Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (REIT)

Welcome to the Ryman Hospitality Properties Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Ryman Hospitality Properties are Mr. Colin Reed, Executive Chairman, Mr. Mark Fiavanti, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Jennifer Hutchison, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Patrick Chaffin, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Patrick Moore, Chief Executive Officer, Opry Entertainment Group. This call will be available for digital replay. The number will be 800-723-1517 with no conference ID required. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Ms. Jennifer Hutchison. Ma'am, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. This call may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. including statements about the company's expected financial performance. Any statements we make today that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as believes or expects are intended to identify these statements, which may be affected by many factors, including those listed in the company's SEC filings and in today's release. The company's actual results may differ materially from the results we discuss or project today. We will not update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or any other reason. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures today. We reconcile each non-GAAP measure to the most comparable GAAP measure in exhibits to today's release. I will now turn the call over to Collin.

Thanks, Jen, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As you saw from our earnings release last night, our fourth quarter results and consequently our full year results were marginally below the guidance ranges we provided in November, primarily due to factors that impacted our same-store hospitality portfolio in the last two weeks of December. This was a little disappointing, but we were extremely delighted with the bookings production, which we see as an endorsement of our long-term product transformation. Mark is going to talk about the quarter in more detail in a moment, but before I hand off to him, I want to take a step back and remind you all of the strategic rationale for our multi-year transformational capital program. As we articulated during our investor day last year, we believe we've developed a strategy that gives us a unique advantage over other hospitality REITs And as a consequence, we're committed to the long-term positioning of our hotel assets to capture more of the extremely valuable premium group customer base. Now, one of the key differentiators of our business model is the ability to drive at least mid-teens unlevered returns on incremental growth investments in our portfolio. It is clear from our results over the last several years that our focus on creating value for our customers is generating superior returns for our shareholders. We have more opportunities in front of us than ever before. In our hospitality business, we're making significant investments in Gaylord Opryland and Gaylord Rockies to attract this incrementally high-rated corporate group business and induce higher outside-of-the-room spending by expanding food and beverage capacity and sellable space. We have completed the lobby and rooms renovation of the Gaylord Palms, which is now essentially a brand-new product. In fact, Mark and I were there yesterday with our board, and I've got to tell you, it's without question the best piece of work I think we've done as a company. It really is tremendous. And in 2025, we will embark on renovating the rooms at the Gaylord Texans. In our entertainment business, our major construction projects are just back online, and the country music and lifestyle category is stronger than ever. Category 10, the venue we designed under our brand partnership with Luke Combs, opened its doors in early November, followed by a new rooftop that opened just this week. And the transformational rooms and public space renovation at the W. Austin Hotel was completed at the end of last year. Furthermore, last month we made a strategic investment in a leading independent music festival business, Southern Entertainment, which creates a scalable platform for live music experiences more broadly and enables us to connect with even more country music fans. And we're excited about the brand activation opportunity behind Opry 100, which we think will pay dividends in the years to come. No question, some of these investments are disruptive in the near term. However, we remain awfully encouraged by the pace of bookings and the way the meeting community is responding to our capital plans, thus resulting in record number of group room nights on the books for all future years in our hotel business. And the enthusiasm for the country lifestyle segment in the US and globally is tremendous. Our customers are embracing our investments, reinforcing our conviction in our long-term strategy. Now, finally, let's not overlook the incredible results we were able to deliver in the full year of 24. Despite the disruption I just mentioned, consolidated revenue growth of 8%, consolidated adjusted EBITDA RE growth of 10%, and adjusted funds from operation of or AFFO growth of 12%. One last comment I would make. For those of you who attended our investor day last year that I referenced just a couple of minutes ago, you may recall we projected out a few years to show you what we thought was possible as we transform our physical assets. We said at the time that we felt our consolidated strategy could yield adjusted EBITDA RE in the range of $900 million to $1 billion in 2027. Now, as we sit here today, despite the political upheaval that we're all witnessing, high interest rates and high inflation rates, we believe that our strategies and capital projects have us well on track to achieving the goals we set out a year ago. The future has never been brighter, and we appreciate your ongoing support. And with that, I'll turn over to Mark to talk you through the quarter.