Anthony Capuano
Chief Executive Officer at Marriott International
Thanks, Jackie, and good morning, everyone. Over the past few months, I've been fortunate to have spent the majority of my time back on the road. I've been speaking with our associates, meeting with customers, attending industry conferences and engaging with our owners and franchisees as I've been doing this week here in Orlando. My travels have taken me to Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America and many parts of the country here in the US. It's been wonderful to see so many people traveling again and to witness firsthand the resilience of global traffic. This resilience was clearly evident during the third quarter.
The strong global RevPAR recovery momentum we experienced in the spring continued into the summer, thanks to sustained robust leisure demand, and impressive average daily rates. July worldwide RevPAR reached a new peak since the beginning of the pandemic, down just 23% compared to 2019 levels. Occupancy in July rose to 61%, an increase of over 500 basis points from June, while ADR was down less than 3% versus July of 2019. In August, global demand softened a bit, primarily as a result of the impact of the Delta variant and the subsequent delay in many companies return to the office. However, demand stabilized in September before rising once again in October.
Recovery trajectories remain varied by region and have been on -- RevPAR in all of our regions except for Greater China improved in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. The recovery in Greater China has been choppier given its zero COVID-19 policy. Mainland China was the first market to see RevPAR returned to pre-pandemic levels a quarter ago and RevPAR rose again in July to 11% above July of 2019, but demand then fell significantly in August after the government imposed strict lockdowns in response to small regional COVID outbreaks, leading to a meaningful decline in RevPAR for the month. Demand then swiftly rose again in September as soon as those restrictions were lifted.
In the US and Canada, third quarter RevPAR performance improved meaningfully to down less than 20% compared to the same quarter 2019. Results were driven by elevated leisure demand and ADR nearly at 2019 levels. Total occupancy reached 67% in July, retrenched a bit in August and held steady in September before rising again in October. Third quarter RevPAR in the US and Canada improved across all brand tiers and all market segments, primary, secondary and tertiary. While primary markets are still the most challenged, these markets saw the largest RevPAR gains during the quarter as demand in gateway cities like New York continued to rise.
Group demand accelerated nicely in the US and Canada in the quarter. Group room revenues for the quarter were down 46% versus the third quarter of 2019, a significant improvement compared to the second quarter's decline of 76% versus the same time period in 2019. Group bookings have also been increasing. In the year, for the year, US managed Group bookings beat 2019 levels for each of the last five months through October, as event booking windows have shortened during the pandemic. Most importantly, Group ADRs continue to rise and for full-year 2022 is currently pacing nearly 4% above pre-pandemic levels.
In the US and Canada, special corporate was the segment most impacted by the Delta variant during the quarter, given the delay in return to office timelines. As a reminder, the special corporate segment represents business transient customers who booked at pre-negotiated rates. We estimate this segment has been accounting for roughly half of business transient room nights, although we can't know with certainty the trip purpose for transient bookings other than special corporate. The special corporate segment, therefore, gives us the best indication of business demand trends. Special corporate bookings showed steady recovery each month this year until we saw a slight pullback in the back half of the third quarter. The gradual upward trajectory returned in October with bookings versus 2019 growing each week during the month. Special corporate bookings are currently down less than 40% compared to the same timeframe in 2019.
From conversations with our corporate customers, we know that many of them, especially those with more client-facing jobs, are increasingly eager to get back on the road. We expect a recovery in business transient to gradually continue as more workers return to the office, guest visitation policies are relaxed and greater numbers of employees are permitted to travel again. We also expect the traditional business trip to continue to evolve with a blurring of the lines between business and leisure travel.
In the Middle East and Africa, third quarter RevPAR came in less than 20% below pre-pandemic levels, led by strong performance in the UAE, and Qatar. RevPAR topped third quarter 2019 levels in Qatar, thanks to preparations for the 2022 World Cup, while RevPAR in the UAE was nearly even with 2019, largely benefiting from staycations. Europe's recovery took another large step forward in the quarter. Occupancy doubled in one quarter to reach 47% as many key international borders reopened, entry restrictions eased and almost all hotels were once again open. The Caribbean and Latin America posted third quarter RevPAR of 18% below 2019 levels. Demand for our resort properties remained robust, particularly in the Caribbean and Mexico. Urban destinations, while slowly improving, still lagged. Historically, the third quarter is the region's softest quarter seasonally, yet many resort saw record occupancy and ADRs, and our luxury ADR in the region for the quarter was ahead of 2019 levels by 32%. The recovery in Asia-Pacific, excluding China, advanced more slowly in the third quarter. Results were mixed across countries, though, India saw a meaningful improvement in demand as COVID caseloads dropped and restrictions lifted. Encouragingly, many countries in the region have recently taken significant steps to reopen travel, such as announcing new vaccinated travel lanes, demand in October accelerated nicely as a result.
Developer sentiment continues to improve in step with the global recovery and the pace of signings has picked up meaningfully this year. At the end of September, our pipeline stood at nearly 477,000 rooms. Gross room openings through the third quarter of this year exceeded the first nine months of 2019 by 25% and surpassed the same period last year by almost 50%. And deletions from the pipeline remain at the low end of our long-term trend.
Conversions remain a meaningful driver of rooms growth, given our impressive roster of conversion-friendly brands and the meaningful top and bottom line benefits associated with being part of the Marriott system. We've already added more conversion rooms in the first nine months of this year than we did in all of 2019. Accounting for over 30% of all signings in the first nine months of this year compared to around 15% of signings pre-pandemic, conversions are expected to be a significant contributor to growth over the next several years. For the full-year, we still expect that gross rooms growth will accelerate to around 6%. With more clarity around our estimated full-year deletions, we now expect 2021 net rooms growth will be approximately 3.5%. The attractiveness of our brands are increasing development activity, our momentum around conversions and our industry-leading pipeline give us confidence that we will see meaningful rooms growth going forward.
We expected over the next several years we will get back to our typical mid-single-digit net rooms growth that we demonstrated prior to the pandemic. However, the exact timing is hard to predict and will depend on a host of factors related to the global recovery, including the lending environment and evolving supply chain dynamics. Supply chain issues have pushed some openings and construction starts out a few months but the deals continue to move forward.
Turning to Marriott Bonvoy, global enrollments driven by digital sign-ups accelerated during the quarter, growing the program to 157 million members as of the end of September. We remain extremely focused on fostering engagement with our members. We recently rolled out numerous successful special promotions, such as our second annual Week of Wonders and the relaunch of Marriott Bonvoy Moments, where members can use points to gain VIP access to a broad variety of experiences. Additionally, we just announced several loyalty program updates, including status, award and point extensions, which should further encourage members to stay with us as global travel rebounds. Since the start of the pandemic, we've grown our share of bookings coming through our digital and other direct channels. Over 76% of our global room nights in the first three quarters of the year were booked through our direct channels, with around half of these booked through our digital channels.
In closing, I firmly believe that the long-term recovery is on track. The resilience of travel and consumers' desire to visit our 7,900 global properties is undeniable and I'm looking ahead with a lot of optimism about our future.
At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Leeny. Leeny?
