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spk15: Greetings. Welcome to the Park Hotels and Resorts, Inc. Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ian Weissman, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy. You may begin.
spk11: Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to the Park Hotels and Resorts Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that many of the comments made today are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. As described in our filings with the SEC, these statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause future results to differ from those expressed, and we are not obligated to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements. Actual future performance outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Please refer to the documents filed by PARCC with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, on today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial information, such as FFO and adjusted EBITDA. You can find this information together with reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in yesterday's earnings release, as well as in our 8K file with the SEC, and the supplemental information available on our website at pkhotelsandresorts.com. This morning, Tom Baltimore, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will provide a review of PARCC's second quarter performance, an outline of PARCC's strategic priorities, and an outlook for the balance of this year. Sean DeLorto, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide additional color on second quarter results, an update on our balance sheet and liquidity, while establishing guidance for the third quarter. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Tom.
spk01: Thank you, Ian, and welcome, everyone. I'm very pleased to report stronger than expected Q2 performance with results materially exceeding expectations. We witnessed exceptionally strong performance across our portfolio as the ongoing strength and leisure was augmented by increased business travel, which came in at 95% of 2019 levels, and accelerating group demand. On the capital allocation side, we sold approximately $270 million of assets year-to-date and repurchased $157 million in stock at a significant discount to our internal net asset value estimate during the quarter, further strengthening our balance sheet and creating value for our shareholders. And finally, based on our strong second quarter results, we exited the covenant waiver relief period for our credit facilities one quarter earlier than anticipated. Looking closer at our quarterly results, second quarter pro forma rev par recovered to 90% of 2019 levels, and pro forma hotel adjusted EBITDA came in roughly $30 million ahead of our internal expectations set forth at the beginning of the quarter. Highlighting the strong recovery in demand, following the COVID-related slowdown at the start of the year. Pro forma occupancy improved over 19 percentage points over the first quarter, while pro forma average rate finished 8% ahead of second quarter 2019. The strongest recovery in the quarter was in urban markets, where our hotels saw an encouraging increase in demand. Occupancy for our urban hotels averaged 64% for the quarter, or a 25% decrease point increase from the first quarter on a pro forma basis and ADR came in 24% ahead of Q1 and slightly ahead of the second quarter of 2019. Note that our last remaining suspended hotel, the Park 55 San Francisco, reopened on May 19th and quickly exceeded expectations. The June occupancy finishing at 67% with 1,000 plus room hotel. Resort hotel performance remained very strong, growing ADR nearly 27% over the same period in 2019, fueled by our assets in Hawaii, Florida, and Southern California. We were also pleased to see stronger than expected group demand for the quarter, with group revenues up 68% compared to the first quarter. Group demand remains very short-term, with pickup for the second quarter representing nearly 44% of the room nights picked up in the quarter for the remainder of 2022. Most of the short-term booking activity was seen in San Francisco and Seattle, while the Hilton Hawaiian Village benefited from positive pickup from better-than-expected citywide participation in May. In terms of business transient demand, we saw material improvement during the quarter, with business transient revenues totaling 95%, of second quarter 2019 revenues. Parts business-oriented hotels opened for the entirety of the quarter recorded midweek occupancies of approximately 73% for the second quarter, a roughly 30 percentage point sequential improvement from the first quarter. As the portfolio recovers, we continue to make progress on our four key strategic initiatives. First, we remain laser-focused on reaping the benefits from a reimagined operating model, capturing margin improvement from both incremental revenue opportunities and operating efficiencies. On the revenue side, we continue to benefit from the industry's remarkable rate discipline and our operators' rate optimization efforts to help offset inflationary cost pressures as occupancy rebounds. Additionally, our teams continue to focus on driving out-of-room spend posting impressive results for the second quarter in food and beverage, with revenues exceeding our expectations by over $11 million. At Hilton Hawaiian Village, for example, a reimagined bar concept and aggressive event in menu pricing helped to generate over $3 million of incremental revenue over the same period in 2019, a 24% increase, split evenly by 12% increases in both average check and covers. On the cost savings side, our operational modifications help to drive pro forma hotel adjusted EBITDA margins of nearly 31% during the second quarter, or just 30 basis points below 2019 levels, despite portfolio rev par being down 10%. Most of the savings have come on the labor side, with headcount down 23% for managers and 29% for full-time hourly employees compared to 2019 for the quarter within our Hilton managed hotels. We firmly believe that the operational changes behind many of the staffing reductions are permanent, translating into $85 million in savings or 300 basis points of permanent margin improvement relative to pre-COVID margins on a stabilized basis. Our second key priority is to continue to reshape and improve the quality of the portfolio by remaining active on the capital recycling front. We have made tremendous progress year to date by selling $270 million of assets versus our goal of $200 to $300 million established at the beginning of the year. Overall, hotel sales were executed at or near 2019 valuations with transaction multiples slightly above 13 times on average versus the 10 times implied multiple on the $218 million of stock buybacks we executed year-to-date. And despite recent choppiness in the debt markets, interest in hotel real estate remains high. Accordingly, we expect to sell another $300 to $400 million of assets to reduce leverage and reinvest back in our portfolio. Our third priority is to fortify our balance sheet by continuing to push out maturities, reduce leverage, bolster liquidity, and maintain flexibility as we look to pivot between defense and offense, depending on what the markets dictate. Today, our liquidity position is approaching $1.8 billion, with no meaningful maturities over the next 12 months. We are also in active discussions with our debt capital partners to address our San Francisco CNBS