Reuters - Marriott International Inc, the largest U.S. hotel company by market value, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by a rebound in business travel.

The company posted net earnings of $83 million, or 22 cents, compared with a net loss of $23 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected Marriott to post earnings of about 20 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 5.4 percent to $2.63 billion. The Bethesda, Maryland-based hotel company's revenue per available room (revPAR) for the quarter fell 0.7 percent.

Lodging companies were hurt in 2009 by the slide in business travel, forcing hotels to cut room rates to attract more guests. But this week, industry data showed revPAR rose in March, the first monthly rise since July 2008.