Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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So that is always first on the list and then a consideration of how we see the business moving forward. We do have a more diversified earnings stream than we had before. We’ve got a more global earnings stream than we’ve had before. We’ve got strong operating leverage in the business. And so I would expect to continue to see this investing in the growth of our business, including our technology transformation. But then with the remaining cash, excess cash, being able to return it to our shareholders in this mix of a modest dividend and share repurchase.

David Katz: Got it. And if I can, as my follow-up, just ask about really the top tier corporate business. I know there was some of this in your prepared remarks. But as we talk through the industry or industry related people, we get a sense that there is a Fortune 100 that’s been slower to come back versus the SME that was much, much faster. An update there would be really helpful if there is some movement at the top as well?

Tony Capuano: Sure. So your characterization is accurate. The SMEs, which represent about 60% of our business transient segment, they were first fully recovered a quarter ago and their demand continues to be quite robust. The large corporate room nights continue to be recovering a bit more slowly. In Q1, we saw slow and steady recovery, and that continues to be the pace. What we hear from them anecdotally on, from one perspective, they continue to meet a great deal as they hire new staff, as they immerse them in their culture and do training meetings. And we think that’s one of the drivers of the strength we’re seeing in the group segment. Their international travel has been probably the slowest component of their travel to recover. And so it’s a segment that we’re monitoring closely, but it is certainly recovering more slowly than the SMEs.

Leeny Oberg: The only thing I’ll add, David, is that on the special corporate rate, I think it is worth noting that you’ve heard us talk before that we got nearly double-digit increases in negotiated rate this year. And as we look out to next year, we do — we’re starting to have those conversations and we are looking for an additional meaningful increase next year as well. And while you’re right that the classic big four and tech firms are still down in night meaningfully compared to 2019, overall business transient is up compared to 2019 and we are continuing to see some recovery. So we do eventually think that it will get back to levels that we saw in 2019 on the special corporate side eventually. And again, overall business transient is doing well from a revenue perspective.

Tony Capuano: Yeah. And Dave, maybe just one clarification and additional comment. On the recovery of the SMEs, we saw them fully recover in Q1 of 2022, not 2023, just to make sure I’m precise. The other thing I will tell you is while the recovery of the large corporates has been not as rapid as what we’ve seen with the SMEs, we do see strong enough demand even with the large corporates that it is giving us pretty good pricing power. As we talked about a couple of quarters ago, and one of the underpinnings of the rate growth we saw in the quarter was our ability to negotiate high single-digit special corporate rates for 2023. And as we start in earnest to go into corporate rate negotiations for 2024, we have every expectation that we will be emerging from that rate negotiation season, having achieved high single-digit rate negotiated rates for the second straight year.

David Katz: Got it. Thank you very much.

Tony Capuano: You’re welcome.

Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Smedes Rose with Citi. Please go ahead.

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