Earnings Call Transcript - HST Q2 2022

Jaime Marcus, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, please note that many of the comments made today are considered to be 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. In addition, on today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial information, such as FFO, adjusted EBITDAre and hotel-level results. You can find this information together with reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP information in yesterday's earnings press release, and our 8-K filed with the SEC, and in the supplemental financial information on our website at hosthotels.com. With me on today's call will be Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jim.

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Jaime, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. Once again, we delivered significant outperformance during the second quarter, and substantially beat all consensus metrics. During the second quarter, our adjusted EBITDAre was $500 million, and our adjusted FFO per share was $0.58. Our all-owned hotel EBITDA of $510 million in the second quarter was 19% above 2019, driven by an accelerating recovery in our urban and downtown markets and continued strength in Sunbelt markets. In addition to exceeding 2019 levels, our second quarter adjusted EBITDAre was also the highest in Host's history. All-owned hotel revenues in the second quarter increased 3.7% over the second quarter of 2019, while all-owned hotel operating expenses were down 3.8%. The increase in revenues was driven by strong rates across the portfolio, coupled with stronger-than-usual other revenues. All-owned hotel RevPAR for the second quarter was $219, a 31% improvement over the first quarter. This represents the first time our quarterly RevPAR has exceeded 2019 levels since the onset of the pandemic. Our recent acquisitions, dispositions, and renovated properties continue to contribute to our performance, which I will discuss in a few minutes. Preliminary, all-owned hotel RevPAR for July is expected to be approximately $195, which is slightly above July of 2019. Consistent with historical seasonal trends and shifting business and market mix, we expect third-quarter nominal RevPAR to be below that of the second quarter. While macroeconomic concerns have been dominating the headlines, we are not seeing any signs of a weakening consumer in our business. As we look to history, it is worth discussing why we think today's macroeconomic environment, with respect to lodging is different. First, certain segments of the lodging industry are still recovering, and we believe there is meaningful room for growth, particularly in the business transient and group segments. Even more encouraging, hotels benefit from the ability to reprice rooms on a nightly basis ahead of rising costs, even during periods of high inflation, as was the case in the 1970s. Second, consumers and businesses have significantly more cash on hand with leverage and debt service ratios better than they were prior to the great financial crisis in 2008. The labor market is also exceptionally strong, with over three million more jobs opened than we had at the height of the last expansion and an unemployment rate hovering near a five-decade low. In addition, we have continued to benefit from a consumer spending rotation away from goods and into services, including travel, and we expect this trend to continue. Lastly, we expect to benefit from exceptionally low supply growth for the next several years. The total pipeline has fallen by 11% since the start of the pandemic and the number of rooms in construction is down 30%. As a result, industry projections suggest annual supply growth of just over 1% through 2023, well below the long-term average of 1.8%. In contrast, supply growth at the start of the last three downturns was running at over 2.5%. The market way to supply growth for Host's portfolio is projected to be approximately 1%, as we will benefit from exceptionally low growth in places like San Diego, Hawaii, and San Francisco. Despite these tailwinds, many are concerned about the potential impact to our business, which is still in a demand recovery mode. In the second quarter, group demand was 9% below 2019, while business transient demand was 25% below 2019. These factors could mean that any softening demand simply prolongs the trajectory of the lodging recovery instead of leading to an absolute decline in occupancy and rate. Irrespective of potential future macroeconomic challenges, we believe that Host is well positioned to outperform the broader industry. We have dramatically improved the quality of our portfolio through our capital allocation efforts. We have invested in our assets, and we have an investment-grade balance sheet. Further, we believe the current rising interest rate environment could create opportunities for Host, as other buyers may step to the sidelines. Our 2021 acquisitions continued to perform substantially ahead of our underwriting expectations. Based on updated performance for full year 2022, EBITDA from our seven new hotel acquisitions is expected to be 77% above our underwriting expectations, already putting us within our disclosed stabilization range of 10 times to 12 times EBITDA. Looking back on our transaction activity since 2018, we have acquired $3.2 billion of assets at a 14 times EBITDA multiple and disposed of $4.9 billion of assets at a 17 times EBITDA multiple, including $938 million of estimated foregone capital expenditures. Impairing all owned hotel 2019 results for our portfolio to 2017, we have increased the RevPAR of our assets by 11%, EBITDA per key by 25%, EBITDA margins by 190 basis points, and avoided considerable business disruption associated with capital projects. Turning to second quarter operations, our all-owned hotel revenue was up nearly 4% to second quarter 2019, driven by 15% rate growth. Transient revenue was up 10% compared to second quarter 2019 and rate was up 22% with growth driven by significant demand across our urban and downtown markets. Our resort properties continue to outperform with transient revenue up more than 50% to second quarter 2019, driven by 70% transient rate growth. We had five resorts with transient rates above $1,000 for the quarter and of those five, the two highest rates were at hotels we acquired in 2021. The Four Seasons Resort, Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort had a second quarter transient average rate that exceeded $1,500 and the Alila Ventana Big Sur had a transient average rate of over $2,000. Providing some detail on a few of our urban markets. San Francisco saw continued positive momentum throughout the second quarter with many groups performing at pre-pandemic levels on peak nights. Some of these are picking up on weekends and business transient is picking up with the return of big tech and consulting companies. In addition, San Francisco citywide throughout the quarter created a compression on peak nights for our downtown hotels. In New York, second quarter RevPAR was flat to 2019 and business transient rooms sold increased more than 75% compared to the first quarter. 