Marriott International Inc., the largest U.S. hotel company by market value, posted higher-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings today, Reuters reported.

Marriott had income from continuing operations of $106 million, or 28 cents per share, compared with a loss of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.

Profits excluding one-time items were 32 cents per share, beating analysts’ average expectation of 26 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. The company’s revenues fell to $3.4 billion from $3.8 billion. Analysts had expected revenues $3.2 billion.

“The international markets will show a quicker pace of recovery,” said FBR Capital Markets analyst Patrick Scholes. “The overall theme is Marriott continues to see things improving.”

Though decreasing demand for business travel over the past 18 months has hurt hotel operators such as Marriott, which rely on corporate customers to fill rooms midweek, in the past two weeks three major hotel operators – Marriott, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Wyndham Worldwide – have reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings.

“Between when these companies last reported in early October until now, demand trends of the hotel business simply got stronger than people expected, especially in December,” Scholes said.

“Even adjusting for easier year-over-year comparisons, business travel showed signs of improvement, particularly in international markets,” said Marriott CEO J.W. Marriott in a statement.

Marriott International operates the Marriott, Courtyard and Residence Inn chains. It expects first-quarter earnings of between 15 cents and 21 cents per share, and calls for growth this year to come from hotels outside North America.