Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (REIT)

Welcome to Ryman Hospitality Properties' first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Hosting the call today from Ryman Hospitality Properties are Mr. Colin Reed, Executive Chairman, Mr. Mark Fioravanti, 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 is 800-934-3032 with no conference ID required. At this time, all participants have been placed on 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'll now turn it over to Colin.

Thanks, Jen. Good day, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We reported a very strong first quarter, including new first quarter records on top and bottom line. And we continue to grow the number of group room nights on the books for all future years relative to the same time last year. Gross group room nights booked in the first quarter of 26 and beyond were up double digits year over year at a record ADR book during any first quarter. In addition, our recent investments that have come back online delivered strong growth, while the investments currently underway in our hospitality segment remain on time and on budget. I suppose our first quarter results could have warranted an increase in our outlook for the rest of the year, but alas, we're living and operating in very strange times. Our federal government's objective of rebalancing U.S. trade with the rest of the world is, to say the least, creating uncertainty and stress in not just our economy, but most major countries throughout the world. Businesses, both big and small, are trying to work out what it means to them, and we are no different. For our meeting planners, this uncertainty has caused a new layer of complexity in their decision-making as regards to near-term meetings. As we sit here today, we started to see an uptick in attrition for meetings expected to travel more over the next few quarters, as well as a modest pullback in demand for the in-the-year, for-the-year bookings. Let me go off script a second here. Now, earlier today, we received our April production numbers, which were somewhat encouraging, and I think Patrick will give you some color on this data at the Q&A time. But it is our judgment that it is more likely than not that this caution will continue until some of these clouds of uncertainty disappear, which they will, but at this stage, we just don't know when. Primarily, that is what has caused us to slightly modify some aspects of our guidance that I'll touch on in a minute. The second objective of federal government is to materially lower the cost of government after years of unprecedented cost increases. And here we're dealing with what we have now come to know as DOGE. When this new department was announced, our expectations were that we could see some pullback in government-related business, which was captured in the low end of our prior guidance range. And so far, that is what has transpired. The good news for us is that we made a decision at the very start of the year to get ahead of any potential pullback And together with our operator, Marriott, we took an aggressive approach to margin management. In addition, our hotel leisure business returned to growth in the first quarter, reversing the trends we saw late in the holiday period of last year. So how do we interpret all of this as we look to the rest of the year? First of all, we think it's prudent to modify our four-year outlook for hospitality red park and total red park to reflect the likelihood that in the year-for-the-year group business will be somewhat weaker than our assumptions several months ago, and also to reflect the potential for incremental attrition and cancellation activity beyond what we have seen so far this year. Jennifer will take you through the detail of these changes in a minute. You'll note we're not lowering our outlook for adjusted EBITDA RE or adjusted funds from operations. Our strong first quarter results, together with our unique business model and the proactive efforts we have taken since the beginning of the year to manage our operating model and expense structure, allow us to maintain these ranges. Our business model is particularly important during times like this. The diversification of our customer base, specifically our exposure to association group business, mitigate short-term fluctuations during periods of uncertainty. Associations are in the business to meet, and generally those meetings occur regardless of economic conditions, the global pandemic, I suppose, notwithstanding. In 2025, we happen to have more association business on the books than we did in 2024. In addition, the contractual nature of group bookings provides a measure of downside protection through attrition and cancellation fees. Taking the great financial crisis as an example, Our profitability decline in 2009 was approximately half that of the broader lodging REIT sector. And finally, our single manager model, uniform hotel asset base, and how we deploy our asset management resources allow us to identify and effect changes to the operating model quickly, efficiently, and on a broad scale across the portfolio. Importantly, our focus on the customer means these efficiencies aren't coming at the expense of the customer value proposition. As regards entertainment business, things are in good shape all around. Good first quarter performance, and newly renovated projects back in service, new growth projects identified, and a few new projects that we have identified that we haven't discussed publicly as of yet are being worked on. Taken together, This means we can continue to focus on the long-term view while remaining nimble and responsive to the short-term market dynamics. And for our investors, this means we couldn't be better positioned for the current environment. Having managed this business through 9-11, the great financial crisis, a once-in-a-lifetime flood in Nashville in 2010, and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered our hotels and venues in 2020, I remain as confident as ever in our management team's ability to navigate this period of dislocation and emerge an even stronger company as we have demonstrated in prior periods of stress. Now, with that, let me turn over to Mark to discuss the quarter and our positioning in more detail. Mark?