Travel demand remains strong in international markets but Marriott trims 2025 outlook due to weaker U.S. trends and macro uncertainty.
Marriott International lowered its 2025 outlook for global hotel revenue growth after seeing weaker-than-expected demand in the United States and Canada in March—though growth internationally outperformed expectations.
Executives said the revision reflects uncertainty around economic conditions and ongoing trade policy developments that affected traveler behavior in the first quarter.
The company now expects global revenue per available room (RevPAR)—a key industry metric that multiplies a hotel’s occupancy rate by its average daily rate—to grow between 1.5 and 3.5 percent this year, down from its prior range of 2 to 4 percent. Leaders emphasized that strong demand continued across most international markets and that the revision was driven by more conservative assumptions for the United States and Canada.
“Despite uncertainty about the macro-economic outlook, we are confident that the power of our industry-leading global portfolio, the strength of our Marriott Bonvoy travel platform and loyalty program, our dedicated associates, and resilient asset-light business model, position us very well for sustainable, long-term growth,” president and CEO Anthony Capuano said in an earnings release.
Executives said demand in January and February exceeded expectations, but that March saw a decline in government-related room nights in the United States and softening in select-service and extended-stay properties.
“Demand in the U.S. did soften in March, primarily due to a 10 percent year-over-year decline in U.S. government RevPAR,” CFO Leeny Oberg said on the company’s earnings call on May 6.
The government segment accounted for about four percent of United States and Canada room nights in 2024 at an average daily rate 21 percent lower than the regional average, according to Oberg. She said other areas of weakness included lower transient demand and slower growth from U.S. select-service hotels.
Company leaders said March may have been affected by temporary disruptions, citing news of “government layoffs” and “tariff announcements” as possible contributing factors but added that preliminary April figures show sequential improvement when adjusted for Easter timing.
Group bookings remained a bright spot.
As of the end of March, Marriott said group room nights for 2025 were pacing up six percent over the prior year, and are expected to be up seven percent for 2026. International markets also outperformed, with particularly strong growth in Asia Pacific and key regions like India and Japan. Room revenue grew double digits in both countries, and performance across Europe and the Middle East also exceeded expectations.
In Greater China, Marriott saw a two percent RevPAR decline, which executives said was impacted by a weaker macro environment and tougher comparisons to the year before. Still, the results came in ahead of expectations, supported by steady domestic travel.
Marriott said it continues to have limited visibility into the second half of the year due to a short average booking window of around three weeks.
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