Groups continue to be the strongest part of Marriott International's business, CEO Anthony Capuano said during the hotel company's second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Anthony Capuano said groups comprised 24% of the company's worldwide room nights for the quarter. And, groups were more lucrative than a year earlier -- revenue per available room (RevPAR) was up 10% for groups.
Capuano added, however, that Marriott expects some pullback in the fourth quarter due to the U.S. presidential election.
"When you look back over prior election cycles, we tend to see a little bit of group softness the week of election," said Capuano. "Given for the unique attributes of this election cycle, we're seeing that bleed into the week after the election, as well."
The business and leisure segments -- which accounted for 33% and 43% of room nights in the quarter, respectively -- also made gains. Business RevPAR was up 4%, and leisure RevPAR rose 2%.
Capuano said business demand from small and medium-sized companies has grown "significantly" over the past few years, with that category now accounting for nearly 55% of Marriott's total business room nights. He touted July's launch of Business Access by Marriott Bonvoy, a travel management platform designed for small businesses.
Marriott's hotel occupancy for the quarter increased 1.7 percentage points to 71.1%, while average daily rate (ADR) was up 2.4%, to roughly $211.
The company reported second-quarter net income of $772 million, up from $726 million a year earlier. Revenue totaled approximately $6.4 billion, up from $6 billion in Q2 2023.