and Revolver, both of which mature in late 2023 and expect to have those addressed by year-end. Finally, our fourth priority, we are focused on executing on our robust pipeline of value-enhancing ROI projects that will unlock the embedded value of our portfolio. Work is well underway on our Bonnet Creek meeting space expansion platform with the Waldorf space on schedule to open later this year and the Signia space expected to be ready by early 2024. And we plan to commence work on two major renovations and repositions within the next 6 to 12 months. Turning to our outlook, it's hard to ignore the headlines around increased macroeconomic uncertainty and possible recession. However, at this point, we have not seen evidence in a pullback in demand across our portfolio. Corporate balance sheets remain healthy. Consumers still have nearly $1 trillion in personal savings following the pandemic-related economic stimulus and pent-up business and international inbound demand, still exist following two and a half years of depressed activity, which bodes well for the lodging industry and our portfolio in particular. Lodging demand should also be supported by the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill Congress passed last year, a key driver of non-residential fixed investment, which is forecast to be 5% in 2022. While supply growth in major markets remained historically low within parks markets, under 1.5% combined, and significant barriers to entry from rising construction costs, limiting supply growth over the next three to four years, which we believe will continue to support solid fundamentals over the next several years. With that backdrop, we are very encouraged with the pace of improvement across our major markets, and we expect to see incremental improvement throughout the year and into 2023 as leisure markets remain strong, and the urban and corporate recovery accelerates. Group pace sits at 66% and 72% for the second half of 2022 and full year 2023, respectively, when comparing to 2019 bookings for similar periods as of June 2019 and June 2018, respectively. Urban market convention calendar for 2023 are pacing well when comparing to events booked for 2019 as of 2018, with Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. each above 100%, and Denver and New Orleans above 80%. San Francisco is currently showing over 760,000 room nights on the 2023 calendar, which is 64% of the actual room nights achieved in 2019. Hawaii is expected to continue to outperform expectations, supported by healthy leisure trends and the eventual return of the Japanese traveler, especially in Honolulu, where historically Japan makes up nearly 20% of total demand, but has been absent over the last three years. Overall, we are bullish about the lodging recovery, and we remain laser-focused on creating shareholder value and closing the valuation gap. with our 2022 priorities squarely focused on operational excellence, recycling capital to unlock the significant embedded value in our portfolio, and continuing to improve the quality and optionality of our balance sheet to execute on our long-term growth plans. The park remains well-positioned for outsized performance, given our optimal mix of resort, urban, and group-focused hotels, and I'm incredibly excited about the future. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Sean, who will provide some additional color on operations, along with an update on our balance sheet and guidance for the third quarter.
spk09: Thanks, Tom. Overall, we were very pleased with our second quarter performance, with results coming in well ahead of expectations, driven by ongoing strength and leisure, coupled with significant gains in both group and business transient. Our former REVPAR improved sequentially to $173,000, as performer rate averaged an impressive $244 during the quarter, a 7% sequential improvement over Q1 2022, and 8% above the same period in 2019. Performer occupancy improved to 71% for the quarter, or a 19 percentage point improvement from Q1 2022. Looking ahead to the third quarter, preliminary results in July look very strong, with hotel occupancy averaging approximately 73%. while average daily rate during the month is projected to be approximately $248, or 12% above 2019. Overall, nearly two-thirds of our consolidated hotels are achieving rates in excess of 2019 rates, with a strength witnessed across most leisure markets, in addition to Chicago, New York, Denver, downtown LA, and several of our airport hotels. Total performer operating revenue for the portfolio was $670 million during the second quarter, while performer hotel adjusted EBITDA was $207 million, resulting in performer hotel adjusted EBITDA margin of 30.8%, or just 30 basis points shy of 2019 operating margins. An impressive result with hotel occupancy still 15 percentage points below 2019 levels, and with one of our largest hotels, the Park 55 San Francisco, suspended for over half of the quarter. Results were driven by incredibly strong rate gains, coupled with operating efficiencies achieved over the course of the last two plus years. Turning to the balance sheet, our liquidity currently stands at approximately $1.7 billion, including more than $900 million available on our revolver and $758 million of cash on hand. While net debt sits at $4 billion, a $200 million decrease from the first quarter. I'm excited to report that PARC has exited our credit facility covenant waiver period one quarter ahead of its scheduled expiration. Additionally, given the material improvement in operating fundamentals for our Hilton Hawaiian Village and Hilton Denver hotels, both mortgage loans secured by these two properties are expected to exit their cash traps in early August, freeing approximately $90 million of restricted cash and thereby increasing our total liquidity to $1.8 billion. On the capital... On the capital return front, we continue to take advantage of the dislocation between public and private pricing and repurchased $157 million of stock during the second quarter, taking our total buybacks to $218 million year-to-date, with just over $80 million remaining on our board-authorized buyback program. Overall, buybacks were executed at a material discount to our internal NAV estimate, or just 10.3 times 2019 pro forma adjusted EBITDA. Turning to guidance, Turning to guidance, for Q3, which is traditionally our second weakest quarter of the year, we expect to see a seasonal shift from Q2, with transient revenue mix increasing by 700 basis points, replacing higher-rated group production and its higher-margin banquet and catering F&B spend. Accordingly, we are establishing Q3 consolidated rep part guidance of $171 to $174, or 92% of 2019 levels at the midpoint. As the portfolio continues to narrow the gap to 2019, with occupancies continuing to improve in Hawaii, New York, Boston, Denver, and Northern California. Adjusted EBITDA guidance for the third quarter will range between $145 million and $165 million, and hotel adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to be between 26% and 27%. Finally, adjusted FFO per share will range between 34 cents and 43 cents for the third quarter. As a reminder, please note that the assets sold year-to-date contributed approximately $5 million to our quarterly earnings. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the line for Q&A. To address each of your questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Operator, may we have the first question, please?
