Marriott International CEO on Leading at a Difficult Time

You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News, Jay and Jay's Vaccine. We knew it was coming. It's another tool in the toolbox to fighting COVID nineteen. Yeah, it's those tools that we need to get us on the other side of this pandemic. And joining us now is Dr David Levy, Chief Executive Officer of Health. He joins us on the phone right here from New York. Eh is a healthcare provider, uh In.

Dr Levy's a public health expert in veteran epidemiologist. Hey, Dr Leviy, thanks so much for joining us today. Um, how are you doing. I'm doing great and thanks for having me back. So what do you make of the Jane Jane us. It is great news. It's another vaccine, another tool, and it's going to be widely available in the next couple of months. And I think it's fantastic. What's highly effective and uh, we're all looking forward to us.

So you still considered highly effective even though it's not as effective as the MR and A vaccines from moderna Advisor by on Tech, it is absolutely as effective as in preventing hospitalizations and deaths. And that's what this epidemic is about. Reducing That's what the treatment for the epidemics should be, namely reducing lethality. And it's as good as

any of the other two. Well, and so Tim and I Dr Leev if I can interrupt for a second, Like Tim and I were joking that we don't go to Dwyane red and I get the flu vaccine and I'm like, what's the efficacy? I mean, what is considered the range of a really effective vaccine. Well, it all depends what you're immunizing for and so you have to

start there. And one of the issues, uh, with this particular virus is that it is highly or much more lethal, and people over sixty five and those people with comorbidities that relate to lifestyle like diabetes, hypertension and the like. And if you can, in fact have a vaccine that's targeted specifically at reducing hospitalization and death in those people, you've essentially dropped the lethality the epidemic potentially even lower than the lethality of a flu epidemic. So this is

a really good piece of news. Quite candidly, Hey, how's the messaging been in general about the vaccine, because I've been having this debate with some friends recently because we've heard so much If you get the vaccine, don't change your behavior, keep wearing a mask, And I wonder what that does to the way that people think about how we're going to get through this pandemic, And just what is the point of getting the vaccine if you can't

change your behavior. Well, you know, that's a great question. The or is you want to continue your social distancing, your mask wearing behavior as long as the virus is endemic in the community. And that's what herd immunity is about. It's not about eliminating the disease completely. It's about reducing the natural reducing of coming to a level of immunity

whereby there's no natural community spread. And as we get to a point where there's no natural community spread and we can now basically address and contain any focal outbreak, we can gradually loosen social distancing, mask wearing and the like. And so it really depends, frankly, at what level the community is with respect to immunity and how soon they get to a situation where you're just going to have

the sporadic and fairly well contained, smaller outbreaks. By the way, that's exactly the same thing with any other kind of infectious disease outbreak like the flu or others. All Right, and that's that's good to know. I'm curious what you are seeing within your employee base, in within the health care system about health care employees. Um, is everybody increasingly getting more comfortable though about taking the vaccine and getting

the vaccine? Well, um, look, you hear the same reticence that you have that we've we've all heard about getting the vaccine, in particular certain segments of the population that

have more mistrust for the vaccine. And I get it, and I understand it, But but I have kind of like a half cup full point of view on that, which is, you know, this is a brand new technology, particularly two m RNA vaccines, completely new, completely new science, and you know, at worst you have seventy of the people who say that they're going to get it right out of the gate. I mean, that's an early adoption factor of se which any CEO producing any product would

be thrilled to have. You know, Unfortunately, when we started down this path, you know, we forgot about the marketing and distribution that we probably should have been do last summer to get people up to a level of comfort. Now that being said, you know, as you probably are education right, not even just marketing, but education. Well, I have to tell you it's not even going to be education in my view in the future. You're you're now seeing around the world people talking about vaccine passes and

the ability to travel from country to country. Uh, the EU was talking about this tomorrow. I think Israel and Greece have already gone into a pact. We've seen airline the airline industry really talk about this. The truth is, as we learn to live with COVID, we won't eliminate COVID will be living with COVID like we live with influenza. People are going to need to have proof that they're immunized.

