Marriott International yesterday downgraded its earnings estimates as the hotel group cautioned that deteriorating US business travel would soften demand into next year.

Income from continuing operations in the three months to June 13 was $153m, down from $175m in the same quarter last year.

Marriott shares, which have already lost a quarter of their value this year, fell $1.40 to $24.54 in midday trading, their lowest price in nearly four years.

Although revenue per available room - the industry standard for measuring growth - achieved double-digit growth in international markets such as the Middle East, Central and South America and parts of Asia, US revpar rose only 1.4 per cent. Worldwide revpar rose 5.6 per cent.

Marriott, which operates more than 3,000 hotels across brands such as Marriott, Courtyard, Ritz-Carlton and Fairfield Inn, now expects its global revpar to be no better than 2 per cent higher for the full year. It predicts earnings per share of between $1.77 and $1.88 - 21 cents lower than its April forecast.

"While our hotels outside the United States continue to benefit from solid global demand, business conditions have deteriorated in the United States," said JW Marriott, chief executive.

"While there is much uncertainty, we expect weak economic growth and soft US lodging demand to persist into 2009."

The rising oil price, airline capacity cuts and weak US consumer confidence are all starting to affect hotel groups, which withstood the economic downturn in the early months of 2008.

Marriott is more dependent on business than leisure travellers and Arne Sorensen, chief operating officer, said he expected that with regard to airline capacity cuts, there were "more to come than already in place".

Speaking on an analysts' conference call, Mr Sorensen added that hotels and owners and developers were finding market conditions tougher than a year ago.

"It makes it much more likely that the projects that are loose-baked are going to take longer to get baked, and some of these won't happen," he said.

UK trading was similar to that of the US, Mr Sorensen added. "The Middle East is singularly the strongest market in the world, China is pausing a little bit, driven by supply growth and some difficulties with visas," he said.

"Across the globe, there is surprising strength and travel seems to be pretty robust."

Marriott said it was on track to deliver room growth targets for the year, adding 9,000 rooms in the second quarter. Its development pipeline stands at 130,000 rooms.