Marriott International, the US-based hotel group, has reported second quarter profits of US$186m (£101m, 146m euro), a 35 per cent increase on earnings from the same period last year.

Revenue rose by 7 per cent to US$2.85bn (£1.5bn, 2.2bn euro) and the company currently has 80,000 rooms worldwide either under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development – an improvement of 20,000 on last year’s figure.

JW Marriott Jr, Marriott International’s chair and CEO, said: “Across our portfolio, and throughout our global system, business in exceptionally strong. Business transient and group demand in Western Europe was very strong in advance of this summer’s World Cup competition.”

Marriott Jr said he expected operations to continue to thrive and that the company expects to open 25,000 new rooms this year.

Meanwhile, Marriott has launched a pilot scheme at 21 of its US hotels to help staff with their English.

The programme will use the Sed de Saber (Thirst for Knowledge) Spanish/English language system.

David Rodriguez, executive vice president of human resources at Marriott, said: “We believe that the Sed de Saber programme will be of tremendous benefit to both our staff and managers, helping them to improve their ability to communicate with one another and with guests.”

English is the second language for about 60 per cent of staff at one of the hotels under the pilot scheme, the Residence Inn, Pentagon City, Virginia. Yoseline Martinez, housekeeping inspector at the hotel, said: “My idea was always to advance, but there are challenges when you speak a different language. I’ve tried Sed de Saber. I can use it in my home to learn together with my family.”

Marriott plans to expand the scheme into other hotels across all markets in the US. Details: www.marriott.com and www.retentioned.com