Marriott Predicts Coronavirus Will Hurt Fee Revenue

By Dave Sebastian

Marriott International Inc. expects the coronavirus epidemic to weigh on its fee revenue in 2020, as the pathogen's spread outside of China stokes fears and disrupts travel.

The world's largest hotel company said Wednesday that it could have about $25 million less in fee revenue per month this year, compared with its outlook, assuming current low occupancy rates in the Asia-Pacific region continue.

Excluding the epidemic's effect, Marriott predicted 2020 comparable systemwide revenue per available room, an industry metric that measures performance, on a constant-currency basis to be flat to up 2% world-wide, with its rise in North America to be in the middle of the range. The company expects global room growth of 5% to 5.25%, and gross fee revenue to rise 4% to 6%, compared with 2019.

The Bethesda, Md.-based company, which has roughly 7,200 properties, expects earnings of $6.30 a share to $6.53 a share for the year, on gross fee revenue of $3.96 billion to $4.04 billion.

Companies with high exposure to travel and tourism have borne the brunt of the epidemic, with hotels closing some operations, airlines canceling flights, cruise ships becoming incubators for the pathogen and casinos closed off for two weeks in the gaming enclave of Macau.

Originating in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epidemic has widened globally, with cases recently surging in South Korea and Italy and new infections diagnosed in Brazil, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 26, 2020 17:41 ET (22:41 GMT)

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