And I will tell you if those people want to get who are reticent to be immunized, uh, stay that way. They won't be able to get back to a normal life. They won't be able to get into a large venue like a Madison Square gardener, maybe a Broadway show, or maybe a restaurant. They won't be able to travel to a country where their parents may live unless they can prove that they're immune. And that's what's going to be

driving people to almost full uh population. Immunization is really to get your life back to normal, you're gonna be You're gonna be able to have to show proof that in fact, you have indeed been immunized by one of

the vaccines that have been approved. You know, it's a point, a practical reality, A point that that that our colleague Drew Armstrong, SENIORIT for Healthcare, made on Quick Take this morning, was that early on in the vaccination process, we saw people who were reticent about getting vaccines or hesitant to get a vaccine once they saw people in their orbits start to get them that went away, they started to

get them. So this is happening in real time. One thing we want to ask you, Dr Levy, is something that came in to us from one of our our Twitter followers and said, messenger, RNA changes your DNA. So in his book, the JJ and vaccine, a regular vaccine is better than uh, either the Maderna or Fiser vaccine. What do you say to that. I have never heard that. I have no idea what he's talking about or to what he's referencing. mRNA is basically just the code against

which the cells are, you know, producing the antibodies. That doesn't do fundamentally anything to a human being, to your own DNA, I just I just don't know of any evidence or anything to substantiate that comment. But I think it does speak to the reticence that people have when

it comes to you know, quote unquote new technology. Right, Like you were talking about this idea that having a new product that has seventy percent adoption is really good, but there are still people who are like, hey, wait a second, I want to see something different. I completely agree with you. I mean, this is the whole issue because it's kind of a scary notion of brand new technology. We're creating m RNA, we're putting in the body. It

sounds like DNA. And that's why uh rod uh. You know, campaign ought to be introduced, you know, educates the public and you know, fairly clear and easy to understand way about what exactly it is that this new science has discovered. And by the way, I think that this is just the begin thing. I think many new vaccines in the future are going to be adopting this new technology. It's safe, and it's effective, and it's and it's a great advance

for humankind. And uh, it's a kudos to all those people who and all those biologists who who have invented it. I mean, it's just a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful advance for science and for humanity. So I think it's just a bad education quite translate and to be fair new but also it's a it's not something that they've just developed overnight. They've been working on it for years.

Well yeah, for years for other reasons and for other reasons, but you know, the funding and the acceleration that that coincide together, you know, with the cod with the coronavirus pandemic really has pushed this thing over the goal line. So you know, there are a lot of great benefits from this. All right, So when you look forward, what do you see as kind of our biggest obstacles still

in getting us to a post COVID world. You know, I think first of all is continuing the immunization campaign and making sure this is a eye chain is great, and I think that we're throwing the kitchen sink at that, and people just have to keep on moving at that. Uh. You know, the idea of variance is always a wild card out there, but the surest prevention for new variance is the reduction of replication and new human beings who have been infected. And the best way still at that

is to maximize immunization. So you know, keep on moving very very hard at that. In the meantime, all of the other things need to be really stringent to social distancing, the masking and the like, And ultimately, I think as we get back to a more normal situation, we'll be able to start relaxing some of those constraints. But really right now is to move hard and fast at immunization

in this country as much as possible. Hey, Dr Leady, can you talk a little bit about the alarming surge in mental health that we've seen anxiety, depression, burnout, and stress. I mean, we're seeing it everywhere. Yeah, so this is a big problem. We see it in our patients, we see it in many of the employees of of of

all of our clients. And you know, this has been going on now for a year, and you know, we've now been talking about how to bring people safely back to work, and we find that it's people have gotten into this grind of this is the way life is going to be and always going to be, and it's going to be difficult to get people into uh kind of a new way of thinking of getting them out of that rut and getting them back into a more

normal and socially engaged life. I think that's going to be one of the biggest challenges for over the next six months. It's not that the people who want to just don't want to jump out and come back to work. They're sure there's lots of people like me who want to do that, but there are a lot of people who have been really stuck in this rut with an enormous amount of depression. Uh, suicidal ideation, as you know, and it's a very big problem. We're beefing up for all.

Employers are beefing up support around mental health. We're looking closely at reaching reaching out throughhealth and the like to help support employees. But I think that that's going to be one of the biggest barriers. Yeah, but I have to say once we get through it, once we start to have to bring back to normal, I think normal can't wait. Dr David Levy, thank you so much, CEO at e H E Health. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic from

Bloomberg Radio. Bloomberg Business We had a great cover story back in July. It was about the COVID vaccine front runner. At the time, it was the work Astra Zeneca and the University of Oxford was doing, Tim, And since then we know that the path forward for Astra's vaccine it really hasn't been a straight one. Yeah. We've been hearing a lot about Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and of course

Fiser in BioNTech, but Astra Zeneca not so much. Right, We've got an update on them in Bloomberg Business Week taking a look at some of the new data that the company hopes can kind of get its vaccine back on track. Reporting for the magazine, Bloomberg News healthcare reporter James Patton on the phone, Peyton on the phone in London, along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Jiell Webber on the

access line in Brooklyn. James Peyton story, feel like it's such an important one to kind of understand what's been going on at Astra. Yeah, that's right. And you know, obviously here in America, Astra hasn't figured into the conversation quite as much, but it is one that's really important in Europe and elsewhere in the world, and it we you know, it still has potential and we're about to see some results from a US trial that may clear

up some of the confusion. That it's a big may because the confusion has led to a backlash in Europe. And that's sort of where the story uh that James and others uh rope for this issue of the magazine began. So, James, what did you guys learn what's been the continent's response to Astra's rollout. Yeah, we'll get to be with you.

