Marriott International expects March worldwide revenue per
available room to have decreased 60 per cent year over year due to the
coronavirus outbreak, the company announced Tuesday.
Regionally, March RevPAR for North America declined 57 per cent
year over year, with drops of 71 per cent in Europe, 57 per cent in the
Caribbean and Latin America, and 56 per cent in the Middle East and Africa.
March RevPAR declined 74 per cent for the Asia/Pacific region, with Greater
China down 83 per cent and the rest of the region down 68 per cent.
The update comes about a month after the company announced
employee furloughs and hotel closures. Roughly 25 per cent of the company's
7,300 hotels are temporarily closed, and Marriott anticipates further closures
and additional erosion in RevPAR performance, with no material improvement
until the spread of Covid-19 has moderated and governments have lifted
restrictions. "Marriott cannot presently estimate the financial impact of
this unprecedented situation, which is highly dependent on the severity and
duration of the pandemic, but expects that it will continue to be material to
the company's results," according to the company.
Marriott is seeing signs of improvement in Greater China,
where the outbreak started, and reported improving RevPAR trends there through
March and into April. Occupancy there in the first week of April rose to about
20 per cent as quarantine measures and travel restrictions have begun to ease
and some workers return to their jobs. The company had closed about 90 hotels
at the peak of the outbreak in Greater China, and about 20 remain closed today.
The view elsewhere around the world is less positive. North
American occupancy levels are around 10 per cent, and more than 870 hotels, or
16 per cent, are temporarily closed, with more closures expected. Occupancy in
Europe is less than 10 per cent, with around 500 hotels, or 79 per cent,
temporarily closed. In the Middle East and Africa, about 54 per cent, or 150
hotels, are temporarily closed, while in the Caribbean, it's nearly 200, or 69
per cent.
Many group customers are tentatively rebooking for later in
the year, the company reported, and group cancellations for 2021 related to
Covid-19 "have not been meaningful."
Marriott has extended its transient cancellation window to 30
June 2020 for all existing reservations and is allowing cancellations without
charge until 24 hours before the scheduled arrival for new reservations made
before 30 June. For Marriott Bonvoy members, elite status earned in 2019 has
been extended until February 2022, and the expiration of Bonvoy points has been
paused until February 2021, at which time points will expire only if the
account has been inactive for at least 24 months.
The company is also assisting health care workers with free
rooms in areas of the US most impacted by the virus with its US$10 million
Rooms for Responders programme and with special rates for first responders and
healthcare professionals in the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America
with its Community Caregiver programme, in which nearly 2,500 hotels are
participating.