Marriott CEO Sees Hotels Bouncing Back Quickly After Delta Variant Slump
Photo Credit: Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano thinks the worst of the Delta variant's impact on bookings is behind the company. Flickr / Thank You (21 Millions+) views
Skift Take
It is hard to be optimistic about fall hotel performance for companies like Marriott and Hilton — unless the absence of business travel is somehow offset by higher-than-expected leisure travel.
The Delta variant’s impact on hotel bookings is likely short-lived, claims the CEO of the world’s largest hotel company.
After major hotel CEOs largely downplayed the potential impact the more contagious strain of the coronavirus might have on bookings, Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano Thursday indicated the Delta variant did cause a downturn last month. Revenue per available rooms, the hotel industry’s key performance metric, was down 27 percent from 2019 levels across the company’s global network — a drop from the 23 percent decline seen in July.
The surge of Delta cases caused many companies to push their planned return to in-office work — and presumably the accompanying business travel that goes with it — to later in the year and even into 2022. But that isn’t ringing any public-facing alarm bells at Marriott.
“The trends seem to be stabilizing as we get into the early days of September