spk15: Sure. Also, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to join the queue. Our first question comes from the line of Patrick Scholes with Truist Security. Please proceed with your question.
spk06: Great. Thank you for taking my question. Good. Good. Thank you. I'd like to hear your latest observations on the return of the international inbound customer and related to that, you know, how far off are you from pre-COVID levels for that customer and then perhaps get a little more granular, you know, sort of breaking it down by, you know, perhaps three important markets, the East Coast, New York, West Coast, San Francisco, and then certainly Hawaii. Thank you.
spk01: Patrick, thank you for the question. If we back up for a second, as I think about inbound international into the U.S., it was about $79 million in 2019. I believe last year it had recovered slightly to about 22 million. We're looking at this year, I believe, from latest reports that I read, at about 53 million. I would say across our major markets, we're probably 500 to 750 basis points sort of below sort of 19 levels. So we see that certainly as a tailwind. I think if you look at Hawaii, I think is a great example. Our Japanese, which represent again 20% of our visitation, they've been down 95%, I believe, plus or minus. They historically have been one of our most loyal customers. They stay longer, they spend more. We think for Park as we move out, and this recovery continues to unfold, that's going to be a real benefit for us. We'll expect Hilton Hawaiian Village to probably be up, vis-a-vis 19, at around 4% to 5% in REVPAR, compared to many of our peers that are running at certainly much larger numbers than that. But we also expect this year in Hawaii that we'll probably approach an all-time high or close to our all-time high in EBITDA. So we can see tremendous upside there. As you think about San Francisco, New York, Chicago, all of whom were probably double-digit historically, 15% to 18%. We're probably in the high single digits, low double-digit across each of those assets. Again, we see that beginning to come back. Obviously, the big gap is really coming out of Asia, and to the extent that the lockdowns subside and we start to see those areas to begin to open, we see that as real growth potential for us as we move forward.
spk14: Okay. Thank you for the update.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Powell with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
spk00: Hi. Good morning. Question I'm going to ask at the morning time. Question on the asset sale. Obviously, you did well. You did selling assets at good valuations. That said, one large sale was to a cash-rich REIT. The other one was to a buyer that's doing multifamily. So as you look to do the remainder this year, do you expect to see the same, I guess, success at cheap evaluations, or could you see a bit more of a drop in price given the buyer pool is seeing higher rates and more just tougher time getting leveraged?
spk01: Yeah, it's a great question, Anthony. Look, if you back up and just think about since the spin now, we've sold 36 assets, including 14 international, for nearly $2 billion. As you know, many of those were very complicated from Brazil to South Africa to the UK. We sold two assets in San Francisco in the middle of the pandemic when there was virtually no visibility. So I would say that our team, Tom Morey and his team on the investment side, continue to work really hard to find the right buyers. No doubt debt costs are rising. No doubt there's still a tremendous amount of equity on the sideline and interested in hotel real estate. So we're cautiously optimistic that we'll continue to demonstrate a strong investment results. Whether those come in a little bit, that would not be unreasonable, whether that's 25 or 50 dips on cap rates and given where debt spreads are. But we do expect that the debt market will hopefully begin to loosen up and open up a little more here in the third, fourth quarter and certainly into next year. We're not a panic seller. We'll be thoughtful. We'll continue to work hard as we've demonstrated. But we are laser focused on selling another $300 million to $400 million in assets, again, using those proceeds to pay down debt, reinvest back into the portfolio, continuing to build liquidity and make sure the balance sheet is in strong shape so that we have the optionality to pivot between defense and offense, as we said in our prepared remarks.
spk00: Thanks for that. Maybe one more in terms of the guidance. I understand the EBITDA impact of the mix shift in the third quarter. focusing more on the REVPAR growth guidance. It seems like you expect to see REVPAR growth decelerate in August and September. We're hearing some good stuff from around Labor Day bookings from others, so I'm curious what you're seeing in those months regarding REVPAR growth.
