Marriott CEO: Don’t Worry About Our Soft Third Quarter
Photo Credit: Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson spoke at the recent Skift Global Forum in New York City in September. Skift
Skift Take
Marriott may have had a relatively challenging third quarter, but it's not stopping the company from continuing to work on its Starwood integration — or scope out other companies to buy, even if the global economy seems uncertain.
Like many of its hotel peers, Marriott International saw a relatively softer third quarter in terms of its domestic revenue per available room (RevPAR), but CEO Arne Sorenson isn't letting the "sobering" third quarter numbers distract him or his team from the bigger tasks at hand — continuing the success of Marriott's integration of Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Nor will Marriott view the softer performance as an indication that more challenging times lie ahead for the overall economy.
During a third quarter earnings call with analysts, Sorenson attributed the softer September U.S. RevPAR performance — up only 0.6 percent in North America — to calendar shifts in the Jewish holidays and tough hurricane markets in Houston and Florida, but said that early indications of business in October were "reassuring."
He added, "We do think September was more an industry story than it was a Marriott story. In fact, when we look at our RevPAR index for the month of September, we held
