Marriott International tops Q4 estimates amid robust leisure demand
Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss fourth-quarter earnings for Marriott International, the rise in hotel prices, and travel demand.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
BRAD SMITH: We've got to talk about Marriott International. They topped estimates in its latest quarter, as the company notes leisure demand remained robust, and group demand-- that demand more than fully recovered here, just kind of diving into some of these numbers, though, and as they're talking about where the demand is coming from, there is that mix of this leisure category, basically, that has, basically, been invented and started because of the virtual employee growth that we've seen over the past 18 months.
And as some of those return-to-office plans get more communicated over the course of 2023-- some of those are already really kicking off-- it'll be interesting to see where that leisure demand holds up in the number of people that are just able to still work from anywhere or have, kind of, that increased hybrid capacity.
BRIAN SOZZI: I just continue to be amazed by the results out of the lodging sector. Hilton, last week. These Marriott numbers system. Constant dollar revenue per available room-- key metric for them-- up 28.8% in the most recent quarter. That's a huge number. Immediately, I'm thinking Airbnb, after the close, might put up something pretty good as well.
And this is all coming even as these companies push through much higher prices.
JULIE HYMAN: Mm-hmm.
BRIAN SOZZI: Where are these-- where are they get the money from, Julie? Where's this money coming from? You wrote about spending today.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, it's coming from other stuff that people are not buying, right? They're not buying stuff.
BRIAN SOZZI: Mm-hmm.
JULIE HYMAN: I mean, that's basically what we're seeing. We're seeing this big shift from people. Yes, they're still buying necessities, right? But people are not buying furniture. They're--
BRAD SMITH: Electronics.
JULIE HYMAN: Electronics. Maybe apparel in the same-- and the apparel they are buying is cheaper, as we know--
BRAD SMITH: Yeah.
JULIE HYMAN: Because--
BRAD SMITH: Definitely mine.
JULIE HYMAN: --of all the promotion going on. So I think that's what's going on. I mean, listen, the company talking about that business travelers paid rates that were 3% higher last-- than in 2019, and they're seeing more corporate negotiations higher for the coming year as well. So there's the business side.
I mean, I don't know about you guys. I definitely have had sticker shock looking at hotel rates. So Airbnb, like, for me, sometimes is comparable or better, particularly because I'm traveling with my family. So, if you want more room, that's frequently going to be a better deal.
BRAD SMITH: And there is a new type of customer that Airbnb could go after with regard to that. If you have a number of the corporate travel clients that are now looking at some of these hotel rates that are elevated-- they're astronomical. Looking at some of the hotel rates in Austin, none of them fall within the company policy. So I don't even know if it's going to get approved.
But at the end of the day--
[LAUGHTER]
--for Airbnb, they're saying, hey, why don't you just rent out a whole house, just send everybody on your team to that one location. And I've seen some companies use that as an alternative as well.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, no.
JULIE HYMAN: I hope you get approval, Brad.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah.
BRAD SMITH: I hope so.
BRIAN SOZZI: [LAUGHS] Go for it, Brad. No, but these are very strong numbers, and not-- look, we heard the same thing the other day from Peter Kern over at Expedia. He said, year-to-date, things have been strong. The way I read that is he gave some upside guidance to Yahoo Finance for the current quarter.
They already told folks on their earnings call that January was off to a strong start. It looks like that momentum will continue into February. This whole space is hot.