I mean We're hearing reports out of Europe in places like Italy and Germany and elsewhere of health workers and others, UM pushing back on this vaccine basically perceiving it to be less effective in some way or you know, cause for concern when it comes to possible side effects. And there are um, you know, local anecdotes I guess you could call them circulating of health workers experiencing some bad

reactions to the vaccine. UM. Now you know, the company says these are all consistent with what has been observed in uh some participants in clinical trials. UM. But that clearly hasn't held matters UM for you know, Astroseneca and Oxford its partner, And there's been a lack of data on the effectiveness in older adults. UM. You know, the vaccine was given the green light for all adults by

the European regulator, the equivalent to the FDA out here. UM, but at least ten EU countries haven't cleared it for people over sixty five due to that insufficient evidence. So uh, you know in some places, I think last we checked in Germany, UM, only something like of the roughly one point five million astroid doses that have been delivered to the country, has actually been injected, uh into arms. And it's early days, but obviously that doesn't that doesn't bode well,

so the company is trying to turn that around. Governments also realized they'll need to rely on this vaccine to

immunize a large part of the population. So what do we know about how effective it is, James, Because as you and your colleagues right, since Astro and Oxford announced their initial results last year, data on the vaccines effectiveness in preventing symptophatic symptomatic infection have ranged from sixty and that's because of dosing amounts and regiments in the trial, different ones exactly, And that is one of the key issues that revolves around affectiveness. And you know you mentioned

the other vaccines, Visor's, Maderna's. Um. You know, all the companies say over and over again, this isn't a race. You know, it's not a race. But in this case, um, you know, it turned out to be a race in many ways. Uh. You know, following Visor and Maderna was a difficult position to be in those you know, those

companies have attracted most attention. Um. You know you probably recall when they reported their clinical trial results that the numbers were stunning, and you know, even if it wasn't that simple, they appeared to be totally clear and unambiguous. I mean both attained efficacy levels around so that was one number to digest. It was hugely positive. And now AstraZeneca,

you know, an Oxford, it's a different story. When they released their results, as you say, there was a wide range of numbers finally an average of it was very confusing, not just for journalists but for scientists. You ever, was scrambling to make sense of just how effective this vaccine is. And you know, the takeaway to disease experts is that all these front runners, including astra Zeneca, look like they provide comparable and almost complete protection against severe illness and death.

So those are the most important factors to consider. Um So when it comes to those critical outcomes that will end the pandemic, this vaccine is still expected to play a crucial role. But unfortunately there are all these questions swirling around Astersenic and Oxford that have hurt the way the vaccine is perceived. That was the point that I just wanted to sort of underscore. There is like, just because the results have been confusing, There still is a

I guess you could think of it. It's like a portfolio of vaccine approach here, which is that as long as it keeps people from having severe illnesses overwhelming hospitals and and you know, hopefully dying like it, it may in the astrosenic a vaccine like still may prove a really important role, especially on a global stage. UM. So when you think about that and then you know these these forthcoming US results, what do what do we expect? Like, is there any sense that you know there could be

just more confusion? More at a equals more confusion definitely. I mean the US you know you mentioned the you know, the U S data. So this is going to be from trials of tens of thousands of participants, UM, and that's going to be UM coming out in the coming weeks. I think that's going to be closely scrutinized and pivotal for the two UK partners. And I think about a quarter of the participants in that study are older than sixty five, so we should get a good indication of

the protection it offers older adults. UM. So you know, astra Zeneca is keen to demonstrates its potency and older people. And I think an FDA decision UM we've reported UH is expected as early as April. So this is going to be a key stretch for UM, for ASTRA and Oxford. And as you say, I think you alluded to it. I think it's overlooked sometimes how much the world is counting on this back scene. I mean it's huge, assuming

it's it's it's rolled out and there aren't for the delays. Yeah, yeah, and listen all the doctors that we talked to say, you're going to need multiple tools in that toolkit, that COVID toolkit in order to get controlled. Jil Weber, thank you so much, Editor Bloomberg Business Week. UH, and of course James Peyton healthcare reporter. Check out his story in Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol

Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. Well, that's caught our attention. You were talking about this one of our planning calls today, Tim, about how the capital is being turned or being turned into a fortress, is really kind of bringing on the push to make it a state. And look, DC statehood has been something that liberals and Democrats have wanted for a very long time. The big question is it ever going to happen? Yeah,

So let's put that question to Amanda Colson Hurley. She's politics editor Bloomberg Business Week. She's with us from the nation's capital. Amanda, good to have you here with Tim and myself. So tell us a little bit about your well. First of all, give us a visual. And I know we're on radio, we're on YouTube for those who are also watching there. But give us the visual of what DC is like right now? Sure? Um. So I actually went down to the area around the Capitol on Sunday

and walked all around. Um, the capital as well as a number of the well known landmarks nearby, like the U. S. Supreme Courts, the Library of Congress, Um, are all behind a big sense seven fts hall fence tops in most parts with these coils of razor wire. Um. There are troops patrolling, um, you know, stationed every I would say, every d two hundred feet or so, little clump clumps of of troops. Um. And so really there's this kind of compound now on Capitol Old it's about three miles

in circumference. So, um, it's a very uh dramatic difference from that area if anyone has you know, been there before as a tourist or as a local. Uh, you know, with used to be quite open obviously a great attraction for for visitors. Uh you know, very very famous views of the capital dome. Um. So, uh it's all looking looking pretty different right now. If you're watching us on YouTube right now, you see some of these images that that Amanda took, that with that she took and she

sent to us. Um, Amanda, I gotta ask what the connection is here with with DC statehood? Right, the relationship between the federal government and the district and and law enforcement. Well right as as you said, Uh, now, the push for statehood in DC is not something that's frown up overnight. I mean it's been years decade that uh you know, some activists have been pushing for DC to become a state. Um.

But I think, uh, a couple of things happened. First of all, the Democrats won the White House and both houses of Congress, although they controlled the Senate very narrowly, and this gave statehood advocates really the best kind of window that they've had in a long time, uh, probably ever. Um, more. You know, a prominent Democrats have said they support statehood in recent years. President Biden has said in the past that d C should be a state. Uh so there

is some kind of momentum. And I think meanwhile, the events of January six, uh, you know, left a lot of people in DC, both the kind of elected local leaders there and just regular residents, uh, you know, feeling more ad ODT with the federal government. And this sense kind of symbolizes that, right. Um, you know, it was imposed. Uh, this temporary senses there now was imposed uh immediately, Uh, and people kind of understand that it needs to be there.

I think it reassured people, especially in the initial days after the riot. But now there's this proposal to put up a permanent sense and uh, you know, as as one person I interviewed said to me, we already don't have any representation in Congress, and now they're kind of walling it off for us from from us. In addition to that, what's the political will to make a change.

And I'm just curious Republicans versus Democrats on this. Yeah. Well, I mean there's a pretty clear split there in that uh, DC statehood is much more favored you know, by Democrats, by liberals. Uh. And part of the reason for that is that, uh, you know, the district, which has seven thousand people now, um, is you know, one of one

of the most solidly democratic voting places in the country. Um. People don't vote for you know, they don't have a voting representative in the House or or senators who can vote. But but they do vote for president. And I think they voted for Joe Biden more strongly than anywhere else

in the country. I mean, there are there are other reasons too, and that uh you know, there are objections on the grounds that it's it would not be constitutional, uh you know, or um, you know, the DC was really intended to be a federal district, so the the the objections are not entirely partisan, but that is definitely part of it. So Amanda, very briefly, Um, look, it makes sense that Democrats want d C to be a

state for politically, it makes sense. But is there a chance that it happens in the near future, any chance at all? And we only have about twenty seconds. Oh we don't we Actually we can have more time with you. I'm sorry, we get more time with you, Amanda. We say, Amanda is On, we were just going to go well, I mean, I think the answer is still pretty six thinct, which is they have their best window they've ever had

right now, but it's still pretty slim. Um. I think, uh, they're not going to get sixty votes in the Senate. Uh to pass in the Senate the past statehood, they would have to sort of either eliminate or kind of work around the filibuster. I think there are you know, ways they could make a rule change where they would

say statehood votes don't need you know, sixty votes. But even that seems like it would be it would require an expenditure of political capital that that perhaps you know, not everyone would be enthusiastic about, even you know, among the Democrats. So it makes me wonder what our forefathers would think. Um, but I do wonder, Amanda Hurley, what kind of a state would it be if it was on its own? Is there a state across the US

that it kind of is similar to? Uh? Well, let's see in population terms, it's the most similar, I believe to Vermont and Wyoming with seven thousand people, but it would be it would have the highest share of of

