Raymond Martz
Analyst · Wolf Fargo
Thank you, Donna, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today is Jon Bortz, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Fisher, our Co-President and Chief Investment Officer. But before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that our remarks are as of today, April 29, 2026. Today's comments may include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Please review our SEC filings for a detailed discussion of these risk factors and visit our website for reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures mentioned today. Now let's jump into the first quarter financial results. We had an exceptional first quarter with results well above the high end of our outlook across key earnings metrics. Same property hotel EBITDA increased 27.6% to $82.2 million, coming in $8.2 million above the high end of our outlook. Adjusted EBITDA was $73.3 million, up 29.5% from last year and $9.3 million above the high end. Adjusted FFO per diluted share doubled year-over-year to $0.32 and which was $0.09 above the high end of our outlook. So this is a very strong quarter by any measure. Even more important, performance is not narrowly driven. While we had a great setup, the strength was broad across the portfolio and their performance came from both stronger revenues and superb expense control. At the property level, same property occupancy increased 550 basis points, ADR increased 2.8% and RevPAR increased 11.8% and total revenue increased 10.1%. Same-property total expenses increased just 5.6% and driving 327 basis points of hotel EBITDA margin expansion. More than half of the incremental same-property revenue flow through to hotel EBITDA. That reflects the strategic operating initiatives we've been implementing across the portfolio that benefits from our investments in revenue generating in many avenues and strong execution by our property teams and asset managers. The strength extended across the portfolio with 32 exceeding revenue forecast and 34 exceeding GLP forecast in the quarter. In [indiscernible] was exceptional. While benefited from the Super Bowl and a large citywide convention that shifted into the first quarter, all segments, including business and leisure transient were incredibly strong and continue to recover. RevPAR increased a robust 44.5% and hotel EBITDA more than tripled from a year ago, climbing by $11.6 million. Losango also recovered sharply from last year's fire-related disruptions. With RevPAR climbing 31.5% and occupancy growing more than 16 points to 74.6%. Their improvement across LA properties is broad helped by a stronger lease demand and improving entertainment-related group and leisure activity and the ramp-up of our recently renovated and rebranded Hyatt Centric, Delfino in Santa Monica. LA's Q1 same property EBITDA increase, we captured all of the EBITDA loss in the first quarter from last year's files. While San Francisco and L.A. were standout in markets, they were far from the whole story. Our urban portfolio posted RevPAR growth of 14.3%, total RevPAR growth of 12.9% and EBITDA growth of 55.1%. City over Urban Hotels delivered RevPAR growth of 8.7%, driven by a 900 basis point jump in occupancy supported by healthy weekend leisure demand. Chicago also turned in a good quarter with RevPAR increasing 5.6%. Washington, D.C. was our most challenged market in Q1, with RevPAR declining 24.1% and reflecting a very difficult inauguration comparison and continued weakness in government-related travel, though we have seen some recent improvements. Boston was another softer market, with RevPAR down 3% and reflecting lighter citywide calendar, two major winter storms and the rooms renovation of Revere Hotel Boston Common. We expect both markets to improve in the second quarter given the better event calendars. Our resorts also had a very strong quarter, with RevPAR rising 7.5%, total RevPAR increasing 6.7% and EBITDA declining 13.9% and Reserve performance was driven by resilient user demand, healthy on-property spending, favorable holiday timing and the continued ramp-up of our redeveloped assets. We also benefited from an earlier-than-normal spring break, which pulled more spring break travel into March from April. Several resorts delivered double-digit RevPAR gains, including Newport Harbor idle Resort apply Beach Resort and Club, Skamania Lodge, Paradise Point Resort & Spa, [indiscernible] Day Resort and Asana Joya Hotel and Spa. Overall, first quarter demand was encouraging despite heightened geopolitical tensions and increased uncertainty around travel. User demand remained strong, business trends to continue to grow and recover and group was stable. Consistent with broader travel and spending commentary, visibility has shortened somewhat in late March, but we have not seen any material change in booking trends to date. Premium leisure and business travel have remained healthy to date. Weekday RevPAR increased 9.7% overall and 12% in our urban markets, while weekend RevPAR increased 15% overall. Weekend