After an overall challenging year, Marriott International ended 2025 on a strong note, coming in at the higher end of its performance expectations.
During the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call, President and CEO Tony Capuano said Marriott saw full-year global hotel revenue per available room grow by 2% in 2025, with RevPAR in the U.S. and Canada growing by 0.7% and international RevPAR up over 5%. Leisure and luxury led the way with leisure RevPAR up 3% while group RevPAR grew 2%. Business transient RevPAR was flat for the year. Full-year luxury RevPAR increased over 6% while select-service RevPAR dropped 30 basis points.
“Our portfolio is well-positioned to benefit from continued expected strength at the upper end as higher-end consumers remain resilient and continue to prioritize spending on experience and travel over goods,” he said.
For the fourth quarter, worldwide RevPAR ended up in the high end of Marriott’s outlook range, Capuano said. It grew 1.9% thanks to a strong end of the year, with December RevPAR growing beyond expectations at 2.8%, the strongest monthly year-over-year growth since February.
Marriott's hotel RevPAR was strongest in the Asia-Pacific region again, benefiting from double-digit rooms growth and solid macroeconomic growth in many countries, Capuano said. RevPAR in Asia grew by nearly 9%, with growth broad-based across the region and double-digit growth in key markets, including India, Japan and Australia.
The operating environment in Greater China remains challenged by weak macroeconomic conditions and softer consumer sentiment, but robust leisure trends and continued inbound travel recovery helped RevPAR grow in the fourth quarter, he said. RevPAR grew 3%, driven by ADR thanks to stronger rates in Hong Kong and other major markets to help offset softness in tertiary markets.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, RevPAR grew by 7%, with United Arab Emirates leading with 17% growth, he said. In the Caribbean and Latin America, RevPAR increased 2% thanks to resilient leisure demand.
Fourth-quarter RevPAR in the U.S. and Canada was nearly flat, Capuano said. Luxury again saw solid growth, though declines in the select-service tier offset much of that growth. Leisure transient RevPAR grew 2% in the quarter while group RevPAR increased by 1%.
“These gains were offset by a 3% decline in business transient RevPAR, largely due to a meaningful decline in government RevPAR in the quarter,” he said. “Government RevPAR was down over 30% during the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, though it has since moderated to down around 15%.”
Looking ahead
Marriott expects full-year RevPAR growth in 2026 to be similar to 2025, ranging between 1.5% to 2.5%, said Leeny Oberg, chief financial officer and executive vice president, development.
“This assumes a relatively steady macroeconomic environment,” she said.
With the exception of Greater China, RevPAR growth in international regions is expected to remain higher than in the U.S. and Canada, Oberg said. However, RevPAR growth in the U.S. and Canada should come in a bit stronger this year. The 2026 World Cup is expected to contribute around 30 to 35 basis points of global RevPAR growth for the full year.
Marriott has been named an official hotel supporter of this year's World Cup.
“We've clearly got some extraordinary events in the U.S. and Canada that will help us to the tune of probably 40-ish basis points from our expectations from the World Cup,” she said.
People love to travel and have experiences, so consumers will continue to spend more here than on goods, Oberg said. At the same time, Marriott expects the K-shaped distribution, in which lower-end consumers and guests face challenging financial situations, will stay the same. Government-related business ended the year about 15% down compared to 2024, and Marriott expects that to continue as well though not as much as last year.
For the first quarter of 2026, Marriott's global hotel RevPAR could grow 1% to 2% reflecting the positive effect of the Winter Olympics in Italy, offset somewhat by the negative effect of the timing of Easter and the Chinese New Year, Oberg said. The U.S. and Canada also have tougher year-over-year comparisons due to the U.S. inauguration last year.
Development update
Marriott’s net hotel rooms grew by more than 4.3% in 2025 from year-end 2024, according to the company’s earnings release. It added about 73,600 net rooms during the year, with about 51,600 net rooms in international markets. By the end of the year, its global system had more than 9,800 properties with nearly 1.78 million rooms. More than half the rooms in the year-end pipeline total are in international markets.
Marriott’s worldwide development pipeline reached 4,056 properties with nearly 610,00 rooms by the end of 2025. That includes 234 properties with more than 35,000 rooms approved for development but not yet subject to signed contracts.
Within the pipeline, there were 1,648 properties with nearly 265,000 rooms under construction, including those converting into a Marriott brand.
Conversions remained a key driver of growth, contributing about a third of signings and openings in the year, Capuano said. Seventy-five percent of conversion rooms joined Marriott’s system and began contributing to fee growth within 12 months of signing, he said.
Marriott projects full-year 2026 net rooms growth to accelerate to 4.5% to 5%, he said.
During 2025, Marriott signed a record 114 luxury hotel deals, Capuano said. There’s also growing owner interest in Marriott’s midscale brands. Since entering the segment less than three year ago, Marriott has more than 450 hotels open and in development in its Four Points Flex, StudioRes and City Express by Marriott brands in 26 countries and territories across the world.
Marriott also has 100 open and pipeline Series by Marriott properties, part of the company’s new collection brand for midscale and upscale properties. The company has fully integrated the lifestyle brand CitizenM into its system. Last year, the company also launched its Outdoor Collection by Marriott.
By the numbers
For the fourth quarter, Marriott reported net income of $445 million, a 2% year-over-year decrease. For the full year, it reported net income of $2.6 billion, a 10% year-over-year increase.
The company also reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of more than $1.4 billion during the fourth quarter. It reported adjusted EBITDA of nearly $5.4 billion for the full year.
By the end of 2025, Marriott’s total debt was $16.2 billion, according to the earnings release. It had cash and cash equivalents of $400 million. For comparison, it had $14.4 billion in debt and $400 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2024.
It repurchased 3.5 million shares of its common stock in the fourth quarter for $1 billion. For the full year, it repurchased 12.1 million shares for $3.3 billion. Year to date through Feb. 6, it has repurchased 1.1 million shares for $350 million.
As of press time, Marriott’s stock was trading at $360.76 per share, up 18.4% year over year. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 18.1% for the same period.