spk01: Yeah, I'll let Sean take the latter part of the question, Anthony, but thank you for the question. We sense that many listeners have some concern or comments regarding that. I think it's important to note that if you think about our portfolio, Second quarter and fourth quarter are traditionally the two strongest quarters within this portfolio, the first and third quarters being the softer. Third quarter is traditionally one of the softer group periods. That is holding true this year as well. And so we're down about 700 basis points in a shift to transient versus group. We make up for a lot of that in the fourth quarter. One example of that is if If you think about, we've got about 620,000 room nights in the back half of the year. And in New Orleans, you know, we're down about 27% in the third quarter, and we're up about 40% in the fourth quarter. So it really is a seasonality and a timing issue. And so we thought it was appropriate to be conservative, but also recognizing the historical trends within this portfolio. We are not seeing any softening, as we said during our prepared remarks, and are still very bullish on the lodging sector. But we certainly wanted to be careful as we provided third quarter guidance. And I'll turn it over to Sean to address your other question.
spk09: Yeah, just picking up what Tom said, just being careful. With the group base that we have in the Q3, and we're certainly seeing good in the quarter for the quarter pickup through Q2, just kind of with the way that the business is you know, projects out or ultimately runs through the summer times, you're really not going to count so much in the quarter for the quarter pickup. But certainly September has opportunity. You know, there is a little bit of, you know, typical kind of, you know, thoughts around holidays with Labor Day being a little bit later in the first week of September and we have the Jewish holidays in the back half as you compare to 19. But in the end, I think certainly there's some good, you know, potential of picking back up where we saw some of that business level demand in May and June. So we certainly think that September picks up well. So I think, you know, certainly I think September has an opportunity to outperform July. Right now it's probably on level with July, and August is a little softer in the middle of the quarter.
spk14: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Flores Van Deekum with CompassPoint.
spk15: Please proceed with your question.
spk05: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. You know, obviously, it appears that you're still about 19% short of your peak occupancy for the quarter relative to 2019. Maybe touch upon Hawaii in some more detail and how much more growth we can expect in the second half of that year. Is that going to be more fourth quarter ramps? And then also, what's your prospect look for –
spk14: for next year for Hawaii in particular?
spk09: Hawaii is going to be, I mean, it's been incredible. Certainly through Q2 and a lot of parts of Q2 and certainly Q3, we see continued build of Hawaii and on the occupancy level going from across both hotels increasing 200 basis points. So certainly very, very pleased to see how that continues to stay strong. It's certainly going to, I think, certainly be a big plus for us on the rate side as it continues to improve its rate relative to 19, growing to kind of high single digits to low double digits through the course of the next several months. We certainly think, as Tom talked about, international demand, and as we kind of quoted some of the things we've seen recently, I mean, Japan, as one of the major source markets traditionally, is still only at 12% of 19 levels. We just think as those consumers come back into Hawaii, it's just going to be an incredible tailwind for us going forward. We've been able to achieve pretty much 19 levels of profitability or approaching that. Again, with some of the margin efforts we've done, Red Par recovering just on pretty much domestic business alone or certainly without the Japanese business. So I think certainly Hawaii, you know, certainly expect to be a big tailwind for us going into next year.
spk05: Thanks. Maybe my follow-up in terms of buybacks, presumably you'll look for additional asset sales before you start to buy back some more stock down the road?
spk02: Yeah.
spk01: We've made it clear, obviously, that the Highest and best use for us from a capital allocation standpoint would be investing back into this portfolio, either through ROI projects or buying back stock. We have a current authorization up to $300 million. As we said earlier, we will focus on the $300 to $400 million of additional asset sales to reduce leverage, so we make sure we have that optionality. We'll continue to watch market conditions carefully and to the extent that the dislocation continues, rest assured, all options are on the table, including that buyback as well. But we really, in the near term, will be focused on selling those non-core, taking those proceeds, paying down debt, and obviously addressing the revolver and then the San Francisco CMBS that Sean mentioned during his remarks.
spk14: Thanks, Tom. Thank you.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.
spk02: Hey, guys. Good morning.
spk16: So maybe we can drill down a little bit on group. I think you gave out data points 66%, 72% for second half and for 23. And I know you mentioned a lot of in the quarter, for the quarter pickup, which is encouraging. But the question is, You know, Tom, are you maybe surprised that's not a little bit higher even because you've had people not meet for two years? And also, are you seeing any difference in the size of the groups or are the associations pushing back on higher rates or anything like that?
spk01: Yeah, it's a great question. Obviously, as we look out to next year, what we are seeing is that the booking windows are certainly shorter We saw that, you know, in the second quarter where we had obviously 76%, I believe, of 19 levels. And, you know, we look at next year at 72%. We see kind of the same trends that first and second quarter out of the box are pretty strong. I think second quarter is up around 86%. No doubt as companies continue to get back and to return to office as we – get, I think, more visibility on the economic climate. No doubt we expect that to continue to accelerate. Even in markets like San Francisco, where you're seeing increases in city-wide. City-wide in Chicago are growing. Orlando growing. City-wide, obviously, in San Francisco growing. Boston and D.C. certainly growing. So all of that will certainly help. But really getting those big companies where they have a lot of what we call self-contained. We're certainly seeing some of that through the association, but we expect through the corporate side for that to continue to accelerate, Chris, as we move forward.
spk02: Okay, that's helpful. Thanks, Tom.
spk16: And then just on capital allocation, right? On paper, the buybacks make a lot of sense. You've sold assets creatively. market doesn't, you know, seem to always reward that. Unfortunately, what's the, is something that's on the table selling a super tanker asset? Cause most of those assets you've sold have been fairly small. You sell a super tanker for a, you know, a really strong multiple. Is that on the table? Do you think that can help? Is that, you know, does it even make sense given where your level of EBITDA you're at currently?
