As travel rebounded early this year, hotelier Marriott International turned in a strong first quarter, reporting a profit of $2.09 per share, which was higher than the $1.84 per share analysts had predicted, Reuters reports, and up from $1.25 during Q1 2022.
Revenue rose 34% to $5.6B, beating analysts' expectations of $5.4B.
The company, which owns brands such as Sheraton, St. Regis and Westin besides its Marriott properties, also reported that its revenue per available room, or RevPAR, increased 34.3% throughout its portfolio. There was a 25.6% increase in RevPAR in the United States and Canada and a 63.1% RevPAR spike in global markets.
Marriott added about 11,000 rooms during Q1, including about 5,800 rooms in international markets. About 200,000 rooms worldwide in the company's pipeline were under construction as of the end of the first quarter.
“The lifting of travel restrictions throughout Asia Pacific, particularly in greater China, significantly boosted first quarter demand in the region,” Marriott President and CEO Anthony Capuano said in a statement.
“In the U.S. and Canada, we saw solid demand across the leisure and group segments in the quarter, while business transient demand continued to improve,” Capuano said.
Overall, the hotel business is strong in the U.S. and other places. For the week of April 16, STR reports RevPAR was up 6.6% from the comparable week in 2022, and average daily rates are up 4.2% over the same period. Occupancy came in at 67.2% that week, up 2.3 percentage points.
Marriott International stock edged up about 2.8% on Tuesday morning. Over the last year, its price is down nearly 1.9%, but since the beginning of 2023, Marriott shares have gained almost 18.3%.
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