Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Hilton Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jill Chapman, Senior Vice President, Head of Development Operations and Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Michael. Welcome to Hylton's second quarter 2025 earnings call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that our discussions this morning will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements. For discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see the risk factor section of our most recently filed Form 10-K. In addition, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures discussed on today's call, in our earnings press release, and on our website at ir.hilton.com. This morning, Chris Nassetta, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an overview of the current operating environment and the company's outlook. Kevin Jacobs, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will then review our second quarter results and discuss expectations for the year. Following their remarks, we'll be happy to take your questions. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Chris.

Thank you, Jill. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Our second quarter results continued to reinforce the power of our business model and the benefits of strong net unit growth, which drove great bottom line performance. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter exceeded $1 billion, meaningfully beating expectations, even with modestly negative system-wide REVPAR. Adjusted EPS also exceeded our expectations. Our strong portfolio of brands, powerful commercial engines, and disciplined execution continued to drive meaningful free cash flow. Year to date, we've returned $1.7 billion to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends and remain on track to return approximately $3.3 billion for the full year. Turning to results, the quarter turned out to be a bit noisier than expected, driving system-wide REVPAR down 50 basis points year over year. Performance was driven by continued strength in the Middle East-Africa region and Asia-Pacific ex-China, but offset by softer trends in the U.S. and China. Adjusting for holidays and calendar shifts, system-wide REVPAR would have been modestly positive. In the quarter, leisure transient REBPAR grew 1% as an elongated spring break window and easy year-over-year comparison supported leisure demand growth. Business transient REBPAR decreased 2%, driven by the elongated holiday schedule, government spending declines, weaker international inbound business, and broader economic uncertainty. While it's early in the third quarter, we have seen a pickup in non-government business demand. Group REBPAR was roughly flat with favorable trends in company meetings largely offset by soft convention business and social events. We did see positive momentum in lead volumes from corporates with month-over-month sequential growth throughout the quarter and 26 and 27 group position are up in the high single digits. As we look ahead to the third quarter, we expect REVPAR to be flat to modestly down again with holidays and calendar shifts continuing to weigh on reported results. On an adjusted basis, we would expect modest REVPAR growth. For the full year, we continue to expect REVPAR growth of flat to up 2% with improving trends in the fourth quarter driven by modest increase in demand and easier year-over-year comparisons. As we think about our business over the intermediate term, I'm very optimistic. In our largest market, a more favorable regulatory environment, certainty on tax reform, expected settling down on global trade policy, continuation of very healthy corporate profits, and significant investments across a multitude of industries, including AI, AI-related and core infrastructure investment should accelerate economic growth and unlock meaningful increases in travel demand. This, matched with very limited industry supply growth, should drive stronger REVPAR growth over the next several years. Turning to development, during the quarter, we opened 221 hotels, totaling more than 26,000 rooms. representing a 52% year-over-year increase, excluding acquisitions and partnerships, and achieved net unit growth of 7.5%. Our luxury and lifestyle portfolios continued their extraordinary expansion around the world. During the quarter, we celebrated the opening of our 1,000th property in the luxury and lifestyle categories. We also announced our plans to welcome three new luxury and lifestyle hotels per week in 2025. None are more impressive and iconic than the Waldorf Astoria New York, which reopened its doors just last week, marking the beginning of a new era for the spectacular hotel that has been a quarterstone of New York City culture since 1931. The greatest of them all, as Conrad Hilton famously described the landmark property, recaptures the hotel's original grandeur, once again setting the benchmark for luxury hospitality globally. During the quarter, our conversion-friendly brands continue to gain traction with guests and owners, which helped fuel our growth in key international markets. LXR debuted in France with the opening of the SACS Paris, a landmark 18th century building transformed into a refined gathering place in the heart of Paris. We welcomed our first tapestry hotels in Northern Ireland and Turkey and Hawaii, while Curio debuted in Vienna, Austria. We also opened our first all-inclusive Curio resort in the Dominican Republic. Doubletree continued to be an important driver of conversions, reaching 700 hotels worldwide and entering its 60th country during the second quarter. Spark opened more than 40 hotels in the quarter, bringing its portfolio to more than 170 hotels across six countries, with roughly 200 more hotels in the pipeline. Overall conversions spanned 10 brands and accounted for over a third of our openings in the quarter. We remain confident in our ability to continue driving strong conversions thanks to the power of our existing brands, which have consistently delivered an industry-leading share of conversions in the U.S., and with the upcoming launches of exciting new conversion brands. In July, we also debuted the first hotel of our game-changing new extended stay brand, Livestart Studios. Grounded in extensive research and a deep understanding of the evolving needs of long-stay travelers and hotel owners alike, LiveSmart Studio represents the latest chapter in our growth strategy and reinforces our commitment to offering a Hilton experience for every traveler and every stay occasion. In addition to strong openings, we signed 36,000 rooms in the quarter, putting us on pace to deliver high single-digit growth and signings for the full year. We also increased our development pipeline to more than 510,000 rooms growing both year over year and sequentially versus the first quarter with expansion in strategic markets and across chain scales. We announced plans for Waldorf Astoria to debut in key destinations, including Helsinki, Bali, and New Delhi in the coming years, and we signed Nomad Hotels in Singapore and Detroit, which marked the brand's respective debuts in the Asia Pacific and America's region. We signed our first canopy hotels in Tokyo and Italy, our first Tempo in Canada, and in July, we signed our first tapestry in Saudi Arabia. We also further expanded our focus service pipeline to meet the growing demand for affordable upscale accommodations. During the quarter, we announced that Hampton will soon debut in Thailand, True will enter Vietnam, and Spark will open its first hotels in Saudi Arabia and Puerto Rico. We also committed to key growth milestones in emerging economies, including expanding our portfolio in India tenfold and tripling our portfolio in Africa in the coming years. We continued growth and construction starts. With continued growth and construction starts, tremendous international opportunities and a strong conversion story, we feel very confident in our ability to drive net unit growth solidly within our six to seven percent range for the full year. As you all know, we have an incredible skill set of identifying white space and developing and launching new brands. As I mentioned last quarter, the team is working hard behind the scenes on several new brands in the lifestyle space, in addition to a couple of new concepts in the alternative accommodation space, a number of which are conversion friendly. We have done the research with our customers and have already received tremendous feedback from our owners on these new brands, a couple of which will be launched by year end. Hilton Honors continues to perform extraordinarily well with more than 226 million members, up 16% year over year, with membership now evenly split between U.S. and international travelers. reflecting the strength of Hilton's global reach and a further testament to our success in delivering premium products and experiences for any stay occasion anywhere in the world our guests want to travel. Everything we do is underpinned by our award-winning culture, and our incredible family of Hilton team members continue to differentiate our brands from the competition. In July, Brand Finance named Hilton as the most valuable hotel brand for the 10th consecutive year. Additionally, just last week, our Hampton, Home 2, Suites, and True Brands were named Best in Category by J.D. Power for their respective segments in the U.S. During the quarter, we were also named the number one best workplace in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, India, and Vietnam. adding to the 660 Great Place to Work awards and more than 70 number one wins around the world since 2016. Overall, we feel good about where we are and are very optimistic about the business. We have the best brands in the industry with more coming, the biggest development pipeline in our history, and the economy in our largest market is set up for better growth. all of which should continue to drive strong performance. Now I'm going to turn the call over to Kevin to talk a little bit more detail about the quarter and our expectations for the full year.