of black residents. Of of any states. Uh, as I said before, it would be very solidly democratic voting at least you know, for the time being, and it would still it would still have this kind of federal uh district at the very heart of it, where you know, all of the government buildings and the National Mall and monuments would be. So it's not like that's going to go away. That would just shrink and d C would

otherwise kind of have the powers of the state. But I think you know that that means that whatever happens, that tension between the district and the federal government is never going to go away entirely because of that. What about people in Washington, d C. I mean, do do they want this to happen? How do they feel about this? Yeah? I think the last time there was a polar survey den uh support at least for statehood referendum was at

six percent. So um, you know, and a lot of the local political leaders are pretty strong statehood proponents proponents excuse me, um. The non voting congresswoman for the district, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has introduced a statehood bill into the House. Uh. You know, year after year after year. Uh. So and certainly a number, if not all, of the members of the district the DC Council as well support statehood. Um,

it's a pretty common sentiment. Even the DC license plate if you've ever seen it, the standard motto and the license plate is end taxation without representation. So people do feel pretty strongly about Yeah, that's pretty clear. What about people like beyond DC, like the rest of the country are people did they do they have any strong feelings about it? Yeah? I think in the rest of the country, I think a lot of people sort of aren't don't think a lot you know, as understandably about the issue

and what it means to district residents. I think the last time there was a Gallop poll a couple of years ago, and support for d C statehood was not very high. It was I think around thirty percent or even lower. And Um, a lot of people feel that maybe, you know, it shouldn't be a state, that maybe because they think it's you know, very small, or or that it's uh you know, maybe they think it's for partisan reasons only, that that people would would want it to

become a state. Uh So, Yeah, it's not an issue that I would say has attracted really broad support outside of the DC area. Are there are there certain members of Congress right now, um, who are sort of surprising on the issue, like is this Are there any Republicans who support this or do they know this is just

so dangerous politically? That's a good question. I'm actually not aware if any Republicans have come out and said, you know what, DC residents should be able to, you know, have representation in Congress to um and look there there there. It is dangerous politically for them because it would the margins right now are razor tight. And if DC were to become a state, think about who that enfranchises, right, a group of voters who largely voted as you mentioned

Amanda for vice for President Biden now uh. And and also it would give them senators who would likely be Democrats and really change the balance of power. That's right, I mean the DC senators if it had them, would almost certainly be Democrats. You know, two Democrats, which would you know, in the current situation easily you know, tip control of the Senate, you know from from split right, you know, easily tip it over to the Democrats and

giving them a kind of margin. So so yeah, I do think that it's kind of a paradox of the current situation for statehod advocates. But while having this democratic trifecta in Washington gives them this opportunity that they're excited about.

You know. Having the fifty split also probably illustrates for for Republicans and for other opponents, just just how much of a difference it would make, uh if if the district were to become the state, and you know how that would change the political calculus and does it open the door then for Puerto Rico or something. I don't know, like who knows, um, but it's very provocative. Uh, and those visuals. I highly recommend everybody to go to Bloomberg

dot com and see a little bit of that more. Amanda, Thank you, Amanda Coolson Hurley Politics that are at Bloomberg Business Week from the nation's capital. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic

from Bloomberg Radio. We had a big story, a big business story over the past week, and this is about married International naming uh Tony Capuano as chief executive officer, tapping someone who is well known to the company to really lead this hotel giant's recovery after the COVID nineteen pandemic. So we are delighted to welcome Tony to Bloomberg Business WEEKI Jones is on the phone in Pathesda, Maryland. Tony, great to have you here with Tim and myself. How

are you? And I have to say, Um, many of us here at Bloomberg we've been thinking about you and the Marriott family after the loss of Arnie Sarns and he was always always so generous with his time to so many of us here at Bloomberg, and especially over the last year when we know personally professionally he was dealing with so much. Well, thank you, Carol, and thanks for having me back. It's obviously been a tough week

for all of us. I talked to our team around the world over the last few days, and the two words that I really thought about were reflection and resolve. All of us are reflecting on the this this terrible loss, the loss for Arnie's family, the loss for the extended Marriott family, and the loss for the business community more broadly, as as you suggested, but I think there is a

real resolve here. Um. This is a company that is approaching its anniversary, and we've been through recessions and nine eleven and the Great Financial Crisis and the pandemic, and it's a company that has the resolve to continue to build and grow and create opportunities for our folks and really help the company realize it's promise. But it's been a difficult week, no, and you've really all been on our minds, UM. And you talk about family, and you

think about the Marriott family, your franchise owners. You treat them like they are family members. Tell me how they are doing in this environment and what it looks like, uh, going forward this year and then beyond. Well, the pandemic is obviously a historic and terrible crisis from a whole host of perspectives. The travel industry has been hit particularly hard, and a lot of the weight of that that impact has fallen on the shoulders of our owners and franchises. UM.

