Marriott International

Please stand by, your program is about to begin. Should you need audio assistance during today's program, please press star zero. Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's first quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have an opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and one on your touchtone phone. Please note this call may be recorded and I will be standing by should you need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the program over to Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Jackie Burka.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Marriott's first quarter 2023 earnings call. On the call with me today are Tony Capuano, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Leni Oberg, our Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Developments, and Betsy Dahm, our Vice President of Investor Relations. I will remind everyone that many of our comments today are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our SEC filings, which could cause future results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Please also note that unless otherwise stated, our REVPAR occupancy and average daily rate comments reflect system-wide constant currency results for comparable hotels. Statements in our comments and the press release we issued earlier today are effective only today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. You can find our earnings release and reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our remarks today on our Investor Relations website. And now I will turn the call over to Tony.

Thank you, Jackie, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We announced excellent first quarter results today. reflecting continued momentum in our business around the world. While the timing of demand recovery has varied across regions, depending on COVID policies, it is clear that post-pandemic, people have a deep appreciation for travel. As the largest global lodging company, with properties in 138 countries and territories, a diverse portfolio of amazing brands, and our award-winning Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program, We are proud to connect people through the power of travel. First quarter global rev par rose 34% versus 2022, driven by significant recovery in Asia Pacific and strong growth across the rest of our regions. Worldwide occupancy reached 65%, 11 percentage points higher than the year ago order. Global ADR grew 11%, demonstrating our continued focus on driving rate. While macroeconomic uncertainty persists, it has not weighed on travel demand to date. In fact, demand continued to rise across all customer segments in the quarter. Forward bookings are solid, though our transient booking window is still short-term at around three weeks, so trends could change relatively quickly. Globally, leisure demand and ADR are still incredibly robust. Following a year with leisure demand already well above pre-pandemic levels, first quarter transient room nights for the segment increased 12%, with ADR rising 8% year over year. Group demand was also very strong in the quarter. In the U.S. and Canada, group revenue for full year 2023 was pacing up 26% to 2022 at the end of the quarter. a significant improvement from group pace at the end of last year. For the second through fourth quarter of this year, group room nights were pacing up 9%, with rate up 7%, leading to revenues pacing up 16% year over year. U.S. and Canada business transient demands saw modest additional recovery in the quarter. ADR rose meaningfully, primarily due to solid special corporate rate increase. First quarter, U.S. and Canada business transient revenues surpassed 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic began. And quarter cross-border travel has continued to rise globally. However, it is still a few hundred basis points below 2019, when guests traveling abroad accounted for nearly 20% of total room nights. Additional upside is expected to come primarily from Asia Pacific, given international airlift to and from China is still well below pre-pandemic levels. We are focused on strengthening our Marriott Bonvoy loyalty platform by continuing to grow our membership base, which reached 182 million members at the end of March, and enhancing engagement with these valuable customers. Our co-branded credit cards, with offerings in nine countries, performed well again this quarter, Global card acquisitions soared 35% year over year, while global card spend increased 16%. To engage with our customers, we are increasingly leveraging our digital platforms, which are highly profitable channels for our owners. Those digital channels had a record first quarter. On a year-over-year basis, mobile app users grew 31%, digital room nights rose 17%, and digital revenues climbed 26%. Turning to development, we still expect gross rooms growth of around 5.5% this year and net rooms growth of 4% to 4.5%. While we are keeping a close eye on the financing environment, as Lene will discuss in her remarks, we do anticipate returning to a mid-single-digit net rooms growth in the next few years. We were pleased to close the CityExpress transaction just yesterday welcoming roughly 17,000 rooms in the Caribbean and Latin American region, or CALA, into our portfolio. Citi Express is an incredible launchpad to jumpstart our entry into the high-growth, moderately-priced mid-scale space. We see meaningful opportunity to expand the brand in CALA as well as in other locations around the world. Our industry-leading pipeline stood at approximately 502,000 rooms at quarter end. 57% of those rooms in international markets and about 200,000 rooms under construction. Strong interest in conversions continues, including multi-unit opportunities. Conversions represented nearly 30% of signings in the quarter and 25% of openings. I'll now turn the call over to Leni to discuss our financial results in more detail.