spk01: Yeah, Chris, another fair question. Certainly all options are on the table. Keep in mind they have a low tax basis. Getting debt for one of those big deals is a little more complicated than some of the asset sales that we're trying to do. But rest assured, as we've said, we are open to all options. We are looking at many. We are going to close this valuation gap. We are laser focused on it. But, you know, we also don't think it's prudent to be selling assets like that really at the bottom of the market. So you've got to be careful and thoughtful about that. And I think you've seen, look at, again, the San Francisco asset sales that we did in the middle of the pandemic, very attractive pricing. Look at the asset sales that we've done. All has been accretive, almost all, if not all accretive. We still have that as a theme as well and certainly a guiding principle. But, you know, we certainly want to be allocating capital and right-sizing the portfolio over time so that we can certainly get a presence in some of the other growth markets as well. But we certainly believe that the urban play has legs as we move forward and that we're going to begin to see the tailwind, and we're seeing evidence of that already.
spk02: Okay, got it. That's helpful. Thanks, Tom.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Lori Caston with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.
spk14: Thanks. Good morning. Hey, Lori.
spk09: Can you talk about the various options on the table to address your 22 and 23 maturities? Sure. So on the 22, there's really nothing we view as meaningful. So there's a couple of small mortgages that are out there that we'll look to address with cash on hand. As we've noted, we're approaching $1.8 billion in liquidity. Half of that's with the cash. So we'll just look to take those out as they mature over the next 12 months. On the bigger ones, certainly that kind of towards the end of the year, We're exploring a few different options. One, obviously, we have time to do that. We'll be addressing Revolver and certainly standing with our banks. We have great relations with them, longstanding relationships with them, already having conversations and thinking through the timing of it. And so we're confident we'll work through that and get that recast and keep that liquidity intact. And then ultimately, we'll look to address San Francisco. Again, weighing our options on that. We have unencumbered assets, including big-size, large-size assets. And so we look to kind of utilize that potentially as a mortgage on those, along with some of the cash on hand to take out CMBS. And obviously, we have access to the high-yield markets, which we've demonstrated in the past as well. So we'll look to opportunistically find the best option for us over the next few months and proceed accordingly.
spk11: Great. Thanks, Tom.
spk15: Yep. Our next question comes from the line of Neil Malekin with Capital One. Please proceed with your question.
spk13: Hey, good morning, everyone. Good morning, Neil. Hey, thanks for your time today. Just following up on Dori's question, the assets for collateralizing that CMBS in late 23, the Park 55 and the Union Square, obviously two of your biggest hotels. both i think at least the park 55 i believe uh you know needs a fair amount of capex um just curious at all um you mentioned the the disconnect between public and private valuations um if if sales asset sales around it um for for assets like that um you know in in san francisco obviously a market that has a lot of issues trying to resolve those that will probably take a few years and you know, maybe could help you, you know, expedite a deleveraging or, you know, a larger buyback or a reallocation to, I guess, you know, more in favor slash higher growth markets. You know, obviously, again, overlaying that on a more difficult refinancing that you're facing. Yeah.
spk01: I heard the commentary, Neil. Is the question selling it? I want to make sure I understand your question before I respond appropriately.
spk13: Yeah, sorry. Yeah, it would just be with all the issues. Yeah, it's a tougher environment for refinancing. You just mentioned that. And some of the assets that are collateralizing that need a fair amount of CapEx. So could selling be an option, you know, or do you plan on doing those?
spk01: Look, as we've said many times, all options are on the table. We certainly are prepared to, whether it's sell some larger assets or joint venture, keep in mind those two assets are crossed. That, as Sean mentioned, that CMBS matures at the end of 2023. We are not at all panicked. Again, think back to the worst of the pandemic when We had a number of maturities. We did three bond deals. We pushed out maturities. We paid back 97% of the bank debt. Everyone earned fees and could not have been happier with PARC given how we executed in the worst of times. So we've got $1.8 billion. We have a lot of optionality. We could, yes, in theory, sell one or both assets. Again, getting debt right now In the near term, given that the debt markets are very choppy, would be a very difficult execution. In three to six months, there are a number of options that we think are available. We certainly believe and have said publicly, and we're seeing evidence that San Francisco, albeit lagging, certainly is coming back, and we'll watch carefully as to what we think that trajectory is for that market.
spk13: Okay. the commentary and then the other one is I think you mentioned that this traveler or business was like plus percent of 2015 and then it seems you know group has you know a bit more to go although obviously favorable booking trends etc but you know a larger peer who recently reported Kind of made it seem like group is going to probably recover ahead of BT. Just curious on your view there. I obviously understand the portfolios aren't the same, but, you know, both groups, group focus. Do you expect BT to actually lag the recovery in group? And, you know, obviously do you think that maybe some group will on the corporate side wind up becoming a new segment as, the work-from-home dynamic persists and people use hotels as a way to convene groups and rapport, et cetera?