They are under tremendous financial pressure. UH. Some of the hotels. At the outset of the pandemic, we had hundreds of hotels clothes on a global basis, we were running twelve percent occupancy, and that created great distress for our owner community. As we've seen through the last number of months, we are seeing slow and steady recovery, particularly domestically in drive to destinations, interestingly China, which seems to have its arms

relatively around the virus. We're seeing occupancy levels approaching pre pandemic, which is quite encouraging and maybe represents a bit of a roadmap for the rest of the world. But at the same time, we continue to see instances where there's a spike in infection rates and a given market, and it has a pretty stark chilling impact on the pace of demand growth. Tony, you ran the hotel, the you

ran the company's hygiene initiative. What should customers expect if they haven't traveled to a Marriott property in a few years or since the pandemic started. How will that experience be different post pandemic? I think in a few ways. I think really starting during the booking process, when they go to Marriott dot com to to make their reservations.

There are pretty thorough and transparent disclosures about any modifications we've made to the operations of a given hotel, whether there are outlets that are closed, that have limitations on capacity or modified hours. When they arrive, they will see every one of their fellow guests and every Marritt associated masks.

They will see electrostatic cleaners disinfecting the public areas. They will have optionality around whether they want daily housekeeping, but they know that when they arrive in their room for the first time, that there is a hospital grade level of cleaning that's been done to that room before their arrival, and they will experience a lot of advances that we've made from a technology perspective to make it as touchless

an environment as possible. We've made some pretty significant upgrades to the Bonvoy app and the ability to check in remotely, to order room service remotely. Uh, there's a chat function to talk to the hotel staff if there are service requests, and so I think those are the most significant changes. How much of it stays with us? Tony, Listen, you're someone who I know used to travel. I'm assuming a lot, and we can talk about how much traveling you've been doing.

I used to travel a lot, haven't done much in twelve months. How much of what changes in the hotel industry, the hospitality industry really stays with us longer term? Like it sounds like some of the digitization in the apps like that to me, sounds like a great thing. Um, I'm hoping there's a day when I can walk into a hotel lobby and I don't have a mask on, and I don't have to be so worried, and I

like housekeeping. I'm just gonna say so, I'm just curious how how much stays with us M Yeah, you know, all of these decisions are often informed by what we hear from our guests. But I think your intuition is right. When I look across all the changes we've had to make in response to the pandemic, I think the technological advances, the optionality of touchless experiences, I think those will continue

post pandemic. Uh. The nice thing will be to your point, we all aspire to get to a place where no one has a mask, there are no plexiglass barriers, and then it will really be based upon guest preference. There are some guests that love to go to the front desk, engage with our associates, get local restaurant recommendations. And there are others that want to check in, get a mobile key, and go straight to their room. And I think we all look forward to the day where we can offer

both of those options to our guests. Hey, Tony, we saw something really interesting happen at the beginning of the pandemic. When lockdown started back in March, Airbnb really struggled, and they struggled very quickly and laid off employees. And then a few months later the company really started to recover as as people wanted to spend a long time in homes away from their primary residences. I'm wondering how you think about Airbnb and how you're thinking about competition from

Airbnb over the next few years. Well, Tim, we um, as you know, in two thousand nineteen, we launched Marryott Homes and Villas, uh not with an eye towards going

head to head with Airbnb. I don't think we'll find ourselves in the business of traditional home sharing or couch surfing or any of those areas, um, but we've really focused on the upper end of the market and whole home rentals, and we think the value proposition that that we offer is really predicated on consumer confidence around safety, a service level that our customers expect, and a linkage to the Bonvoy loyalty program. And since that two thousand

nineteen launch, where we had about two thousand homes. We've grown to over homes. We think, in for a few short months, will be on every continent. And the thing we like about that business we hear from our customers that for very specific trip types, they like the notion of whole home rentals, and by launching this platform, it allows us to keep them within the Marriott ecosphere. Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, you know, Tony, one thing I want to ask you. You guys have so many different

brands under your umbrella. There's the Rich Carlton, there's St. Regis, there's the w There's Sheridan, there's Home and Village. I mean, there's just so many. Does everything stay with you going forward? Or do you kind of take this time to look at the business and say, maybe we do some consolidation of brands. I knew each brand kind of has its its market, but I do wonder how you look and

maybe change the business tweak it going forward. Carol, We actually love the breadth of our brand portfolio, and I think we like it because of the choice that it offers, certainly the choice to our consumers, but also to our owners and franchisees. We find from a consumer perspective. Depending on trip type, they may choose one of the hotels in our portfolio in the economy tire. Then they may plan of family vacation and go to a luxury resort.

