NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Marriott International Inc. on Thursday reported a third-quarter loss due to a significant write-down in its timeshare business.

    The company reported a loss of 466 million U.S. dollars, or 1.31 dollar a share, compared with a profit a year ago of 94 million dollars, or 25 cents a share.

    Excluding the timeshare loss, the company's earnings of 15 cents per share were better than Wall Street's target of 13 cents.

    Marriott revenue totaled 2.5 billion dollars in the third quarter, down from 3 billion dollars for the third quarter of 2008.

    The company's revenue per available room, a common industry metric, declined 23.5 percent worldwide for its company-operated properties.

    The company, which has 3,200 hotels around the world, has cut costs through buyouts, shorter employee hours to counter the financial crisis.