Marriott Rode Leisure Travel Trends to a $1 Billion Profit Last Year
Photo Credit: Leisure demand is still the dominant recovery driver at Marriott International (pictured: Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club in Oahu). Max Pixel
Skift Take
The U.S. recovery fueled Marriott's profitable fourth quarter and entire 2021. But weaker performance in China isn't deterring the company from wanting to have more hotels there and other international markets. Real estate is a long-term play.
Marriott managed to sidestep a major financial sting from the Omicron variant at the end of last year.
The company Tuesday reported a $468 million fourth quarter profit compared to a loss of $164 million during the same period in 2020. Marriott reported a nearly $1.1 billion profit for all of 2021, a sharp turnaround from the $267 million loss reported the year prior. Company leaders emphasized strong leisure travel demand in the U.S., higher daily rates, and even robust demand in international markets like the Middle East fueled the company’s financial performance.
Marriott still expects a small recovery setback due to Omicron’s most notable impact in performance arriving in January, but there is also widespread expectation the company will accelerate its recovery through the rest of this year as more countries reopen for travel.
“One of the strong parts is to see how quickly the bookings are rebounding, and that’s not just here in the U.S.,” Leeny Oberg, Marriott’s chief financial officer, said in an interview with Skift following the earnings release. “It's important to note that we are now seeing countries starting to open up and, almost to the day that they announced restrictions being lifted, our reservation centers’ cal
