Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise and later the floor will be open for your questions. If you would like to ask a question at that time please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. Lastly if you should require operator assistance Call today, please press star zero. And now at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Matt Capuzzi, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Jeff Blotty, our CEO, and Michelle Allen, our CFO and Head of Strategy. Before we get started, I want to remind you that our remarks today will contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risk factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risk factors are discussed in detail in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and any subsequent reports filed with the SEC. We'll also be referring to a number of non-GAAP measures, corresponding GAAP measures and a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to GAAP metrics, are provided in our earnings release, which is available on our investor relations website at investor.windomhotels.com. We are providing certain measures discussing future impact on a non-GAAP basis only because without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to provide the comparable GAAP metric. In addition, last evening we posted an investor presentation containing supplemental information on our investor relations website. We may continue to provide supplemental information on our website and on our social media channels in the future. Accordingly, we encourage investors to monitor our website and our social media channels in addition to our press releases, filing submitted with the SEC, and any public conference calls or webcasts. With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff.

Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As you saw with our release last night, We reported strong earnings this quarter with comparable adjusted EBITDA and EPS growth of 6% and 12% respectively. We grew our system 4%, saw strong increases in both our U.S. and international royalty rates, and meaningful growth in our ancillary fee streams. Year-to-date, we've generated over $170 million of adjusted free cash flow, and we've returned over $250 million to our shareholders. On the development front, we opened over 18,000 rooms in the quarter, 16% more room openings domestically than last year, and continued to improve our franchisee retention rate. Importantly, our franchise sales team here in the United States signed an impressive 33% more development deals in the quarter than they did last year, which helped grow our global development pipeline for the 16th consecutive quarter by 740 basis points year-over-year to a record 245,000 rooms. Domestically, net rooms grew sequentially in versus prior year, driven by a 3% net room growth in our mid-scale and above brands, with new additions like the award-winning Oceanfront Semi-Amu Golf and Spa Resort in the Pacific Northwest, which joins our trademarked by Wyndham collection. And we opened our first Echo Suites in Spartanburg, South Carolina, currently the 12th fastest growing county in America that has recruited 80 economic development projects over the past three years, totaling more than $5 billion in capital investment and creating nearly 6,000 new jobs. Our sales teams have been attracting and welcoming local infrastructure workers who've been checking into the hotel with up to seven-month lengths of stay. Internationally, we increased net rooms sequentially and by 8% versus prior year. Our EMEA team, which opened over 20% more rooms than they did in the second quarter of 23, once again grew net rooms sequentially and by 12% versus prior year, adding important new La Quintas in the United Arab Emirates and in Turkey, along with several stunning new destinations that our Wyndham Reward members will want to vacation at, like the luxurious Dolce by Wyndham Hotel and Spa in Versailles, France, and the Dolce by Wyndham Chesmet Turkey on the shores of the Aegean Sea. Our EMEA development pipeline also grew year over year by over 6%, and now represents an average REVPAR that is 10% higher than our current portfolio. Our Latin America team grew net room 6% sequentially, and by 11% versus prior year, adding nine resorts to our trademark and Ramada brands across Mexico, Panama, and the Caribbean, hotels which represent an 85% fee par premium to the region. Our development pipeline increased by 16% across Latin America and the Caribbean, representing an average rev par that is 7% higher than our current portfolio. Our Southeast Asia and Pacific Rim region which increased net rooms by 3% sequentially and by 11% versus last year, entered several new markets with hotels like the luxurious 850-room Wyndham Majestic Genting Highlands in Malaysia. And in China, our team grew net rooms by 3% sequentially and by 12% versus prior year on a direct franchising basis with some beautiful new openings, including our 20th, 21st, and 22nd Microtel hotels, which developers are choosing for both new build and conversion opportunities. New signing activity was strong across the country, with the team awarding another 34 new direct franchise development agreements, growing our pipeline to nearly 400 hotels, a 9% increase over prior year, and importantly representing a pipeline with nearly double the fee par of our current China system. U.S. RevPAR grew 30 basis points to prior year, which was an improvement of over 500 basis points sequentially from Q1 to Q2. Domestic occupancy finished a point ahead of prior year, indicating improving demand trends for the peak vacation season. That said, many of you have inquired about U.S. RevPAR performance in our lower chain scale brands. We believe, along with many in the industry, that the current RevPAR environment is transitory in nature. Historically, since 2000 and through four lodging cycles, U.S. REVPAR for the select service segments, which makes up the majority of our domestic system, has grown at a CAGR of 2.6% despite the occasional downturn. Last month, Smith Travel reaffirmed this perspective in their latest outlook, projecting 2.7% U.S. REVPAR growth in 2025 for the select service segments. We've been through similar situations before and we're confident that the Select Service REBPAR will bounce back as it always has historically. International REBPAR increased 7% the prior year in constant currency and accelerated 250 basis points from Q1 to Q2 when compared to 2019. Occupancy internationally remains a tailwind for the remainder of the year and is now 13% behind where it was in 2019. EMEA and Latin America REVPAR were both especially strong this quarter, increasing year over year by 15% and by 37% respectively, driven by strength in Greece, Spain, Turkey, the Middle East, and across the Caribbean. And the start of what looks to be a very strong summer across the European continents. Our franchisees are the foundation that enable Wyndham to deliver elevated experiences and service to our everyday travelers. To further enhance the value our brands provide, we're making travel to our hotels more seamless and more connected than ever. Earlier this month, we announced the rollout of our new Wyndham Connect guest engagement platform to help our franchisees curate personalized experiences for guests and drive increased ancillary revenue for our hotels. Nearly 2,000 hotels across North America are already embracing these best-in-class mobile-centric tools that leverage one of the most substantial AI-driven large language models in the industry to support franchisees' bottom lines while increasing guest satisfaction. Smart Mobile Check-in is speeding up the check-in process for both our guests and front desk agents, helping to verify guest information in advance and protecting owners from expensive chargebacks and reducing overall labor needs. Franchisees are driving additional ancillary revenues by effortlessly upselling early check-ins and late check-outs to guests, by upselling personalized room upgrades to higher floors to corner rooms into better views, and pre-selling various snacks, food, beverage, and other amenities to be placed in room before guests arrive. Our hotels are seeing upwards of $1,400 monthly in monetization opportunity on early check-in and late check-out alone. And our new AI-generated messaging that matters is allowing franchisees to communicate with and respond to guests via text message with ease and speed before, during, and after their stays. We're bringing technology typically offered in luxury and upscale segments to select service hotels, helping franchisees manage their businesses more efficiently, and creating guest experiences that make stays more meaningful, resulting in happier guests, increased repeat business, and more ancillary revenue for our franchisees, and consequently, Wyndham. In closing, we're extremely proud of the results we generated this quarter and our ability to deliver on the key pillars of our long-term growth strategy, including strong system and development pipeline growth, royalty rate expansion, increased ancillary fees, and the beginning of infrastructure capture, including the opening of our first of many Echo Suites extended stay hotels this year. As we enter our sixth year as a public company that franchises more hotels than any other, we're in a stronger position than ever before. Our ability to open more hotels than anyone else in the world for the past two years highlights the strength of Wyndham's differentiated brands and the strength of our franchise sales, marketing, technology, and operating leadership across the 95 countries in which we operate. We're confident in our growth strategy and in our ability to create substantial value both in the short term and the long term. As always, we want to thank our dedicated team members around the world who continue to make Wyndham Hotels and Resorts such a great place to work. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Michelle for more details on our financial performance. Michelle?