Marriott International announced its fourth-quarter 2020 results on Thursday, closing out the final chapter of the most challenging year in the company's history-one that included massive losses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the passing of its beloved President and CEO Arne Sorenson.
The hotel giant reported operating losses of $128 million in Q4 compared to operating income of $274 million during the same three-month period last year. Marriott's net loss totaled $164 million for the quarter compared to net income of $279 million during Q4 2019.
Marriott also reported $148 million in adjusted operating income for last year's final quarter, which marked a dramatic decrease from a year earlier, when the company closed 2019 with operating income of $717 million. Fourth-quarter 2020 adjusted net income totaled $39 million compared to 2019 fourth-quarter adjusted net income of $498 million, Marriott confirmed, also announcing that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled $317 million last quarter compared to $901 million for Q4 2019.
Compared to Q4 2019, Marriott's comparable systemwide constant dollar RevPAR declined 64.1 percent worldwide, 64.6 percent in the U.S. and Canada and 62.7 percent in international markets last quarter.
"With the global pandemic, 2020 was the most challenging year in our 93-year history. In April, we experienced the sharpest worldwide RevPAR decline on record, down 90 percent year over year with just 12 percent occupancy," Stephanie Linnartz, Group President, Consumer Operations, Technology and Emerging Businesses said in a statement accompanying Thursday's report.
"Demand around the world improved from this trough at varying rates, with China leading the way. RevPAR in mainland China saw a meaningful rebound through the year and was down less than 10 percent year over year in December," she added. "While China has shown that demand can be quite resilient when the virus is perceived to be contained, we have also seen that progress can be slowed by significant spikes in virus cases, such as we saw in the U.S. and Europe towards the end of 2020. Global occupancy remained at 35 percent in the fourth quarter, in line with the third quarter, and still substantially above the trough in April. While no one can know how long this pandemic will last, we are seeing some small, early signs that the acceleration of vaccine rollouts around the world will help drive a significant rebound in travel and lodging demand."
Tony Capuano, Group President, Global Development, Design and Operations Services, noted that Marriott's "pipeline grew during the quarter to more than 498,000 rooms as of the end of 2020, with 46 percent of those rooms under construction. We are seeing strong interest in conversions, as demonstrated by our recent announcement of the planned conversion of 19 all-inclusive hotels with nearly 7,000 rooms to our system in the Caribbean and Latin America region during 2021. Looking ahead, we expect gross rooms growth could accelerate to approximately 6 percent in 2021."
Linnartz and Capuano are currently sharing responsibility for overseeing Marriott's day-to-day operations until the Board of Directors appoints a new President and CEO.
"We are all deeply saddened by Arne Sorenson's unexpected passing. We are grateful to have been able to work with such an inspiring and talented leader and will always treasure our memories of working with him. Our leadership team is committed to honoring him by building on his incredible legacy as we move the company forward," said Leeny Oberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "In 2020, we moved swiftly to right-size our business in response to the precipitous decline in revenue by reducing costs, strengthening our balance sheet, and lowering capital spending. While the current environment remains challenging, we believe our financial condition is strong and we look ahead to the rest of 2021 with optimism."
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