2022 group pace for our New York hotels is up over 5% to 2019 and our New York Marriott Marquis is on track to exceed 2019 group room nights, driven by two significant bookings within the past 60 days. In total, these two groups booked 17,000 room nights and are expected to contribute approximately $5 million in the second half of 2022. Turning to group. Business surged back at our hotels during the second quarter. Group revenue was down just 3% to second quarter 2019, driven by 6% rate growth. In the second quarter, our hotels sold 1.1 million group room nights, a 64% increase over the first quarter, and we continue to be encouraged by net booking activity in the quarter for the quarter. Looking forward to our expectations for group in 2022, we currently have 3.5 million definite group nights on the books with 1.7 million coming in the second half. This is a meaningful increase to the 3 million group room nights we had on the books for 2022 as of the first quarter and it represents approximately 80% of 2019 actual group room nights, up from 70% last quarter. For comparison, at the end of the second quarter of 2019, we had 94% of 2019 actual group room nights on the books. Group rate on the books for 2022 is up 5% to the same time 2019, a 30 basis point increase over last quarter. For the remainder of the year, total group revenue pace is down just 30 basis points to the same time in 2019. As we look forward to 2023, we currently have 2.2 million definite group room nights on the books, which is down 16% to the second quarter of 2019. Our operators saw an acceleration in group bookings during the second quarter for 2023, that meeting planners are not hitting pause on future bookings. That said, we do expect the short-term nature of group bookings to continue over the near term. In addition to delivering significant operational improvements, we continue to execute on our three strategic objectives, all of which are aimed at elevating the EBITDA growth profile of our portfolio. As a reminder, our objectives include redefining the hotel operating model with our managers, gaining market share at hotels through comprehensive renovations, and strategically allocating capital to development ROI projects. We are targeting a range of $147 million to $222 million of incremental stabilized EBITDA on an annual basis from the initiatives and projects underlying our three strategic objectives. Sourav will get into more detail on business mix, markets, and redefining our operating model in a few minutes. We have completed 12 out of 16 properties in the Marriott Transformational Capital Program, and we expect to substantially complete three additional properties by the end of this year. We believe these renovations allow us to capture incremental market share, as is the case at the New York Marriott Marquis. It is evident that the renovated hotel is attracting new groups. Booking activity in the year, for the year, is 2.5 times the three-year pre-COVID average, and year-to-date group room revenue is 24% higher than 2019. In addition to the positive momentum we are seeing at the New York Marriott Marquis, we have seen a RevPAR index share gain of 8.8 points at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, on a trailing 12-month basis compared to its pre-renovation index, a 12.7-point gain at the New York Marriott Downtown, and an 11.9-point gain at the JW Marriott, Buckhead all far exceeding our targeted range of three to five points of RevPAR index gains at renovated assets. In addition, to the 16 Marriott Transformational Capital Program assets, we have eight hotels where we have completed or are in the process of completing major renovations. One of these is the Hyatt Regency, Maui, where we have seen a RevPAR index share gain of 8.5 points, since completing the transformational renovation in December of 2020. This hotel is expected to contribute $80 million in EBITDA in 2022 and is expected to be the largest EBITDA contributor to our portfolio this year. In total, the 16 Marriott Transformational Capital Program assets, the eight hotels where we have completed or are completing comprehensive renovations, and the seven hotels we recently acquired are expected to comprise over 50% of our 2022 all-owned hotel EBITDA. From 2020 through the end of this year, we will have invested approximately $1.5 billion in our hotels, which equates to $35,000 per key. This compares favorably to our lodging REIT peer average of just $19,000 per key. We believe our meaningful investments throughout the pandemic and the recovery position our portfolio to outperform. When the 24 comprehensive renovations are complete, the average age of our guest rooms will have decreased by over 25%. As it stands today over the next five years, we estimate that less than 1/4 of our portfolio will require disruptive guestroom renovations. In closing, we believe we are very well positioned to outperform as the lodging recovery continues. We have significantly improved the quality of our portfolio through our capital allocation efforts, meaningfully reinvested in our assets, and maintained a strong investment-grade balance sheet. As macroeconomic concerns play out, we will continue to be opportunistic and position our portfolio for outperformance. With that, I will now turn the call over to Sourav.

