NEW YORK: Marriott International, a global hospitality company, added more than 86,000 rooms globally during 2021, including approximately 43,000 rooms in international markets and a total of over 18,000 conversion rooms, said its CEO.
Net rooms grew 3.9 percent from year-end 2020, added Anthony Capuano, highlighting that the group signed approximately 92,000 rooms in 2021, of which more than 50,000 were in international markets and more than 40 percent were in the upper upscale and luxury tiers.
“With our momentum around conversions and our industry-leading pipeline, we are bullish about our ability to increase our footprint over the next several years. For 2022, we expect gross rooms growth approaching 5 percent and deletions of 1 to 1.5 percent, resulting in anticipated net rooms growth of 3.5 to 4 percent,” he added.
“The 2021 fourth quarter capped off a year that showed the incredible resilience of people’s desire to travel and the appeal of our broad portfolio of 30 global brands. We experienced significant progress in global RevPAR recovery in 2021 despite the emergence of new variants and ongoing headwinds from the global pandemic,” Capuano explained.
“By the fourth quarter, global RevPAR was 19 percent below 2019 levels, a 40-percentage point improvement from the decline in the first quarter of the year. Global average daily rate (ADR) nearly recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the 2021 fourth quarter, while occupancy came in at 58 percent, down 12 percentage points versus 2019. Leisure demand continued to shine in the fourth quarter, with slower, yet continued improvement in business transient and group demand.
“Each of our regions saw meaningful continued RevPAR recovery in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, with the exception of Greater China, where recovery stalled due to their zero COVID policy.
“Compared to 2019 levels, our international hotels posted a 28-percent RevPAR decline in the fourth quarter, a 12-percentage point improvement from the third quarter. While Omicron caused a temporary setback in global demand recovery in January, especially for business transient and group travel, new bookings across customer segments have rebounded to pre-Omicron levels. We are optimistic that the global recovery will progress meaningfully throughout 2022,” he added.
