World’s largest hotel chain admits to suffering from US election

During Marriott’s second quarter financial results presentation, CFO and Executive Vice President of Development Leeny Oberg warned that the third quarter will see a similar pattern of low demand and weak prices in the region, especially in the first two weeks of November for the United States due to the presidential elections that will pit Donald Trump against Kamala Harris.

Marriott, the world’s largest Hotel chain, will see its most significant RevPAR decline in Q3 as outbound Travel accelerates during the summer holidays. Globally, results will be driven by continued improvement in business and leisure revenues, albeit slower but still growing, Oberg said.

RevPAR grew by almost 4% in the second quarter in the United States and Canada due to the change in the date of Easter, he explained. The metric also increased by 7% internationally. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, RevPAR grew by nearly 10%, with strong demand for regional and cross-border Travel and by around 9% in the Caribbean and Latin America.

During the second quarter, Marriott added 15,500 rooms to its system. Globally, it comprised nearly 9,000 properties with nearly 1.66 million rooms. Conversions and multi-units are a key growth driver for Marriott, said Marriott CEO Tony Capuano, accounting for 37% of its openings and 32% of hires.

Capuano said conversions have been broad, “in the last 12 months, hotels have been converted into 23 different Marriott brands,” he said.

As reported by REPORTUR.usin May Marriott announced that it would create a conversion-focused brand to compete with Spark by Hilton, which the American chain launched in January 2023. The CEO announced that in June they would finalize the details of a “global conversion-friendly brand.” (Marriott to launch conversion-focused brand to compete with Spark by Hilton)