spk01: Listen, it's a complicated question. Obviously, it's hard to compare across portfolios because people have got different portfolios in terms of their distribution, product size. No doubt that that we believe that group is going to continue to accelerate and that companies, given the fact that people are working remotely or hybrid, will have a need to get people together more frequently. We hear it from C-suite leaders all the time that now with people being spread around, the need to bring people together for training, for celebration, for cultural activities, smaller groups, larger groups. So we certainly agree with that thesis. and we think Park is going to be very well positioned for that. The issue is how and when does that begin to accelerate. We see evidence of that in some small groups, but I think as you get the bigger companies, as we get through and get more visibility on the economic side, we certainly think that's going to accelerate. I think the same thing applies on the business transient. I was talking with a C-suite leader a couple of months ago who now – working remotely in Florida he's now having to make he said 25 trips back to New York office that he didn't have to make historically you know I see that as again incremental business transient so I think both are going to continue to be strong and then this concept of leisure travel that we talked about where people start out traveling in part for business and may get elongated and stay and take an extra day or two for personal reasons. I found myself doing that, and I think you'll see that segment to continue to grow as well. So I think the good news for the overall industry is that demand is going to continue to be really healthy as we move forward. I think you also have a backdrop that supply is going to be muted. It's hard to imagine that you're going to see continued development given what's happening with inflation and rising material costs, and particularly when you think about our portfolio and some of the markets that we're in, we've got one of the lowest impact of supply across the sector. We think that's going to benefit us and provide pricing power and a benefit for us as we move forward.
spk11: Appreciate the answer.
spk15: Thanks.
spk14: Thank you.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Duane Fenningworth with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.
spk03: Hey, thanks for taking my question. Not sure if you can... Welcome. Thank you.
spk01: Appreciate it. Welcome to the industry and look forward to meeting you in person.
spk03: Same here. Excited to be here. So not sure if you can generalize to a market level, but where do you think you realize a relative REVPAR premium, and what markets do you see the biggest opportunity versus peers?
spk01: The first question, I'll let Sean ponder that for a minute and come back. In terms of I guess I'd answer it this way. When you think about PARCC and the case for PARCC, if you will, I would say it's both an urban and a group recovery play. As you think about the markets that we've been in, and candidly, I think many thought that both urban and group would not, some didn't think they'd recover at all, and some thought it would be 25-26. I think we can see, based on what we saw just in from first quarter to second quarter with urban occupancy growing 25%, ADR growing 24%, group revenues growing 68%. Those are going to continue to accelerate. So I think that across our broad portfolio, we see that as a tailwind. I think on the international demand, given the fact that we're anchored in many of the urban city centers and international is coming back. As I said, it was 79 million inbound in 19, 22 million I think last year, approaching 50, 53 million this year. You know, we see that continuing as the world begins to get beyond COVID as we move to the endemic phase. So we see that as a tailwind. Hilton Hawaiian Village, we see that as just a huge, many of our peers have seen parabolic and significant growth on leisure side we haven't seen it there again we're still going to approach profitability close to an all-time high and we don't have 20% of our visitors that historically have been coming for north of 30 years consistently and they haven't been there for nearly three years so we see that as again a huge tailwind for us as we look out into 23 24 and beyond When I just name a three, hopefully that answers your question from that concept, and I'll let Sean pick up on part A of your question.
spk09: Yeah, and it is tough to kind of get in through. I mean, it's market, but it's also the kind of asset, as you imagine, too. So some of the larger hotels we have in there, you know, it's maybe not so much more of a rev par premium exercise, but a total rev par exercise. exercise where you're obviously looking to drive the ancillary spend and F&B spend and everything else with the group activity in some of those. So case in point, talk about our Bonnet Creek asset where we're expanding the meeting space and looking to capture a lot of ancillary revenue through that investment. And as well, looking at Key West, for example, certainly there's a lot of good competitive assets in that market. We have kind of a good little group base that we have for hotels in Costa. We've made the conversions from Waldorf to Curio to ultimately think we can still drive the same types of red pars and rates at those assets, but ultimately have a leaner operating model to drive more profitability. So it's kind of a complicated answer to think about just to focus on red par, where you think there's a total red par story as well as a profitability story.
spk03: That's helpful. And then just for my follow-up, when conditions support pivoting to offense, what would that look like? What shape would that take?
spk01: It's single assets, it's portfolios, it's upper upscale and luxury and top 25 markets and premium resort destinations. Clearly in the southwest, whether it's Phoenix, parts of Texas, southeast into Florida, clearly into Nashville, and I think that I think there's a lot of supply and the pricing is getting a little lofty, but clearly continuing to balance out the portfolio is certainly something that you'll see us execute over time.
spk02: Thank you.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Robin Farley with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.
spk08: Great, thanks. I just wanted to return to the REVPAR guidance for Q3. Just to ask a little bit about, you know, I understand your comments kind of sequentially from Q2 to Q3. When we look comparing the periods to 2019, so that would kind of take out the seasonality, just looking at the rate of recovery in June, given what you've said about group mix being lower in Q3, it feels like with the strength and resort and leisure rates, wouldn't that actually – allow Q3 to show better recovery relative to 2019 because it's more of a leisure transient quarter than a group quarter so that the outperforming segment right now would, um, I guess, you know, just trying to understand why you're, um, calling for the quarter, you know, to, to not be as strong as what you've seen in June and July, you know, are you just being conservative or is there, or, you know, in fact, are the comps getting tougher and, you know, rate sensitivity returning to the leisure traveler? Thanks.
