Marriott International has reported a net loss of $11 million for the first quarter of 2021, compared to a net income of $31 million for the same period of last year.

The company saw a diluted loss per share of $0.03 in the quarter.

Moreover, quarterly revenues at the hotel giant slipped to $2.3 billion, down by more than half from the $4.7 billion recorded in the three months to March 31st last year.

RevPAR across the company was down by 46 per cent worldwide in the quarter.

Tony Capuano, chief executive of Marriott, said: “We were pleased to see demand improve meaningfully during the first quarter.

“We are welcoming more and more guests to our hotels as consumers are traveling again once they feel it is safe.

“While recovery trajectories vary from region to region, the resiliency of demand has been most keenly demonstrated in mainland China, where occupancy is near the pre-pandemic level.”

Marriott said occupancy reached 66 per cent in mainland China in March, nearly the same as in March 2019, on strong demand from both leisure and business travellers.

Capuano added: “In our largest region, the United States and Canada, demand increased rapidly as vaccine rollouts accelerated.

“Occupancy started the year at 33 per cent in January and reached 49 per cent by March.

“Leisure demand gained momentum, particularly in ski and beach resort destinations.”

He added: “We are encouraged to see green shoots in special corporate and group bookings, which have been improving as companies slowly begin to return to their offices.”

Marriott added more than 23,500 rooms globally during the first quarter, including nearly 12,000 rooms in international markets and a total of about 7,300 conversion rooms.