John Arabia
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thanks, Mark. The fourth quarter continued the positive operating trends of 2010 with improving RevPAR led for the second consecutive quarter by average rate increases for the portfolio. Pro forma RevPAR increased 8.3% for the portfolio in Q4 to $111.61 as a result of a 4.4% increase in average daily rate and a 2.5% increase in occupancy. For the year, RevPAR was up 4.8% comprised of 2.7% increase in occupancy and a 1% increase in rate. The increase in portfolio RevPAR in Q4 was driven by improvements in several room segments. Business Transient revenue, by far the highest rated segment, was up 14.4%. Group revenue was up 5.7%, and Leisure and Discount Transient revenue was up 3.9%. Lower rated contract and other revenue was up 12.4% in Q4, but represents only 3.8% of our total portfolio room revenue and the increases were concentrated at our three airport hotels. These positive trends and segmentation accelerated throughout the year. As expected in the early stages of recovery, rate increases are the result of shifts in segmentation from lower-rated leisure and other to higher-rated business and group. But more importantly, from shifts to higher rate categories within segments. In the fourth quarter, corporate and premium demand was very strong. Room nights in these two categories increased 19% at a rate 7% higher than Q4 2009, resulting in a 27% increase in rooms revenue coming from the highest transient rate categories. In addition, special corporate revenue was up over 14% in the quarter. Q4 also continued the positive trend of accelerated short-term group bookings. In the quarter for the quarter, group room nights booked increased 28% compared to Q4 2009. These trends also accelerated throughout the year. 2011 group revenue pace continues to improve. As of Q4, group revenue pace is up slightly versus the same time last year, representing continued improvement from Q1 of 2010 when 2011 pace was off over 15%. In Q4, pro forma EBITDA margins for our portfolio improved 398 basis points with approximately half of the increase due to the successful property tax appeals. For the year, EBITDA margins were up 153 basis points. Cancellation and attrition fees in Q4 were up just 13% versus 52% for the full year, a dramatic improvement and a strong indication of improved group revenue actualization. Total food and beverage revenue in Q4 was up 2.9%. Food and beverage department margins increased 153 basis points in the quarter. For the year, food and beverage revenues were up 2.2% with margins up an impressive 168 basis points. The margin improvement in both Q4 and the full year came from improved profitability in the property restaurant outlets and room service where margins for the full year were up over 400 basis points on just a 1% increase in revenue. For the year, we were able to reduce portfolio kitchen costs by almost $1 million. As we've mentioned before, outlet profitability has been a particular focus of our asset managers for the past year, so these results are very rewarding. As a testament to our operator's continued focus on cost containment efforts in 2010, I wanted to share a few highlights. Portfolio labor and benefit cost in 2010 were up just 1.5% in spite of higher occupancy. Sales per man hour improved 4.7% in 2010. Man hours per occupied room improved 5.4% for the year, and support costs per available room including property level G&A, repairs and maintenance, utilities and sales and marketing were up 3.3% due mainly to bonus accruals and Marriott sales initiatives. Full year property taxes are $4.9 million lower than 2009 after successful property tax appeals at the Atlanta Renaissance and the New York Courtyards, as well as beneficial reassessments at our Chicago hotels. Turning to CapEx. We're fortunate that we entered the downturn with a mostly renovated portfolio, allowing us to appropriately curtail capital spending without negatively impacting business. In 2010, we invested approximately $31.5 million in the portfolio, including $10.6 million of owner funded capital with the balance coming from property level reserves. Last quarter, we detailed the $45 million renovation and repositioning project we've developed for the Marriott St. Thomas Frenchman's Reef Resort. This Marriott flagship hotel will become Marriott's premier group and transient Caribbean resort. The repositioning will provide significant rate potential, improved operating efficiency and dramatic energy efficiency and savings. We described the key elements of this exciting project last quarter, and we've included the description in our press release. The project will commence May 1 and conclude in October. Two of the four resort buildings will be closed, approximately 300 rooms, during the seasonally slower period and will impact EBITDA by approximately $5.5 million in 2011. Now on to acquisitions. As Mark said, we've been very active this year. We acquired three hotels in 2010: the 821-room Minneapolis Hilton, the Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan's Chelsea district and the Charleston Renaissance. We also acquired the first mortgage secured by the 443-room Allerton Hotel on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Two of the four acquisitions were off-market. The four acquisitions put $325 million of our investors capital to work accretively. We recently announced that we contracted to purchase at completion a development project at 42nd and Broadway in Times Square. The hotel will be branded and will be between 250 and 400 rooms, representing an investment of $115 million to $180 million depending upon the final approved room count. On a pro forma basis, the three acquisition hotels grew RevPAR 11.5% and EBITDA margins 287 basis points in 2010, significantly outperforming our underwriting. We'll continue to be active on the acquisition front, and we'll remain disciplined in our underwriting. The three hotels acquired last year were bought at cap rates on budgeted 2011 NOI at 8.3%. DiamondRock continues to have an exciting pipeline of acquisition opportunities. We are seeing a number of motivated sellers come to market, particularly as debts mature. We anticipate debt trend will continue. Today, we're actively pursuing eight projects with the value of over $500 million. These opportunities are in a broad range of markets, such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Manhattan and Miami. The acquisition market remains very competitive and consummating these and other opportunities will remain challenging. But we anticipate a healthy acquisition environment in 2011, and we have a clear strategy, improving sourcing ability with a proving closing record to capitalize on it. The recovering lodging market as demonstrated by accelerating positive trends we've discussed should persist as increasing business investment, recovering consumer confidence and constrained industry supply provide a very healthy environment for sustained growth in the lodging industry. Mark?