BETHESDA, MD—In a fourth quarter 2014 earnings conference call on Thursday, Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson touted his company's investment in lifestyle brand properties as one of the keys to its growth last year.
Marriott's RevPar grew 6.6% in 2014. The hotelier added 14,600 rooms in the fourth quarter, according to the Washington Business Journal.
Sorenson says the company's 18 brands are not too much. "In no respect do we feel that we have too many brands," Sorenson said. "We still drive 50% of our business through our Marriott rewards customer base, and the pipeline of customers we connect to these hotels are successful in driving an immediate lift."
He added, "I think we now have five very strong brands in the lifestyle space, giving us a good stack across the segments. Each of those brands is resonating not just with customers but with owners and franchisees."
Based on current market conditions, Sorenson says Marriott will still have a full development pipeline. "For better or for worse, the longer RevPar goes up and profitability improves, the more projects we pencil," Sorenson said. "If you could have an omnipotent kind of wisdom you'd say, 'Let's start to calibrate back because there will be a correction coming at some point.' But that's just not how our industry works." See story in the Washington Business Journal.
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