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

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Smedes Rose: Hi. Thank you. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about the loyalty program. And I’m sorry if you’ve shared this already, but what percent of occupancy came through loyalty members in the quarter. And could you just touch on maybe what you’re seeing on direct bookings versus the percentage of bookings coming through OTAs?

Leeny Oberg: Yes, sure. So just real quickly, overall, mid-50s for Bonvoy penetration, low 60s for U.S. and Canada. And when you look at — we are still kind of mid-70s for direct contribution — direct channel contribution for our bookings, and the OTA is 11% to 12%. So again, fairly stable. The main point is that our — when you think about the digital channels, they have gained meaningfully more share over the past several years than the OTAs and grown very nicely. And when you look just kind of one last data point for you, when you think about redemptions as a percentage of our total room nights, it’s 6%. And digital is mid-30s.

Smedes Rose: Okay, okay. Thank you. And then as just last on e, can you talk a little bit more about how you guys are thinking about credit card fee growth. And you mentioned it was up double digit. Is it — I mean I don’t know if you can say it, but is it driven by incremental spending sort of on a same-store basis, or is it more driven by more cards going out there? And maybe how would you think about the sort of longer-term growth rate in that fee stream?

Leeny Oberg: Sure. All of the above. You’ve got great news in terms of adding cardholders. That is obviously a critical component to this, is adding additional cardholders. And we’re very pleased with adding additional cardholders. And then obviously, it’s the average spend on those existing cardholders. So as you see growth in those two, you get the growth in credit card, but just as importantly, is adding new countries. So when we add South Korea, Japan or China, it really opens up a new market that goes from zero to thousands of cards with growth potential that goes off many years into the future. And we are continuing to add additional countries. So we’ll talk more in September about kind of how to think about that in a three-year model. But as I said, for this year, I think you can be looking at them for overall total credit card branding fees to be in about the roughly 10% range.

Smedes Rose: Well, I can attest that my kids are helping on the fee growth for you. Thanks.

Leeny Oberg: Well, thanks. We appreciate the support.

Operator: Thank you. We’ll take our next question from Dori Kesten with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Dori Kesten: Thanks, good morning. Where do you feel that your gap by region or brand type exists today?

Leeny Oberg: So I’ll start — I’ll start, Tony, and then you jump in. I think you’ve heard us talk about our entry into the affordable mid-scale space since the acquisition of City Express in CALA and with our conversation about MidX Studios, which is a mid-scale extended stay product that we’re very excited about in the US and are having great conversations with owners. And really, we look at that around the world as providing great opportunities for us in addition to growing all of our other brands. I mean I think it’s important to note that we think there’s lots of room for us to have growth across all segments around the world and our existing brands. But for example, we’re excited about what we see as the possibility for a conversion mid-scale brand in EMEA and look forward to some announcements in the back half of the year regarding that. So we’ll continue to look to try to meet our customers’ needs and expand our distribution in a way that strengthens Bonvoy.

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