spk09: Thanks, Robin. You know, ultimately, you know, one thing I'd say is, you know, in our guidance, our top-line guidance at REVPAR, we are ultimately showing improvement and narrowing the gap to 2019 levels. We ultimately finished the second quarter 10% down. We're guiding, you know, to be improving upon that by a couple hundred basis points or so.
spk08: So I think we are – I just meant relative to the June and July, right? Sorry, just to be – like the June and July – being down about 4% both of those months, just in terms of from, from there sequentially.
spk09: Yeah. And ultimately, again, I think that's where kind of the, while you have, you have August, which is that mixed thing where you don't really have a ton of, you know, business travel per se through that month. You also have leisure kind of falling back because people are actually going back to, you know, kids are going back to school. People are coming off a vacation kind of midway through that, through the month. So I think ultimately that, We do have a little bit of a depression in a way in August relative to kind of the key to June and July stuff. Obviously, we think we pick back up in September to kind of equate to where June and July were and more driven by business. The business travel are coming back on transient and group. Ultimately, we think could have some in the quarter, for the quarter buildup and opportunity. And so we do think, yeah, we certainly are taking – A little bit of a conservative approach to this as we think about kind of, again, the end of the quarter for the quarter build won't necessarily be like it was in Q2, as well as some of the holiday impact as we think about people trying to come off of vacations and travel again in September.
spk08: And so it does sound like you're being conservative, but I'm also just curious what your thought is on the leisure traveler being more price sensitive, just given another hotel company today talked about July rev part being down year over year, still up versus 19, but actually down year over year. So I'm just curious if you are sensing that sort of return to what, you know, typically the leisure traveler is more rate-sensitive historically. It doesn't seem like they have been lately, but do you feel like that's changing or not maybe?
spk09: I mean, I think one thing to also recognize, you know, people didn't have a lot of options to travel last year. So if you go into markets, you know, it's certainly true you wouldn't get a lot of that demand. So you think about in some Southeast Florida, even to some level in California, and kind of New Orleans and other places where you have hurricane season. So I think, you know, you've seen, and obviously a lot of heat. So I think you've seen a lot of people have maybe alternatives this year to go elsewhere. And so you have a little bit of, you know, the pressure and demand in some of those markets. So, you know, from a year over year, which obviously is very elevated. So I think they remain very strong relative to 19. And ultimately, but from a year to year comparison where people didn't have a lot of options to go, I think you see a little bit of moderation.
spk08: Okay, great. Thanks very much.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Darling with Green Street. Please proceed with your question.
spk12: Thanks. Good morning. Good morning, Chris. Good morning. Going back to the Hilton Village for a second, can you touch on the second quarter margin print? Maybe give some details as to what's driving that result? And then looking forward, what's your expectation on margin for that property?
spk09: Yeah, the Hilton Hawaiian Village had kind of an accrual there as we worked through labor negotiations there. And so ultimately there was accruals that were ultimately released that benefited the margins this quarter. Going forward, you know, certainly I think it's a very good story for Hilton Hawaiian Village, especially as we look at it, because certainly that's one where we've seen the REBPAR levels, you know, achieve, you know, along pretty much in line with 19 levels and without too much variation between a very elevated ADR and a very low oxygen. They've somewhat been somewhat caught up in both respects. It kind of has been a good proxy for us to look at some of our labor initiatives and ultimately, you know, that we've talked about the 85 million. And so when we look at, you know, when we look at Hawaiian Village and look at some of the margins improvement there, again, thinking that's pretty much on par with 19 levels on the top line, You know, we're looking at kind of adjusted for what I just discussed for Q2, somewhere in the 200, 250 basis point range relative to 19. And that's without – that was about half of the room night's book for group relative to 19. So we're missing out on some of that higher margin banquet and catering business as we compare to 19. So I think there's certainly some better margin improvement beyond the 200, 250 I mentioned.
spk01: Okay, that's helpful. Okay. Chris, the other thing I'd add to what Sean said is we have been crystal clear that we are laser focused on reimagining the operating model and taking out $85 million in cost across the entire portfolio, about 1,200 FTEs. More than half of that are management, admin, et cetera. And I think Hilton Hawaiian Village is a great example to what Sean was talking about. I think we've We've been able to reduce some of the management and additional admin there 20, 25%. So that's also another example of really the good work between our asset management team and our operators to continue to think about the business differently. And we fully expect that that's going to continue. And although, as Sean said, we did have the one-time benefit, but Hilton Hawaiian Village is just going to continue to be an outperformer for us in 22 and beyond.
spk12: Got it. And then a little bit higher level, when you just step back and think about some of the challenges that the airlines have been facing around flight capacity, do you see this as a risk at all to the recovery of occupancy in your portfolio, or has that not necessarily had much of an impact?
