Jeff Fisher
Analyst · Barclays. Please proceed with your question
That's great. Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everybody. Glad you're on the call here today. As you know, we reported our fourth quarter results and RevPAR finished above the upper end of our guidance range and adjusted EBITDA and FFO beat consensus in the upper end of our guidance range, due to the RevPAR beat, as well as slightly better-than-expected margin performance. As a reminder, we had a very tough fourth quarter due to the comps and significant revenue we earned in 2018 in that quarter, from the gas explosion in North Boston, as well as a huge quarter in San Diego. Within the fourth quarter, RevPAR was down 5% in October, 2% in November and 7% in December. Given the very unusual fourth quarter comps, certain metrics such as overall RevPAR and margin performance, are really not indicative of our current operating environment, especially as we look forward into this year. So I'm going to spend a few minutes talking about what the current trends are that we're seeing in our portfolio and the overall operating environment. Market share was up, yet again, gaining almost 70 basis points for the quarter, which is very encouraging given the amount of new supply, especially new brands that have been introduced into some of our markets. We continue to drive other revenue, which was up $1 million or 31% in the quarter, led by a 27% increase in parking revenue. We firmly believe, we have the best-in-class operating platform, as you've heard before and our collaborative efforts with Island really have paid off over the last couple of years. We're perfectly positioned to quickly roll out revenue enhancement and expense-saving initiatives, properly assess their impact and then decide whether to move forward with those or tweak or cancel initiatives as we analyze those initiatives together with the Island people. This is further supported when you look at some full year operating highlights for 2019. First we minimized operating margin erosion to only 40 basis points, despite a 160 basis point decline in RevPAR. I think this is pretty impressive and I don't think you'll see those kind of results as you look across the peer group. Second, we gained RevPAR index of approximately 60 basis points. And last, we drove other revenue up $3 million or 22%. In this kind of environment, those are the kind of metrics that you ought to be considering and that we continue to push as very important priorities for 2020. Looking at our financial results for the full year, our adjusted EBITDA and FFO per share finished at the upper end of our initial 2019 guidance range, after taking into account the sale of two hotels, which was not factored into our guidance. Despite the 1.5% decline in RevPAR, adjusted EBITDA was only down 0.4%. This performance was driven by our overall superior operating margins, as we've said. On the corporate side our overall leverage declined to 34.1% from 34.7%, as we used proceeds from the sale of two non-core hotels at a six cap, as well as proceeds from a small amount of equity we issued back in early 2019. We also commenced our first ground up hotel development in 2019. Going somewhat against the grain of our peers, we've also been net acquirers of assets over the last three years. We have acquired approximately $200 million of high-quality hotels, and are in the midst of a $65 million development. We have funded $225 million of this growth through the issuance of equity and proceeds from the sale of hotels. Now shifting gears to 2020. Our RevPAR growth range of minus 1.25% to plus 0.25% is reflective of a flat RevPAR environment across the U.S., further impacted by above-average supply growth in the upscale segment. Smith Travel is projecting RevPAR to decline 1.3% for the upscale segment versus flat for the entire industry. Our guidance does not factor in any material adverse impact on lodging demand due to the coronavirus although we have experienced a revenue loss of approximately $200,000 to date this year and that doesn't account for the unknown loss in demand. At the midpoint, our AFFO guidance is down $0.09 or 4.9% compared to last year. Our margins are down approximately 120 basis points, driven primarily by an approximate 5% increase in rooms, labor and benefits on a per occupied room basis, as our industry continues to experience the effects on labor pricing as a result of historically low unemployment. As mentioned on our last call, we're continuing to roll out housekeeping efficiency programs aimed at improving our productivity. Hilton's also rolled out some similar programs being first to do that. And we're investing dollars to reduce our energy usage where the return on investment is worthwhile, and we're enhancing our risk management programs to reduce losses or minimize premium increases. As you know, we try to be conservative in our approach. So hopefully, there's some upside to our estimates because we remain focused, as I said, on maximizing revenue and minimizing margin erosion. Chatham still generates the highest operating margins of all lodging REITs, and we're going to maintain our position at the top in 2020. In 2020, we'll continue to explore asset sales with the intention of using those proceeds to invest in acquisitions or development. Having said that, the acquisition market is pretty thin due to buyer-seller pricing expectations. We'll have a look at a few value-add opportunities, as we've stated previously, and we may develop one or two more hotels over the next several years, if the returns generate the proper risk-adjusted return, compared to buying an asset of similar quality in that same market. Additionally we've talked about our initiatives in adding value by converting existing space in our hotels to a higher revenue-generating activity. And now, we are working on and are about to convert some existing space in our Residence Inn in San Diego, Mission Valley; in our residence inn in Anaheim Garden Grove into further income-producing assets. In this case, similar to our Savannah conversion, small bars being added to the lobby of the hotels offering minimal food service enough to meet obviously local beverage requirements -- liquor law requirements. But with our experience and our success in Savannah, with our bar that is called Toasted Barrel, we are further encouraged by looking at other hotels and trying to roll out similar initiatives. Toasted Barrel, for example, produced revenue of $350,000 and profit of $85,000, a noteworthy 24% margin and a return on our investment to fit out what was otherwise just a pretty much empty meeting room. ROI on that was over 20% just in year one. We're pleased with that result. Our annual dividend is expected to remain at $1.32 per share, a level maintained since midway through 2016, and represents a very attractive today 7.9% yield. We remain comfortable with our current dividend and excluding our development spend we're producing positive free cash flow after dividends and CapEx in 2020. Of course our long-term goal is to increase free cash flow and our strategic efforts are aimed at driving incremental cash flow as I've said wherever we can. As we look forward to 2021 and the opening of our LA development, our free cash flow will increase. With that I'd like to turn it over to Dennis.