Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Hilton fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please press star, then zero. After today's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. And 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 Mr. Charlie Ruhrer, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, you may begin.

Thank you, Chuck. Welcome to Hilton's fourth quarter and full year 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 factors section of our most recently filed Form 10-K. In addition, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures discussed in 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 fourth quarter and full year results and discuss our expectations for the year. Following the remarks, we'll be happy to take your questions. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Chris.

Thank you, Charlie, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. We're pleased to report a solid end to what was another strong year for Hilton. In 2025, we expanded our portfolio brands, grew our pipeline to a new record, and strengthened our nearly quarter billion member loyalty system with new partnerships and loyalty tiers, all of which we believe sets us up for continued growth in 2026 and beyond. Together with our team members and owners, we've delivered a solid year on both top line and bottom line performance. For the full year, system-wide REBPAR growth was up 40 basis points year over year, driven by strong performance in EMEA and growth in Group and Leisure Transient. Industry-leading net unit growth, outperformance in non-REBPAR business lines, and cost discipline drove record adjusted EBITDA of $3.7 billion, up 9% year over year. In 2025, we returned $3.3 billion to our shareholders, the highest total capital return in our history, even with the softer than originally anticipated REBPAR, demonstrating the power of our capital light business model. Turning your results for the fourth quarter, system-wide REBPAR increased 50 basis points year over year, as strong international performance and solid group demand were offset by softer U.S. government demand and weaker international inbound into the U.S. In the quarter, leisure transient REBPAR was up 2.3%, driven by international strength, especially in EMEA. Business transient REBPAR was down 2.1%, driven primarily by headwinds from the U.S. government shutdown. Group REVPAR was up 2.6%, driven by strong international group growth and company meeting demand. System-wide REVPAR for the quarter was strongest in December, up 1.7%, with strength in leisure and group and a meaningful pickup in business transient. Positive trends continued into early 2026 with group leading, including strong in-month group bookings, solid leisure demand, and continued business transient improvement. For the first quarter, we expect REPR growth of between 1 and 2 percent year-over-year, including the impact from the recent storms in the U.S. As we look to the year ahead, we feel optimistic that 2026 will be stronger than 2025. We believe this will be driven by continued strength in EMEA improvement in APAC, and an improvement in the U.S. driven by stronger economic conditions, major events, easier comps, and continued limited supply. For the full year, we expect system-wide top-line growth of 1% to 2%, with international performance stronger than in the U.S. Turning to development, during the fourth quarter, we opened nearly 200 hotels, totaling nearly 26,000 rooms. For the full year, we added nearly 100,000 new rooms to our global portfolio, representing full-year net unit growth of 6.7% and our biggest year of organic openings. We achieved several milestones in the year, including reaching 9,000 hotels globally, celebrating 44 brand country debuts, opening our first property in four new markets, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Pakistan, and the US Virgin Islands, and opening our 1,000th luxury and lifestyle hotel globally. Our luxury and lifestyle brands continue to expand around the world, comprising nearly 30% of our total openings in the quarter. Lifestyle had a strong year with all eight brands reaching record room counts and nearly all expanding their presence in the new markets. Within our collection brands for the full year, we opened over 11,000 rooms across 18 countries, including nine country debuts. It was a record year for tapestry growth, opening over 40 properties in the year, including most recently the debut of Tapestry in Japan. Within luxury, we continued to build strong momentum after the Waldorf Astoria New York opening, and in the fourth quarter, We opened our second Waldorf Astoria in Shanghai and celebrated the brand's debut in Helsinki. Strong interest in Waldorf Astoria continued into the fourth quarter as we announced agreements to expand Waldorf Astoria into several iconic cities across Greece, Spain, Oman, and Malaysia. In 2025, we also expanded our LXR footprint with new openings in France and Greece. and announced plans to debut the LXR in the Turks and Caicos in the next few years. Conversions remain integral to our growth and accounted for roughly 40% of room openings in 2025, demonstrating the strong value proposition our system continues to deliver for owners. Against this backdrop of continued owner demand for conversion-friendly brands, We have been evolving our brand portfolio and creating opportunities to build the next chapter in Hilton's growth. We recently launched apartment collection by Hilton, which marks Hilton's entry into the fast-growing apartment-style lodging segment that represents a clear white space in the market. As a collection brand, it provides owners with flexibility to preserve a property's unique character while benefiting from Hilton's powerful commercial engine, global distribution, and award-winning Hilton Honors loyalty program. Apartment collection by Hilton, alongside our other newly minted brand, Outset Collection, will be incremental drivers of our conversion momentum in the years to come, as will new brands, several of which we expect to launch later this year. Even with robust openings in the fourth quarter, our pipeline reached the highest level in our history, surpassing 520,000 rooms, reflecting both year-over-year and sequential growth, driven by expansion across strategic markets and brand categories. New development construction starts in the U.S. were up over 25% in 2025. a trend that we expect to accelerate even further into 2026. Globally, for 2026, we expect new development construction starts to be up over 20%, bringing us back close to 2019 levels, signaling healthy developer appetite. As we look ahead, we expect that our robust global pipeline, strength in conversions, construction start momentum, and industry-leading brand premiums will support sustained net unit growth of between 6% to 7% for 2026 and beyond. We also remain focused on initiatives to drive increased loyalty, engagement, and guest satisfaction. In 2025, we strengthened our Hilton Honors Program by making loyalty both more accessible and more rewarding by introducing a faster path to elite status and a new premium tier in our program. We also launched Hilton Honors Adventures, an extension of Hilton Honors that invites travelers to immerse themselves in bucket list-worthy travel, elevating loyalty benefits across land and at sea. Hilton Honors Adventures partnerships now include Explora Journeys and Auto Camp, And we expect more to come as we continue to prioritize ways Honors members can earn and redeem points. Overall, we continue to see extraordinary performance of Hilton Honors in 2025 with the program now approaching a quarter billion members. During the quarter, Hilton was again named the number one world's best workplace by Fortune and Great Place to Work for 2025. becoming the first and only hospitality company to top both the global and the U.S. list twice. Our brands continue to receive recognition as well, and in 2025, Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 extended our 17-consecutive-year run, with Hampton by Hilton ranking number one hotel franchise in the lodging category. In total, 12 brands were recognized in the 2025 rankings for their performance and franchise value. Overall, we're proud of our performance in 2025 and believe our results continue to reinforce the power of our business model. Our brand-led, network-driven, and platform-enabled strategy will continue to help us achieve our robust growth trajectory and meet the evolving needs of travelers around the world while delivering great returns to owners and shareholders. We're confident that we're well-positioned to continue driving strong performance in 2026 and beyond. Now, I'm going to turn the call over to Kevin, who'll give you a few more details on the quarter and expectations for the full year.