spk01: It hasn't had much of an impact today. I mean, I think when you think about Heathrow and them deciding to have little or no traffic or not taking bookings for two weeks. These are things unimaginable as we think about it historically. We live in unprecedented times right now. I have to believe that those talented leadership teams will right-size their businesses and get it sorted out. There are just so many other variables to work through right now. We are seeing probably more in the U.S. People are probably doing a lot of drive-to to help compensate and ease their own travel frustration. Clearly, as you think about what's happening in Hawaii and other distances, we have to take an airlift. We're seeing no shortage there. There's plenty of capacity. And those are certainly destinations. As Sean pointed out, a lot of people didn't have a lot of options. Some options are opening up. But despite that, and despite the fact that even in Hawaii where we don't have the anchored customer in the Japanese, we're getting plenty of visitation throughout the U.S. and other parts of the world.
spk09: I might add on the margin, we're certainly seeing benefit in our airport properties as that dislocation happens. Seattle Airport, Boston Logan, Hilton is certainly seeing some pickup, obviously, from people being, unfortunately, dislocated or stranded. And on top of that, I'd say anecdotally, it was a talk to people who typically would come in for the day to meet. are flying the night before to ensure that they're going to get there. So I think a little bit of benefit of that to people just kind of being a little more cautious and actually, you know, staying a night versus doing a day trip.
spk12: All right. Thank you.
spk15: Our next question comes from the line of Jay Hornrich with SMBC. Please proceed with your question.
spk10: Hey, thanks. Good morning. Hey, Jay. Hey, how are you? I would be curious to hear your thoughts as, Business transient occupancy, as we know, still remains significantly below 2019 levels and accelerating. How do you see that delta in occupancy to 2019 providing a buffer in the event there is a mild recession and BT demand possibly holding up better than it historically has in a recession? Do you think that? And maybe on the flip side, whereas leisure demand is only operating at peak levels, how would you see that essentially faring in a mild recession?
spk01: Well, I would... It's a great question. I mean, obviously, anecdotally, we would believe that Business Transient would continue to withstand because the recovery is still underway. There's still a lot of pent-up demand. Business leaders, men and women, need to get out and send their teams out to certainly connect with customers and peers. So we would expect that In theory, if there's some sort of pullback, that there really would be less of an impact given where we are in that cycle.
spk10: And while I understand that's true for business transient, do you think there's a different impact on leisure demand? Does it maybe have that buffer of occupancy gap?
spk01: Yeah, I mean, everybody, trees don't grow to the sky. I mean, we're all benefiting from Certainly elevated travel on the leisure side, a lot of that because of the pen of demand. But I think you can make a case for this concept of leisure travel with people working remotely or hybrid. And I think that a stronger leisure footprint, I think we can make a case that it has legs. Now, does it have legs at 50% growth in REVPAR every year? I don't think that's achievable. and we are getting some of that benefit, but I certainly think those demand patterns are perhaps going to be altered as we fully come out of this pandemic and move forward.
spk10: Got it. And then just one more on the covenant waiver, which you've now exited. By exiting, what kind of flexibility does that provide you, or what opportunities open up by not being subjugated to that anymore, maybe on the external growth side or internally? What does that do for you?
spk09: Quite honestly, we put a lot of flexibility into the covenant relief with lots of buckets for acquisition activity and everything else. So I would say, quite honestly, it doesn't really free up. It doesn't make huge amounts of flexibility for us. I think it kind of existed already within the covenant relief period thanks to the banks for being flexible for us. So I think it's kind of business as usual. And ultimately, we still have flexibility under elevated leverage targets as those ramp down over time. and interest coverage, we certainly still have a little bit of cushion there to kind of build the portfolio back. But I don't think there's anything that we see is dramatic just because we've built in a lot of flexibility during the late period.
spk10: Okay. Got it. Thanks very much.
spk15: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of David Katz with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
spk04: Hi. Afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Good to hear you all. there's been a lot of discussion about asset sales in the 300 to 400. Can you just give us a little more depth or color around your sensitivity or philosophy of balancing valuation in the moment with the productivity that we've all discussed around getting some things sold? I guess I'm trying to gauge your aggressiveness or assertiveness meter?
spk01: I guess the first way I would answer it, David, I don't know that anybody has been more active over the last three, four years than we have. You know, we've sold 36 assets for $2 billion, joint ventures, 14 international, half of them incredibly complicated with a lot of hair and from Brazil, Germany, UK, Dublin, South Africa, the Netherlands, to our joint venture with Sunstone, to some small assets that we were self-operating. So we have constantly been working hard to reshape this portfolio and continue to improve the quality of it. That effort isn't going to continue. We're going to accelerate it. We don't, again, see the need to panic. We don't see it fire sale. We want to get the best price, and we certainly want them to be accretive for shareholders, as I think we've demonstrated. Could there be a situation where, depending on where the debt markets are and an asset that's non-core that we want to, do I think cap rates have compressed a little bit? or widen in this environment? Probably. But again, there's so much liquidity. I think $370 billion just on the private equity side. And there are 25 companies with over a billion dollars. So they've got to put that money to work. And so our objective is to find the right buyer for the assets that we're selling. But make no mistake, we are laser focused on deleveraging reinvesting back in the portfolio and closing this valuation gap. And that effort is only going to accelerate.
spk04: That's perfect. Thank you very much.
spk01: Thank you.
spk15: And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'll now turn the call over to Tom Baltimore for closing remarks.
spk01: Great to be with you today. I hope everybody has a great remainder of their summer and look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks and months.
spk15: And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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