Marriott CEO: We've Got A 'Very Steady' Growth

Marriott International Inc MAR posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.

CEO and President Arne Sorenson was on CNBC Thursday to weigh in on the company’s results and discuss the growth rate of the company’s various brands.

“Well, I think we have just got a very steady growth and it’s really two things,” Sorenson said. “It is same-store sales which we call RevPAR growth of course were up about 7 percent for the full year 2014. The fourth-quarter was a little weaker, but it was at 6.7. So, it’s more or less the same kind of number. It was the fourth year of good strong same-store sales growth.

He continued, “We think we’ll have the same thing again in rough order of magnitude in 2015. Our guidance was 5 to 7 percent, but that’s a good number to lay out at the beginning of the year and when you take that and you combine roughly 6 percent new rooms growth in our system with new hotels up in the end of the year that’s driving a really compounding great growth rate for the company.”

Aren’t Your Limited Service Hotel Brands Growing Faster Than Luxury Brands?

“Actually all of our brands are doing extremely well,” Sorenson replied. “We have looked at the fact that, say Ritz Carlton, which is obviously our widest distributed luxury brand, its RevPAR numbers have been a little bit slower than we call limited service or select service hotel…and I think the difference is not so much that the top-end brands are weaker, it’s just that they strengthen faster.”