Marriott Executive Voices Optimism

Bethesda-based Marriott International Inc., which has been struggling with declining sales for more than a year, is predicting revenue will begin to grow again this year. Investors welcomed the news Thursday pushing the stock price higher.

Marriott president and chief operating officer Arne Sorenson is unsure of the exact timing but does expect revenue per available room (RevPAR) to increase in 2010. "We will move from negative to positive RevPAR this year," Sorenson told Bloomberg News. "When this is happening isn't clear yet, but we're a bit more optimistic that it may be happening a bit sooner than we had anticipated," Sorenson told Bloomberg. "Our level of optimism is rising based on anecdotes from our customers and hotels." Marriott shares (NYSE:MAR) advanced $1.20, 4 percent, to a 16-month high of $29.33 in Thursday trading.

Sorenson's comments amplified recent optimism of the hotel giant's CEO Bill Marriott Jr.

Last week, as the company revised is fourth quarter outlook for RevPAR in North America to a drop of as much as 14 percent instead of the previous estimate of 16 percent, Bill Marriott said, "the fourth quarter looked better than we expected outside of North America, while things in the U.S. and Canada were also a little bit better."

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