Marriott profits jump 20% in record year

Marriott International’s financial results reached record levels in 2014, as the company generated higher revenues and boosted its portfolio.

The US-based hotel group posted a full-year net profit of US$753 million for 2014, 20% higher than the US$626m achieved in 2013. This result was driven by an 8% rise in revenues, to US$13.8 billion, and a 7% reduction of operating costs, to US$12.64bn. Marriott’s full-year operating profit jumped 17% to US$1.16bn.

Marriott expanded its portfolio to 4,175 hotels in 2014
Marriott expanded its portfolio to 4,175 hotels in 2014
Marriott also expanded its portfolio to 4,175 hotels comprising 714,765 rooms in 2014, an increase of 259 hotels and 39,142 rooms compared to the end of the previous year. This included the addition of South Africa’s Protea Hotels.

Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president & CEO, said he was pleased with the results.

“Today we post both record earnings and unit growth and conclude 2014 with the strongest worldwide development pipeline of rooms in our history,” said Sorensen. “In 2014, we signed agreements for a record-breaking 100,000 rooms, boosting our development pipeline to nearly 240,000 rooms. At year-end, our system reached nearly 715,000 rooms in 79 countries and territories.

“With the strength of our portfolio, we expect to reach one million rooms open or under development well before the end of 2015,” he added.

In terms of hotel performance, Marriott achieved rising revPAR (revenue per available room) in all global regions last year. Latin America & the Caribbean saw the strongest growth (+9.4% to US$146.83), followed by the Middle East & Africa (+8.1% to US$112.26), North America (+7.0% to US$105.39) Asia Pacific (+5.0% to US$130.71) and Europe (+2.7% to US$135.28).

Looking forward to 2015, Marriott said it expects that its global revPAR will increase 5-7% this year, while its total room count is expected to grow 6-7%.

“We remain committed to driving growth, delivering results and returning excess cash to shareholders,” Sorensen added.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia