Jeremy Welter
Analyst · Janney Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question
Thank you Deric. Comparable RevPAR for our portfolio decreased 72.1% during the third quarter of 2020. Hotel EBITDA flow-through was solid at 54.2%. As recovery in the hospitality industry continues to take place, we are monitoring daily occupancy and revenue, which has experienced steady growth. Generally, we are seeing more demand at our select-service hotels with third quarter occupancy down 54.6% compared to full service which was down 62.5%. Something that I have always believed is that we have the best asset management team in the industry. When COVID-19 started sweeping its way across the country, our team took immediate action to mitigate its impact on our portfolio. Admittedly, the last few months have not been easy to navigate but this team has buckled down to better position us for the recovery. We made tough decisions to suspend operations at some hotels, cut staff and ultimately rethink the entire business model for our hotel operations. Recently, we have been busy reopening and driving revenue at many of the 23 hotels that had suspended service. As of today, we've reopened 21 of these hotels. Of the two that still have operations suspended, one is the Hampton Inn Parsippany, which is still accepting reservations and funneling them to our Hilton Parsippany next door. And the other is the Le Meridien, Minneapolis, which is given the – which given the uncertainty in the market is still waiting for demand to come back. While ideally we would have all our hotels open, we're very proud to have 98% of our portfolio back in operation. As previously mentioned, we have had to rethink some of the business models at our hotels during the pandemic. Part of that process has been shifting our focus to securing partnerships with long-term projects, airline crews and universities to provide student housing during upcoming semesters. A number of our hotels have been successful in this endeavor including Marriott Beverly Hills, Hilton Santa Fe and Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown. At our Marriott Beverly Hills, we managed to secure business via the California state government. That piece of business brought in 7,615 room nights and approximately $754,000 in rooms revenue. This combined with our – with other business on the books contributed to hotels' incredible performance of 71.1% occupancy and 50.8% hotel EBITDA flow-through for the third quarter. Another success story has been the Hilton Santa Fe. We were able to successfully launch an Amazon film crew during August and September, which generated 3,467 room nights and $270,000 in room revenue. What is really impressive is that hotel ran 96.9% occupancy for the month of September. In early August, at the Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown, we were able to secure a partnership with Georgia Tech University to provide student housing. During the third quarter that relationship produced 7,614 room nights and approximately $484,000 in rooms revenue. As a result, the hotel ran a 21.8% hotel EBITDA margin. These types of arrangements are great because they solve unique business issues to both universities and hotels are facing due to the pandemic. During the last few years, we have invested significant capital in renovating our hotels – our portfolio to maintain competitiveness. During the third quarter, we completed the guest room renovation at the Marriott Bridgewater. Looking ahead to the final quarter of 2020, these investments will provide us with a competitive advantage while our industry weathers the storm brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, our capital investment strategies will allow us to allocate capital more shrewdly for the remainder of the year. Looking ahead, one area that we expect that may have a strong recovery is the Washington D.C. market, which represents approximately 11% of our total revenues. First, we have the presidential inauguration coming in January 2021, from which our assets should benefit; second, Amazon's HQ2 is being built right next door to a number of our hotels, some of which will be within walking distance. As a result, we look forward to significant improvement in that important market. That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the call for Q&A.