Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news joining.
Speaker 2: Us now he is with Marriott. He is Marriott.
Speaker 3: His leadership there with a lot of stress, has been wonderful.
Speaker 2: Are you beyond Tony Kupyon? Are you beyond covid?
Speaker 3: Is your whole shop removed from twenty twenty?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and with increasing frequency, we're not making those twenty
Speaker 4: eighteen twenty nineteen comparisons.
Speaker 5: Really looking forward.
Speaker 2: We're talking to Barbell economy.
Speaker 3: You guys, you're the epitome of the Explain how you're
Speaker 3: moving seats and beds in venice at the gritty palace
Speaker 3: versus a Marriotte.
Speaker 2: It's really low and low budget in some state in
Speaker 2: the middle of nowhere. What's that Barbell look like right now?
Speaker 4: So certainly in the US, but in many markets around
Speaker 4: the world, we see this bifurcation of the consumer, and
Speaker 4: so we're trying to leverage.
Speaker 5: Both ends of the chain scales.
Speaker 4: We have the industry's largest law luxury portfolio, including your
Speaker 4: favorite Grit, well aware of this, and we continue to
Speaker 4: double down and accelerate our growth. And that consumer has
Speaker 4: this ravenous appetite for travel.
Speaker 5: In fact, in Q one, the luxury tier saw.
Speaker 6: The strongest occupancy growth.
Speaker 4: At the other end of the income spectrum, that lower
Speaker 4: income household still has an appetite for travel, but at
Speaker 4: a much lower price point. And that's why over the
Speaker 4: last two years you've seen US push into mid scale.
Speaker 1: I think on your last Darnings call you talked about
Speaker 1: the kind of shock and awe that the travel industry
Speaker 1: filter in the first few months of this this administration.
Speaker 1: Situate your business in what we're all experiencing here, the
Speaker 1: uncertainty about where this trade war is headed, what deals
Speaker 1: might get done, where just the fact that that's having
Speaker 1: on consumers as well when it comes to sentiment just
Speaker 1: about the economy more broadly.
Speaker 4: So, Actually, January February exceedingly strong. We had very high
Speaker 4: hopes that shock and awe, if you will, was really march.
Speaker 4: Our industry thrives in times of stability and high consumer confidence,
Speaker 4: and so when you see the US hit a fifty
Speaker 4: two year low in consumer confidence, it's to worrisome, to
Speaker 4: be sure. I think what's offsetting that a bit for
Speaker 4: our business is this shift we saw begin pre pandemic
Speaker 4: but accelerate post pandemic, and that's a consumer preference to
Speaker 4: spend disposable income on travel and experiences versus consumption of
Speaker 4: hard goods.
Speaker 5: Had you a year ago.
Speaker 4: Said to me the US is going to hit a
Speaker 4: fifty two year low and that we'd still see four
Speaker 4: percent plus RevPAR growth, that would have been hard to reconcile.
Speaker 4: But that's what we're seeing in the business.
Speaker 1: What are you seeing in the confidence data yourself? So
Speaker 1: I mentioned the uncertainty, are there indications here that consumers
Speaker 1: are seeing through this madness surrounding tariffs that they're feeling
Speaker 1: more confident, confident enough perhaps to book a few months out.
Speaker 4: So you really need to look by demand segment. The
Speaker 4: segment that has the longest lead time is the group segment,
Speaker 4: and that's where we're seeing the deep strength in Q.
Speaker 6: One RevPAR globally, and group was up eight percent.
Speaker 4: In our two transient segments, leisure and business transient that
Speaker 4: has a much much shorter booking window sub twenty one days,
Speaker 4: we saw about two percent rev par growth in both
Speaker 4: of those segments, so a little harder to look too
Speaker 4: far into the future in those segments.
Speaker 3: The chief executive officer Marriott is with us right down
Speaker 3: Tony Capiano. It's a lovely visit once even twice a year.
Speaker 3: The persistency of the stock performance over the last ten years,
Speaker 3: Marriott has enjoyed, Ready for this, fourteen point seven percent
Speaker 3: per year.