leisure demand remains healthy but the improvements in weekday demand is equally important as it reflects the continued recovery in business transient and group travel and creates more meaningful earnings power as Orbis occupancies rebuild. What losses put out this quarter was the quality of the revenue growth. [indiscernible] revenues again grew up nicely 7.6% overall. Food and beverage revenues increased 7.4% and outlet revenues were up 10.2% and bandwidths and cater revenues increased 4.8%. Guests were not only staying with us in greater numbers. but they are also spending more on property, and that is exactly the kind of revenue mix that supports increased profitability. On the expense side, our strategic operating initiatives again delivered this quarter. Total expenses rose by only 5.6%, while total revenues increased 10.2%. Freediverage revenues rose 7.4%, while food and beverage expenses increased just 3.7%. Sales and marketing expenses, excluding franchise fees, grew only 3.9%, while energy costs actually declined 2.8%. And on a per occupied room basis, total expenses declined 2.8% and total expenses or fixed costs declined 3.2%, demonstrating the favorable benefits of the operating leverage in our portfolio. We are generating more efficiencies from improved labor productivity and technologies, tighter cost controls and continued benefits on property level efforts to reduce energy and water consumption. Some more simply, as revenues improve, our portfolio is flowing more of that upside to the bottom line than it did a year or 2 ago. At a quick point on onetime items because it is important to put this quarter is in a proper context. The Super Bowl contributed about 215 basis points to same-property RevPAR and the recovery loss angles contributed another 285 basis points. Offsetting those benefits, the 2 winter storms reduced RevPAR and by about 115 basis points and the difficult inauguration comparison in Washington, D.C., we reduced it by another 105 basis points. Even after adjusting for those items, same-property RevPAR still grew by roughly 9%, underscoring the overall strength of the quarter. This strong underlying performance translated into higher free cash flow and greater financial flexibility. On the capital side, we invested $11.9 million to our properties during the quarter, including guest room renovations at [indiscernible] and Reversal Boston Common, both of which are now substantially complete. For the full year, we still expect capital investments of $65 in $75 million, which represents a much more normalized run rate and an important tailwind for higher discretionary free cash flow and greater flexibility for debt reduction and share repurchases. We also completed the able first rebranding of Mondrian Los Angeles into the Valor Los Angeles, Perception by Hilton. We believe that strategic change has and will create value for the property, rebranding as an independent franchise hotel with Inturio leverages Hilton's distribution platform pairs it with a strong hospital style operator in Pivot and preserved the distinctive character of psychotic hotel, and we made this change in no cost as franchise-related key money funded the changeover. We appreciate the partnership with both helping and pivot during this strategic transition, and we are excited to work together to drive improved performance at this important property in L.A. Moving to our balance sheet. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio declined to 5.5x from 5.9x at the end of last year. We ended the quarter with $24.6 million of cash and restricted cash along with roughly $641 million of capacity on our revolving credit city. Our weighted average interest rate remained a very attractive 4.1% with approximately 98% of our debt effectively fixed and 98% unsecured. As of the start of the year, we've repurchased over 400,000 common shares at an average price of $12.11 per share. higher EBITDA, improved debt metrics and strong liquidity all moved in the right direction. Stepping back to the first quarter takeaway is clear. Despite heightened macro uncertainty and risks, the quarter demonstrated stronger demand across both urban and resort markets, healthy revenue quality and dispense control. At the same time, we're not assuming the balance of the year will be as visible as the first quarter. Recent events in the Middle East higher fuel prices, more fall off more and broader economic uncertainty, cook pressure, travel demand and booking patterns. However, based on our current booking trends and broader travel and spending commentary, the demand environment remains constructive, particularly for premium leisure and business travel. So while we feel really good about the first quarter and the underlying trend line, we remain appropriately cautious on the balance of the year. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Jon for more color on the quarter, the financings that we're seeing across the portfolio, the broader industry backdrop and our outlook for the balance of 2026. Jon?