And similarly, the vast majority of our owner community are multi unit owners and they would like to continue to grow their portfolios within the Marriott family. Having that breadth of choice gives them lots of options as they look to continue to invest in the Marriott flags. So Tim and I Tony cannot wait to get back on a plane for fun for work, I cannot wait. I've missed it. Have you been traveling much for traveling for our work?

Are traveling at all? I have, although I think the last time I was in studio with you, you were shaking your head at a number I shared with you that I had been traveled two hundred and twenty five nights the prior year. I'm obviously at a small fraction of that today. And unfortunately, because of some of the borders that are closed, I'm not traveling internationally nearly as

much as I would like. But I've been in New York, I've been in Los Angeles, I've been in Miami visiting our teams and our associates across the country, and Uh, I have my passport and my my back pocket, and I am ready as soon as some of the borders start to open. I'm jealous business travel. How long do you think before it really comes back to what we've seen,

what we saw pre pandemic. Well, there are, as you know, Carol, there are lots of opinions out there about whether we've seen some sort of permanent change in the demand for business travel, and and time will tell which those opinions is accurate. As we talk to our customers around the world, we certainly think leisure will lead the recovery, but we are already seeing green shoots for business transient demand, and we think fundamentally that is a business that will come

back strong. What we hear from our customers not dissimilar to you and Tim's comments. They miss being on the road, they miss visiting their their business partners, and maybe most importantly, they miss visiting their customers. And so we're we're quite optimistic about the long term UH demand for business travel. Very briefly, the only other thing I would say to you is sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was just gonna say the one thing that may shift a bit carol

about business travel. As folks have gotten more and more comfortable conducting business over Zoom or Microsoft teams, they have started to learn that perhaps they can do a better job blending leisure in business travel. And so there will certainly be certain business purposes where they need to be in person, but they may also say to their family, let's go for three or four days of vacation and I'll carve out a day in the middle and conduct

business via technology. All right, great stuff, listen, thank you so much. Are you two so gracious with your time? We really appreciate it. And again we're thinking about all of you guys over at Marriott. Tony be well, stay safe. Tony Capuano he is chief executive officer at Married International. On the phone from Bethesda, Maryland. I'm ROC journal. Yeah, but you let me drive. No, no, no, no, honey, please, I'll do the right rivel. I want to drive, Just drive.

It's the questions. Keep trying. This is the drive to the globe. That's Bloomberg Radio. All right, Just about eleven minutes left in today's trading session. Another day where we setting selling and then buyers coming back. Into the trade. Tim, So let's get to Dan Morgan, VP and senior portfolio manager over at the Nova's trust company. They've got roughly twenty point six billion in assets under management. He's with us once again on the phone in Atlanta. Dan, Good

to have you here with us. How you doing, Hi, Carol? Hi? Tim? How are you happy New year? Happy New Year? And have we not talked to you since? I guess not yet. We did a bunch of stories kind of in the you know, Kalen the last year, but then things got crazy with the election and so but we're back today talking chips. Yeah, talking to Well listen, this is a big story and video is going to be out after

the closing bow. But we are all focused here at Bloomberg, watching the administration, watching the industry because these chips shortages. What do we need to know about this and what needs to be done? Well, you're right, you know what, Carol's really interesting because last time we talked, we talked about how a large percentage of chips are actually built

outside the US, right over in the Pacific RIM. We have all the engineering, marketing and design skills here, but we're actually most of our plants are fabulous, which means we don't produce the chips here, And there was actually

you and I talked about it. Then all of a sudden, I noticed a couple of weeks ago, in the last ten days, all the chip companies got together and signed a letter and sent it to President Biden saying, you know, we need to start building chips here in the US, and how better way to get rid of some of these shortages than to have control of your supply and right now, unfortunately we don't have that, and that's what's

causing these shortages and these problems. But of course, Carol, you and I were already ahead of the head of the ball here in terms of identifying that issue before it became a major story. Hey, dan Um, just in the last few minutes the NBC reporting that GM says the worst of the global chip shortage may be behind it. Is that something that that you're seeing at all? Well?

I think so. I mean, if we think about what's happening in the semiconductor business right now in terms of the overall cyclical recovery, and you think about let's say, autos and industrials which have been coming back very strongly, and I know At one point we had some shutdowns right with some of the auto manufacturers where they couldn't even deliver certain models because they couldn't get the chips.

