Travel + Leisure Co.

good morning and welcome to the fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call for travel and leisure co formerly Wyndham destinations after the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer period if you would like to ask a question during this time simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad if you would like to withdraw your question please press the pound key on your telephone keypad as a reminder ladies and gentlemen This conference call is being recorded. If you do not agree with these terms, please disconnect at this time. Thank you, and I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Agnew. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ashley, and good morning. Before we begin, we'd like to remind you that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and the forward-looking statements made today are effective only as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements. The factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in our FCC violence, and you can find a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in today's call in the earnings press release available on our website at investor.travelandleisureco.com. This morning, Michael Brown, our President and Chief Executive Officer, We'll provide an overview of our fourth quarter and full year results. And Mike Hugg, our Chief Financial Officer, will then provide greater detail on the quarter, our balance sheet, and liquidity position. Following these remarks, we look forward to responding to your questions. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Michael.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. This morning, we are pleased to announce another strong quarter to close out 2021. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $228 million and adjusted EPS of $1.19. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $778 million and adjusted EPS was $3.65. Adjusted free cash flow finished the year at $223 million, which was ahead of our expectations, and we resumed share repurchases in the fourth quarter. Including dividends, we returned $134 million to shareholders in 2021. At Wyndham Destinations, gross vacation ownership sales were at the high end of expectations, with tours above our guidance range and continued strong VPGs. In the fourth quarter, VPG was 36% higher than the fourth quarter of 2019, and for the year we finished with a 32% increase from 2019. This strength in VPG is a testament to our best-in-class sales and marketing teams and reflects our focus on higher quality tours. Our receivable portfolio continues to perform, and in the fourth quarter, we released an additional COVID-19 reserve, yielding a net positive adjusted EBITDA impact of $28 million. I would like to highlight a few key metrics from 2021. 28% of total transactions were to new owners, with 65% of these sales to Gen X and millennials. Blue Thread, which is our term for lead generation through our relationship with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, also performed well. Blue Thread sales represented 16% of new owner transactions in the fourth quarter and 14% for the full year, both over 200 basis points higher than the prior year. Turning to the travel and membership segment, Fourth quarter and four-year transactions increased 30% and 61% respectively over the prior year. This segment recovered steadily in 2021 with year-over-year transaction growth each quarter. Exchange transactions make up the largest component with domestic U.S. demand proving very resilient throughout 2021, helping to offset international cross-border travel, which continues to be challenged by pandemic-related travel restrictions. Non-exchange revenue per transactions increased 44% and 38% in the fourth quarter and full year, respectively. Transaction growth has been led by Panorama Travel Solutions. We launched Panorama Travel Solutions in the fall of 2020 with a focus on development of the business model and signing partners. To date, we have closed 18 contracts with a combined total addressable market of 9 million households in North America. Our pipeline of branded and white label clubs continues to grow. In the fourth quarter, we began moving into the activation phase. As an example, the National Association of Realtors Travel Club went live at its national convention in San Diego in November, and in under four months, nearly half a percent of its 1.5 million member base have been activated. As we approach the busy spring and summer travel periods, we have a number of marketing programs with NAR designed to activate additional users. More recently, our team was at the Super Bowl to promote the newly launched platform for the NFL Alumni Travel Club. Although insignificant to our financial results, we are seeing tangible progress, which reinforces our expectation that this business will be a driver of growth in the coming years. Our overall adjusted EBITDA margin was 26% in the fourth quarter and 25% for the full year. We were able to achieve these margins despite a reduction of net interest income, which is due to the reduction of our consumer finance portfolio. To put in perspective the strength of our fourth quarter and full year margin, if we equalize the 2021 portfolio size to 2019 and exclude the EBITDA benefit from the COVID reserve release, Adjusted EBITDA margin would have been 100 basis points higher than the comparative periods in 2019. In 2021, we laid the foundation for the next four years with our stated strategic goals to expand our addressable market, accelerate earnings growth, and increase free cash flow. We acquired the Travel & Leisure brand in January and launched the new subscription-based Travel & Leisure Club. At our investor day in September, we laid out a plan to increase our compound annual adjusted EBITDA growth rate to 11% to 14% through 2025, reflecting continued growth of our cornerstone businesses of Wyndham Destinations and RCI and growing new business extensions into B2B travel clubs and to direct-to-consumer travel clubs. Related to recent travel trends, in late December, we started seeing some near-term hesitation in booking behavior given rising Omicron COVID case counts. Net arrivals and forward bookings were impacted in January. However, as with previous COVID spikes, each successive wave has had a lesser impact on our business, and the rebounds have come faster and stronger. In January, net bookings at our vacation ownership resorts were 8% below 2019, But in the first three weeks of February, net bookings for 2022 were 5% higher than 2019. Exchange is seeing a similar inflection with North American revenue trends swinging positive in February. Internationally, the news continues to improve. Australia has reopened its borders to international travel, and our exchange business in the UK has seen a rebound in demand. We expect international to be slower to rebound with cross-border travel taking longer to get back to 2019 levels. Although the pandemic has presented tremendous challenges, it ultimately has proven the resiliency of our business. Our ownership and member-based model with its recurring fee streams and strong cash generation weathered the dislocation in travel over the last two years. These same strengths will be our tailwind as travel and the economy recover. With the economic recovery, we recognize rising inflationary pressures, but we do not view it as a meaningful risk. In fact, one of the core value propositions of timeshare is locking in the value of future vacation costs at today's prices. We can more readily demonstrate the value of ownership when travel costs are rising, which should help close rates. Our business model also allows us to focus on the lifetime value of new owners through future additional purchases, consumer finance and management fees, as well as exchange membership and transaction fees. As a reminder, 80% of our owners have no loan outstanding and are enjoying their vacation accommodation for the ongoing relatively low cost of their maintenance fees. Turning to our outlook, we expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $160 to $170 million. We're excited to begin 2022 with optimism about the strength of leisure travel. We're focused on delivering the strategy we laid out in September and believe the path to accelerated growth remains clear, broadening the strength of our cornerstone brands and creating a depth of products and services to serve the leisure traveler. For more detail on our performance, I would now like to hand the call over to Mike Hugg.