"We are taking decisive steps to meet today's more challenging economic environment and are confident that our brands will continue to gain market share," he says.

Of the 11,500 room openings during the first quarter, 40% were the result of conversions from other hotel brands. For the year, Marriott International expects to add more than 35,000 hotel rooms and timeshares to its worldwide lodging portfolio.

Marriott Lodging reported a first-quarter 10% increase in operating profit and 12% sales growth. The company says the growth comes from new properties worldwide, strong performance by international properties and higher profits in the vacation ownership business, were offset by higher energy costs for the company's domestic hotels. Across Marriott's lodging brands, Revpar grew by an average of 2.5% during the first quarter. Average room rates rose more than 5%, while occupancy was down 2% to 72.9%. Marriott's limited service brands (Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, and SpringHill Suites) produced Revpar growth of 4.9% during the first quarter, with room rates increasing nearly 7% over last year.

Marriott Vacation Club International reported a 19% increase in contract sales in the quarter. Areas showing the most growth were timeshare resorts in California, Hawaii, Utah, Florida and Aruba. The company added 258 hotels and timeshare resorts (44,200 rooms) to its worldwide lodging portfolio over the past 12 months, while 15 properties (4,500 rooms) were sold. Some 64 hotels and resorts (11,000 rooms) were added during the first quarter, including eight Marriott Hotels, Resorts and Suites (3,100 rooms) and 15 Ramada International hotels (2,200 rooms). At quarter-end, the Marriott lodging group encompassed 2,163 hotels and timeshare resorts (401,500 rooms), and approximately 7,000 furnished corporate apartments managed by the company's ExecuStay by Marriott division.

During the first quarter of 2001, the company sold eight hotels and one senior living community for a total of $272 million. Since year-end, Marriott International has acquired 1.5 million shares of its common stock for $60 million (through Apr. 6, 2001), and has been authorized to repurchase an additional 18.1 million shares. Long-term debt at the end of the quarter was $2 billion, unchanged from year-end 2000 levels.