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Building on Jim's comments, I will go into detail on our second quarter operations and full year guidance before wrapping up on our balance sheet, our stock repurchase program, and our dividend. Starting with top line performance, second quarter all-owned hotel RevPAR of $219 exceeded 2019 for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Even more encouraging is that all three months in the quarter exceeded 2019 levels. Rate continues to drive the RevPAR upside especially at our Sunbelt and Hawaii hotels where rate was up more than 27% to the second quarter of 2019. Our urban and downtown hotels are showing a rapid improvement as well with rates just 2% below the second quarter of 2019. For context, this is a 30% improvement over the first quarter paired with a 73% sequential increase in rooms sold in these markets. Turning to transient mix. Overall transient revenue was up 10% over the second quarter of 2019 driven by 22% rate growth. Holidays in the second quarter had steady growth in both transient occupancy and rate over the second quarter of 2019. Memorial Day weekend achieved 76% occupancy, the highest holiday occupancy since the start of the pandemic. Our Sunbelt hotels and resorts achieved strong occupancy and rates with six markets exceeding 85% occupancy. Our urban and downtown hotels achieved the highest occupancies within our portfolio over the 4th of July weekend driven by hotels in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Business transient revenue was down 24% to the second quarter of 2019, but increased 66% over the first quarter, driven by a 48% increase in rooms sold. Business transient rooms sold grew progressively throughout the quarter and June set a new high watermark with more than 112,000 rooms sold beating the prior record set in May. The mix of business transient has now shifted to urban and downtown markets where rates exceeded Sunbelt markets and rooms sold grew 75% over the first quarter. In the second quarter, top 10 traditional accounts represented 56% of all business transient room nights compared to 60% in 2019. In addition, for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, weekday occupancy for our total portfolio surpassed weekend occupancy, yet another sign of a return to normalcy. Turning to Group. Revenue in the quarter was just 3% below the second quarter of 2019 driven by a 6% increase in rate. More than half of the 64% increase in Group rooms sold over the first quarter came from our urban markets including Washington DC, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. Further illustrating the surge in group demand, group revenue in June was up approximately 3% over 2019. Net, in the quarter for the quarter, group rooms booked were 77% higher than the second quarter of 2019. This is evidence of the continued short-term booking nature of group business and the basis for an optimistic outlook on group for the remainder of the year. Corporate group revenue was down just 5% compared to the second quarter of 2019, driven by a 10% improvement in rate. Corporate group rooms sold were up 56% over the first quarter and both rate and room nights were driven by growth in New York and San Francisco. Association group revenue was down 13% for the second quarter of 2019 aided by a 2% improvement in rate. However, association group rooms sold were up 74% to the first quarter of 2022 with most of the growth in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago. Short-term association business is becoming more active as attendance increases, and we expect bookings in this segment to pick up over time. Wrapping up on group with Social, Military, Educational, Religious and Fraternal or SMERF groups revenue was up 25% compared to the second quarter of 2019, driven fairly evenly by rooms sold and rates. Most of the increase in rooms sold over the first quarter occurred in our urban and downtown markets. Shifting gears to expenses, all-owned hotel expenses were down 3.8% to second quarter 2019 while all-owned hotel revenues were up 3.7%. Expense declines were driven by wages and benefit savings, down 7% to the second quarter of 2019. Our properties have worked to insulate operations from rising costs. And thus far we are not seeing a discernible impact on overall controllable operating costs. At this time, any expense growth is concentrated at our resorts where strong demand is driving increased rates and higher out-of-room spend. Turning to staffing and wages, staffing at our hotels remains at approximately 94% of desired levels based on business volume compared to 97% historically. While our operators filled several thousand open positions during the quarter, a lag between demand and staffing levels still exists at certain hotels. We expect this lag to gradually diminish through continued hiring and normal seasonal market and mix shift in the second half of the year. Wrapping up on expenses, we continue to expect our annual wage and benefit rate inflation for 2021 to 2022 to be in the 4% to 5% range. Taking our strong top line and expense controls together, our second quarter all-owned hotel EBITDA margin came in at 37.1% which is 480 basis points better than the second quarter of 2019 and the highest all-owned hotel EBITDA margin in Host's history. Margins improved in both Sunbelt and urban markets across all operating departments driven by strong rates and increased other revenue on the top line, combined with expense efficiencies and hiring challenges in certain markets. To-date, our operators have achieved approximately 70% of the $100 million to $150 million that is expected to come from potential long-term cost savings based on 2019 all-owned hotel revenues. As other revenues normalize and hiring continues, we expect margins will moderate while remaining above 2019 levels. Moving on to our outlook for 2022. We are pleased to be able to reinstate full year guidance, as we are now seeing more normal seasonal trends in our portfolio. We expect full year 2022 all-owned hotel RevPAR for our portfolio to be between $191 to $195, or down 4.5% to down 2.5% to full year 2019. As you think about the quarterly RevPAR cadence, we expect third and fourth quarter operations to be slightly above 2019. As a reminder, the first quarter of 2022 was severely impacted by Omicron, which drives our full year RevPAR range slightly below 2019. This range implies an adjusted EBITDAre of $1.445 billion to $1.510 billion and all-owned hotel EBITDA margin of 31.5% to 32.1%. For reference, the midpoint of these ranges is slightly above our 2019 all-owned hotel results as presented on pages 22 and 23 of our supplemental financial information. These estimated ranges are driven by normal seasonality at our Sunbelt hotels and resorts, alongside continued growth at our urban and downtown hotels, as group and business change in demand continues to pick up at a meaningful pace. Additional guidance details can be found in the reconciliations of our second quarter 2022 earnings release. Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity position. Our weighted average maturity is five years at a weighted average interest rate of 3.7% and we have no significant maturities until 2024. As of quarter end, we had $2.4 billion in total available liquidity, comprised of approximately $699 million of cash, $179 million of FF&E reserves, and full availability of our $1.5 billion credit facility. Subsequent to quarter end, our Board of Directors authorized an increase in our share repurchase program, increasing our total authorization back to $1 billion, which is consistent with our previous authorization. As is the case with our ATM Program, we view our share repurchase program as another capital allocation tool to help us maximize financial flexibility. Wrapping up, I am pleased to share that our Board of Directors authorized a third-quarter dividend of $0.12 per share on Host's common stock, a 100% increase over the prior quarter and the second time we have doubled our dividend this year. All future dividends are subject to approval by the company's Board of Directors, but we expect to be able to maintain our quarterly dividend at a sustainable level, taking into consideration potential macroeconomic factors. To conclude, we believe the operating improvements we have seen this year signal a robust lodging cycle ahead. As we have seen quarter after quarter during this recovery, our portfolio, our balance sheet, and our team are differentiated and well positioned to continue outperforming in any macroeconomic environment. With that, we would be happy to take your questions. To ensure we have time to address as many questions as possible, please limit yourselves to one question.

