Global revenue per available room in the third quarter at Marriott International increased 0.5% year-over-year, one of few lodging companies producing postive RevPAR, which was driven by a 2.6% increase in international markets, as RevPAR declined 0.4% decline in the U.S. & Canada. Asia Pacific excluding China (APEC) led international RevPAR growth with nearly 5% year-over-year growth, driven by strong performance in Japan, Australia and Vietnam.
Illustrating the continued bifurcation of travel, Marriott’s luxury segment RevPAR rose 4% globally, a story of strong demand and rate performance. “With 10% of the rooms in the luxury tier and another 42% in upper upscale, we’ve had questions the last couple of quarters about the sustainability of the high end, and to post another quarter with 4% RevPAR index leading the charge, I think is a pretty powerful illustration of the strength and appetite of that luxury consumer,” said Anthony Capuano, president and CEO of Marriott International.
“Our third quarter results demonstrated continued strong execution of our growth strategy, the power of our brands and the cash-flow benefits of our asset-light business model,” he added.
Despite positive RevPAR on a global scale, blunted by negative growth in the U.S., hotel owners continue to feel the squeeze from higher costs and slower inbound international travel. On a call with analysts, Capuano kept to the positive. “The fact that through the first nine months of the year we have, on a global basis, achieved record signings is indicative that we’re hitting the right mark with the owner and franchise community,” he said. “We are focused on driving enhanced top-line performance, and we think that that’s one of the most compelling features of the technology transformation journey that we’re on.”
Added Leeny Oberg, CFO and EVP of development for Marriott International, “As we do all the normal comparisons of our affiliation costs against our competitors, we believe we have the lowest affiliation cost relative to revenue in the industry, and we expect, with our economies of scale, to continue to work on improving that even more.”
Net income for the quarter was $728 million, up 25% from $584 million in Q3 2024. Base management and franchise fees increased nearly 6% to $1.19 billion, driven by room growth and higher co-branded credit card fees. At the same time, incentive management fees declined to $148 million from $159 million, primarily due to weaker performance in the U.S. & Canada.
On the development front, Marriott added approximately 17,900 net rooms during the quarter, including nearly 13,900 in international markets, representing a 4.7% year-over-year increase in net rooms. As of September 30, 2025, Marriott’s global system encompassed over 9,700 properties and approximately 1.75 million rooms.
The company’s development pipeline reached a new record, totaling 3,923 properties and more than 596,000 rooms. Over half of the pipeline rooms are located in international markets. Notably, the pipeline does not yet include rooms from the recently announced acquisition of the citizenM brand, which is expected to be integrated in Q4 2025.
Conversions continue to fuel new development for Marriott. “The momentum around conversions has not stopped, and that obviously feeds into our under-construction pipeline in a material way,” said Oberg. “We fully expect a third of our room openings this year to be conversion rooms. When you talk about the under-construction pipeline, it’s probably a good reminder that in the U.S., Marriott has a leading share of both signings for new-build construction hotels, as well as actually what’s under construction, that 29% of signed and 28% of under construction. We did see a pickup in Q3 of rooms going under construction, actually digging the shovel in the ground.”
She added that Marriott remains meaningfully below construction starts compared to 2019, but that asset transactions have improved on the back of lower interest rates. “We still need to see more improvement on the financing environment to see a dramatic pickup in new builds,” she said.
Marriott Bonvoy, the company’s loyalty platform, added 12 million members during the quarter, bringing total global membership to nearly 260 million. Member penetration remained strong at 75% in the U.S. & Canada and 68% globally.
For full-year 2025, Marriott said it expects comparable systemwide RevPAR growth of 1.5% to 2.5%; net rooms growth approaching 5%; and adjusted EBITDA between $5.35 billion and $5.38 billion.
“We continue to expect that the U.S. will be lower than international,” Oberg said regarding RevPAR, though adding that a lot of benefit and contribution in the U.S. will come next year from the World Cup.
