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 8% to $770 million.

Marriott was hopeful to see a pickup in economic growth in North America during the first quarter, Sorenson said.

“Our hopes have been realized,” he said. “It’s time to take up the numbers a bit.”

Transient RevPAR increased about 2.5%, helped by the reduced corporate discounting in the legacy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide portfolio, better leisure demand, improved international arrivals and an overall strengthening of corporate demand, particularly in the oil and gas industry, he said.

Recent demand trends in the oil and gas markets are encouraging, Sorenson said. While Houston is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey and has a tougher year-over-year comparison because of the 2017 Super Bowl, RevPAR in the other 39 energy submarkets in the United States grew by 6% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and by 8% in the first quarter of 2018. The Canadian energy markets were even stronger, he added.

RevPAR from group business came in flat compared to Q1 2017, Sorenson said, which was stronger than expected.

“The performance is largely due to better-than-expected attendance at group meetings and stronger group business at limited-service hotels,” he said.

While the company’s economic outlook has improved, Sorenson said the labor market remains tight and wages are rising in many markets, adding pressure to hotel operating margins and lengthening new hotel construction timelines, particularly non-prototype and urban hotels in North America and Europe.

RevPAR grew nearly 6% in Europe, he said, consistent with prior guidance. Strong corporate and leisure demand helped performance in Eastern Europe, he said. While RevPAR in Turkey and France continues to rebound, London’s performance was flat because of weak demand from the financial services industry, likely because of Brexit.

The Asia/Pacific region saw stronger performance, Sorenson said, as RevPAR grew 10%, much better than the mid-single digits previously forecasted. Corporate and leisure demand helped push RevPAR in Greater China to nearly 12% growth, and travel during the Chinese New Year was better than expected. Marriott is bullish about India, where RevPAR grew 6% on strong corporate and leisure demand. Marriott also celebrated the opening its 100th property in India: the Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel & Convention Center.