Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc

Good day, everyone. My name is Janine, and I will be your lead operator for today's call. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ashford Hospitality Trust fourth quarter 2024 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you will press star one on your touchtone phone, and to withdraw your question, please press star one again. I will now hand the call over to Derek Eubanks, Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's conference call to review results for Ashford Hospitality Trust for the fourth quarter and full year 2024, and to update you on recent developments. On the call today will also be Stephen Z. Gray, President and Chief Executive Officer and Chris Nixon, Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Management. The results as well as notice of the accessibility of this conference call on a listen-only basis over the Internet were distributed yesterday afternoon in a press release. At this time, let me remind you that certain statements and assumptions in this conference call contain or are based upon forward-looking information and are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities regulations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, uncertainties, and known or unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These factors are more fully discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call, and the company is not obligated to publicly update or revise them. Statements made during this call do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Securities will be offered only by means of a registration statement and prospectus, which can be found at www.sec.gov. In addition, certain terms used in this call are non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations of which are provided in the company's earnings release and accompanying tables or schedules which have been filed on Form 8K with the SEC on February 25, 2025, and may also be accessed through the company's website at www.ahtREIT.com. Each listener is encouraged to review those reconciliations provided in the earnings release together with all other information provided in the release. Also, unless otherwise stated, all reported results discussed in this call compare the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31st, 2024, with the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31st, 2023. I will now turn the call over to Steven Zegre. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. After my introductory comments, Derek will review our fourth quarter and full year financial results, and then Chris will provide an operational update on our portfolio. Our fourth quarter performance was highlighted by 3.1% comparable RevPAR growth, 4.6% comparable total revenue growth, and 6.2% growth in comparable hotel EBITDA. These results underscore the impact of the strategic decisions our team has made over the past several quarters and the strength of our high-quality, geographically diverse portfolio. Total revenue growth meaningfully exceeding REVPAR growth is reflective of the efforts that our asset management team and property managers have taken to grow ancillary revenues And that discrepancy widened even further in December, with total revenue growth of 7.7%, outpacing RevPAR growth by 350 basis points. The 6.2% growth in comparable hotel events after the quarter reflects efforts by our property managers to operate more efficiently as margins across the industry have narrowed. Beyond the impressive operating results, we were also very active in the quarter on the investment and capital markets fronts. We announced the conversion of the La Concha Hotel in Key West to Marriott's autograph collection. Upon conversion, it was rebranded to Autograph La Concha, and we've created a distinctive theme and style for the hotel that is commensurate with the higher-end autograph product. This included transforming the lobby, bar, and restaurant, as well as upgrading the exterior, guest rooms, guest bathrooms, corridors, pool, and meeting space. Ideally located in Old Town Key West, The transformation elevated the property into a desirable niche in the high-barrier-to-entry, high-REVPAR Key West market. Post-conversion, we believe the new autographed property should realize a 20% to 30% REVPAR premium compared to pre-conversion, and the hotel recently posted 25% year-over-year revenue growth in the month of January. We also completed a similar conversion at our Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans, converting it to Marriott's tribute portfolio. This project included renovations to guest rooms, guest bathrooms, restaurant, and lobby bar, as well as the extensive exterior work. Located on historic Poydra Street, it has a prime location in proximity to major demand generators in downtown New Orleans. Post-conversion, we expected the new tribute portfolio property to realize a 10% to 20% rev part premium compared to pre-conversion. Impressively, the hotel has exceeded those expectations out of the gate and recently posted more than 45% year-over-year revenue growth in the month of January. In the capital markets, we refinanced our mortgage loan on the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Virginia in November, and in December we extended the mortgage loan for the Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans. Meanwhile, our non-traded preferred stock offering allowed us to raise substantial capital despite a challenging environment, reinforcing our financial position. Building on this success, we are pleased to announce that the offering of our Series J and Series K non-traded preferred stock will close on March 31st, 2025. Looking ahead to 2025, we expect this to be a transformational year for the company, and we have gotten off to a hot start. In January, we closed on the sale of the Courtyard Boston Downtown for $123 million, nearly $400,000 per key. This sale underscores the continued improvement in the hotel transaction markets with a 6.9% trailing cap rate highlighting the intrinsic value within our portfolio. It also provided important deleveraging for our largest loan pool and resulted in significant capital expenditure savings. On February 12th, we completed the refinancing of 16 assets spanning four mortgage loans with final maturities in the first half of the year. This refinancing also enabled us to achieve another significant milestone as we fully repaid the remaining balance on the corporate strategic financing. This accomplishment was the culmination of a comprehensive process that began more than a year ago and included selling over $430 million in hotel assets, refinancing several properties for excess proceeds, and raising approximately $195 million through our non-traded preferred stock offering. These coordinated actions allowed us to successfully retire the strategic financing and open a new chapter for Ashford Trust. With the strategic financing behind us, we are now focused on partnering with our advisor and property managers to execute our recently announced GrowAHT initiative. GrowAHT is a massive strategic initiative designed to drive outsized EBITDA growth and substantially improve shareholder value. GrowAHT revolves around three core pillars, G&A reduction, revenue maximization, and operational efficiency. Under G&A reduction, we plan to significantly lower corporate overhead by cutting management and board compensation, renegotiating advisory fees and expenses with Ashford, Inc., and reducing professional and administrative costs. Our revenue maximization efforts will focus on boosting rooms revenue market share, conducting pricing audits to increase ancillary revenue, and introducing additional revenue streams across our portfolio. Finally, the operational efficiency pillar aims to combat margin pressures by renegotiating vendor contracts, implementing energy saving measures, and optimizing labor. We believe GrowAHT will transform Ashford Trust with the goal of adding $50 million to our run rate corporate EBITDA, an increase of more than 20%. By focusing on disciplined cost control, aggressive revenue strategies, and operational innovation, we are confident we can enhance shareholder value and further strengthen our balance sheet. Completing the repayment of our strategic financing also allows us to definitively move past the challenges of the COVID era. We remain dedicated to maximizing the performance, profitability, and overall value of our hotels, as well as continuing strategic portfolio turnover and ongoing deleveraging. We are very encouraged by the increasingly attractive industry fundamentals, limited supply growth in the coming years, and gradually improving transaction and financing markets. We look forward to updating you on our progress with GrowAHT and the many opportunities that lie ahead for Ashford Trust. I will now turn the call over to Derek to review our fourth quarter and full year financial performance. Thanks, Stephen.