So slowly, that's starting done fall a little bit. And you know, if we look at just a week ago, Analog Devices reported numbers and their auto division was up nineteen in terms of revenues. So I think that's getting behind us and things are getting better. But it'd be great if we could move those facilities here to the US and we wouldn't have any problems. Yes, everything would be some entirely. Oh that it were so okay, But Dan, wait a minute, Listen, you're much smarter than I when

it comes to chips. There's lots of different kinds of chips. Are you talking about that we need to bring all kinds of chip manufacturing back to the United States? Well, you're right. I mean we talked about the autos industrials. One thing we always say, Carol, is that not every

chip company is exactly the same. So I mean, when I say every it would just be good to have a larger percentage of the chips produced here domestically to kind of meet some of these areas that are really going to continue to be kind of secular growth stories.

And we talked about this before, Carol and Tim. The cloud, which we all know is a great space gaming and then this huge five G rollout, especially in not only with smartphones with let's say an Apple, but also from the communications infrastructure, you know, perspective in terms of rolling out the base stations in terms of five G. So I don't know if we can get all of these areas here in the US domestic, but if we could get a larger percentage because I think at this point

we talked about this before, Carl, I think it was only it was being produced outside it was a huge Yeah. Okay, so let's talk more in video company reporting earnings after the bell today. Speaking of chips, what would you ask management if you had the opportunity to do so well? I think Tim, you know, obviously we're gonna be following expectations in terms of data center revenue, which is about one point eight eight billion, gaming at two point three

nine billion. I think something that's been kind of hot topic has been how is this acquisitioning is coming along? In return in regards to the arm deal, that was something that's somewhat controversial. Um, it really gives them a leg up in artificial intelligence what they have about a thirty nine percent market share, and they're kind of head of some of these other you know players in that space.

Sy Links is in space Lattice, So it's kind of interesting to see if we can get a little bit more color from management, if that deal will in fact go through. There's been some pushback from some of the other chip makers that's saying, hey, we don't want ARM to be owned by videos. So I think that's could be on the center stage beyond just hitting those targets in terms of revenues. Is that deal going to go through? Well,

that's where I wanted to go. I mean, there's some big companies are questioning this acquisition, Google, Microsoft, qual Calm. I mean some of the world largest technology companies. They're complaining to US antitrust regulators. When you look at that deal from an antitrust perspective, as an analyst, as an investor,

do you think there's a problem. Well, Carol, you know, for listeners out there that aren't familiar with the model, right, it's kind of like a qualcom right, they are an intellectual property model which is they collect fees in regards to their you know, what they're providing in terms of the designs and so forth. They're not like a company that produces chips, like let's say Intel and you know, turns out microprocessors and sells them to PC manufacturers. So

they're a little bit of a different animal. And the fact that they work with so many other chip companies in terms of providing these this tech, you know, this intellectual property that that could be somewhat of you know, a monopoly right that in video would have over this company that's so different. It's not just you know, like a company that produces more gaming chips. So I think that that is kind of interesting, Carol, Like you said that we're getting this pushback and could this be an

anti trust issue that then derails the deal? Um, because everybody's saying, wow, us to be a sweet deal for end Video, but not so good for everybody else. So do you think it happens? Well, I'm hopeful. I mean, you know, that's why I'm you mentioned Tim in the beginning about what we want to hear from management. I think that's got to be on center stage, right. How's that deal coming along? What what's the issues with the d o J or you know, antitrust issues and if

that you know, will consummate. So I'm I'm hopeful and optimistic they can execute the deal. I think it'd be great for them, as I mentioned an ai um and hopefully they can set up some firewalls where they're not interfering with other companies that are using um ARM in terms of some of these designs, you know, and then creating some sort of competitive advantage. I think that's what everybody's really worried about. Hey, just twenty seconds here the

Tech pullback rally. Any thoughts on it? Well, it's actually, Carroll, because Tech made such a huge run. It did so well. I mean I was just looking at the charts because we've been talking about chips for such a long time. Do you realize that the socks is up two percent from the low that it hit in March? I mean, unbelievable, right, So I mean, I think it's only naturally we're going to get a bit of a pullback. But you know you're talking to the wrong guy, Carol and Jim, because

you know I'm always bullish on technology. Right Listen, As Kathy would said, to us yesterday from Mark Right. Things don't go up in a straight line. Dan Morgan, thank you so much, senior portfolio manager over at s Nova's Trust, joining us once again on the phone from Atlanta. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio

or watch us on YouTube. Search to Bloomberg Global News.