Speaker 2: And that's that's a lot of bonvoid points. It's I'm
Speaker 2: impressed to that you.
Speaker 6: It might get you one.
Speaker 5: Full night at gritty Palace.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good morning, missus Kean's don't listen to young copy
Speaker 3: on them.
Speaker 2: Help help me here.
Speaker 3: With one hundred and fifty five thousand employees, and I
Speaker 3: assume you've got a lot more on releases. In all
Speaker 3: that the late you're dynamic across America. Forget about venice.
Speaker 3: How hard is it.
Speaker 2: To retain, to employ and retain labor right now?
Speaker 4: I actually think we're in a better place than we
Speaker 4: were a couple of years ago.
Speaker 5: I remember coming in to.
Speaker 4: Speak to you as the recovery had just started coming
Speaker 4: out of the pandemic. The pandemic had rattled the labor base,
Speaker 4: who prior to the pandemic viewed the travel sector as
Speaker 4: a bit of a safe harbor, that there'd always be jobs,
Speaker 4: there would always be growth. You saw a lot of
Speaker 4: folks leave that sector. Most of them have come back.
Speaker 4: Now when you look across our us business.
Speaker 5: The number.
Speaker 4: We're never at full employment given the nature of our business,
Speaker 4: but the number of vacancies we have is actually slightly
Speaker 4: below where we were back in eighteen and nineteen.
Speaker 1: Tom's joking about the bonvoy points, but let me ask
Speaker 1: you about what the magic of those are, and so
Speaker 1: being here and traveling for work, it's funny. I'll go
Speaker 1: out with crews who are just such loyal adherents to
Speaker 1: that I'll stay at one hotel estate at another because
Speaker 1: they're so keena. What is the magic of BONVOI? How
Speaker 1: is it bene six as well as it has been.
Speaker 5: It's evolving.
Speaker 4: I think for all the travel companies when they started
Speaker 4: these loyalty programs, they were pretty rudimentary.
Speaker 5: You earned points for a stay.
Speaker 4: Ultimately you redeemed those points for a redemption stay. Certainly
Speaker 4: at Marriott, we're evolving the platform in really meaningful ways.
Speaker 4: We're offering different adjacent experiences, whether that's Marriott homes and villas,
Speaker 4: the Ritz Carlton yacht election, and we're creating once in
Speaker 4: a lifetime experiences. So we were a big sponsor of
Speaker 4: the Taylor swift Eras tour. We are the official hotel
Speaker 4: of the NFL.
Speaker 5: The Yes we were.
Speaker 3: I'm just thinking to Amy Woo Silverman over there and
Speaker 3: we see capital markets. That explains why Taylor waved to her. Yes,
Speaker 3: she was stated, there you go. So like the NFL,
Speaker 3: it's like linking into corporate partners exactly working. It's working
Speaker 3: really well. And so for our members.
Speaker 4: Your question specifically was what drives that loyalty. In many ways,
Speaker 4: it's access to these once in a lifetime experiences. To
Speaker 4: be in the first couple of rows of Taylor Swift concert,
Speaker 4: to be on the field at the super Bowl with
Speaker 4: the NFL, to be in the Mercedes paddock at an
Speaker 4: F one race. That ability, and they're also not all
Speaker 4: lifetime ten pole moments. Partnerships with Uber and Starbucks give
Speaker 4: some more immediacy to redemption opportunities.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but the reality is for a lot of America
Speaker 3: away from I got to go to the sphere to
Speaker 3: see the Eagles whatever is, they're out of money, they
Speaker 3: got to take the brat to college, and they need
Speaker 3: to stay in a reasonably priced hotel.
Speaker 2: Can you compete with all of those?
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Motel six is out there, just to use the iconic name.
Speaker 3: How do you compete with most I think that's.
Speaker 5: Why we moved into the mid scale tier.
Speaker 4: When we've thought about building the Bonvoy membership, when we
Speaker 4: thought about opening the aperture to bring new guests into
Speaker 4: the bury It Marriott ecosystem, we said today we didn't
Speaker 4: this is two years ago. We don't compete in the
Speaker 4: mid scale tier, and we ought to develop some platforms.
