Marriott sees China hotels rebounding faster than North American peers

Marriott International Inc. is seeing signs that its business is recovering from the sharp slowdown caused by stay-at-home orders meant to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based hotel chain operator reported revenue per available room totaled $41.24 in the third quarter, a 19% increase from the previous three months but far below last year, when travel had yet to be battered by lockdowns and social distancing.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
MAR	MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL INC.	240.46	+2.92	+1.23%

"While COVID-19 is still significantly impacting our business, our results for the third quarter showed continued improvement in demand trends around the world," CEO Arne Sorenson said in a statement. "Greater China continues to lead the recovery and demonstrates the resiliency of travel demand."

Occupancy in the Greater China region reached 61%, a 10-percentage point decline from a year ago. Revenue per available room, meanwhile, rebounded to $63.05 and was down just 26% from a year ago.

Business in North America, however, has taken longer to bounce back. An occupancy rate of just 37% in the three months through September was still nearly double that of the prior three months.

Marriott said 94% of its hotels worldwide are open for business.

The company reported a third-quarter profit of $100 million, or adjusted earnings of 6 cents per share, an improvement from the $234 million loss during the previous quarter. Marriott earned $387 million in the same period last year.

While the company returned to profitability, revenue sank 57% from the previous year to $2.25 billion.

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Marriott shares were down 33% this year through Thursday, underperforming the S&P 500’s 8.66% gain.