Speaker 4: So we bought City Express in Mexico, which we've brought
Speaker 4: to the US. Organically developed an extended stay mid scale
Speaker 4: product called Studio res. We opened the first one yesterday
Speaker 4: down in South Florida, and so we'll continue to grow
Speaker 4: that platform, almost as an entry portal for folks that
Speaker 4: are just starting their travel journey, or to your point, Tom,
Speaker 4: that have a much more modest budget.
Speaker 2: I got a memo in the control room for one
Speaker 2: of girls people. You got to bring it up.
Speaker 3: Okay, the Nolan School of Hotel Administration high above Cayugos Waters.
Speaker 3: When you were in school there, I mean, is it
Speaker 3: just sort of like they're just like hotel people and
Speaker 3: they're really not in college?
Speaker 1: Come on, well, I was Arts and Sciences but had
Speaker 1: a lot of envy for the hotel is because they
Speaker 1: had great internships. Every summer and they would go to
Speaker 1: places like Hawaiian.
Speaker 2: Switzerland, the gritty hotel.
Speaker 1: Would you when you go to you stay at the statlerd?
Speaker 1: Do you stay at Stute of Statland. He's a loyalist
Speaker 1: still I am a loyalist.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: We're a two generation hotel school family. My daughter graduates
Speaker 4: around there two years.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 4: And we are talking about the NC double national champion
Speaker 4: lacross Cornell Vigor.
Speaker 2: We brought that up the other day.
Speaker 5: Is there a forty eight year wag.
Speaker 2: Ahead and that as well?
Speaker 3: What is the distinction of the Cornell academic process and
Speaker 3: hotel I think of the people that run the Hassler
Speaker 3: in Rome and that Swiss heritage of hoteling. What is
Speaker 3: the distinction of Cornell versus the other hotel schools?
Speaker 4: There are amazing hospitality schools all over the world. I
Speaker 4: think what separates Cornell. It's much more of a business school.
Speaker 4: To be sure, it uses travelatorism examples in the courses,
Speaker 4: but the number of students that go on to investment banking,
Speaker 4: private equity finance I think distinguishes the one.
Speaker 2: Financier question, what's your biggest headache? Now? In capital deployment?
Speaker 4: The availability of new construction debt. We've got hundreds of
Speaker 4: shovel ready projects in the pipeline where the equity is
Speaker 4: in place, the entitlements are in place, but the relative
Speaker 4: constriction in the debt not for existing assets.
Speaker 2: But for new private credit and private equity.
Speaker 4: Play sure and and he would you like to make
Speaker 4: an announcement here?
Speaker 2: Not today?
Speaker 4: I got something to do next time I come to
Speaker 4: see you, Tony.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Tony, thanks for having in the
Speaker 2: bonus round here. June is busting out all over. The
Speaker 2: girl family gets night at that corner room at the Gritty.
Speaker 2: Eight thousand and five hundred can.
Speaker 3: Half a millennia of Can you imagine the Venice, Texas
Speaker 3: on a eighty five.
Speaker 2: No ticket? It is spectac it is it's one of
Speaker 2: the best hotels. You guys are up the river by
Speaker 2: the Metropolitan.
Speaker 6: Was at the Danielle Daniellie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were there and then you moved into the Gritty.
Speaker 4: We have the Gritty and we also if you go
Speaker 4: the other direction on the Grand Canal, the Saint Regis,
Speaker 4: which is a spectacular hotel.
Speaker 2: Really, you just set up a budget, missus.
Speaker 6: Kings and if you want to get in a Reva boat.
Speaker 5: We'll take you over to the j W which is private.
Speaker 2: Se is that working for you?
Speaker 6: It's working great. It just traded.
Speaker 2: What kind of tourists goes to the island away from the.
Speaker 4: Relatives, Somebody that wants the ability to retreat, right, that wants.
Speaker 3: To go and fight away from Potaga Venada.
Speaker 4: Precise treat away from enjoy San Marco for a bit
Speaker 4: and then go back to their quiet rage.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.