Operator, Operator

The floor is now open for questions. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Neil Malkin, Analyst

Hi, everyone. Good morning. It was a fantastic quarter across the board. Great job. Regarding MTCP, it's clear that it is significantly ahead of schedule and outperforming expectations. Can you discuss what you're observing in terms of group impact? You mentioned that you're bringing in some new groups. Could you elaborate on how you expect the strategic renovations at larger, more complex hotels to drive group performance to new heights, especially considering how much lower associations are now, being down about 8% or 9% from 2019? Any quantification of that in terms of run rate or similar metrics would be helpful. Thank you.

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Neil. Look, we couldn't be happier with the performance we're seeing out of our MTCP hotels as well as other hotels that we embarked on transformational comprehensive renovations. We think it was a very good time to be renovating our properties. By the end of this year, we will have invested $1.5 billion in our assets, which equates to roughly $35,000 a key. And relative to the REIT peer group, where they spend $19,000 a key, we believe that that puts our portfolio in the full position to outperform going forward. So, in addition to the few properties that we referenced on the call today, with respect to RevPAR index, let me remind you that we have talked about gaining three to five points of market share. That's how we underwrote our investments in the MTCP assets. We are blowing through those numbers. We have, in addition to the New York Marriott Downtown, which is up 12.7 points and the JW Buckhead, which is up 11.9, Coronado Island is up over seven points now, the Don CeSar is up over five points, it's close to six points, and the others that are coming back online, it’s a little too soon to really look back to the baseline because we don't have enough run room yet. But I think the New York Marriott Marquis is an excellent example of what a fully refreshed and renovated hotel will do for you, because the booking activity and the level of group room nights that we've seen at that property are off the charts. So, we expect as we get back to a sense of normalcy, which is clearly a direction we're heading in the business in general that our properties are going to continue to take more market share. There are just a lot of hotels out there that haven't had any capital invested in them. And regardless of whether or not properties are renovated, and they suffer the attendant disruption, we'll pick that up. And if they're not renovated, well, the Marquis, the flagship that we can point to.

Neil Malkin, Analyst

Thank you.

Aryeh Klein, Analyst

Thanks and good morning. On the group side, can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing on rates for new bookings? And then in-quarter group bookings have been well above 2019 for you and the industry. Can you talk a little bit about why that might be sustainable? And is that something that could be disproportionately impacted if the macro were to worsen?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure, Aryeh. On the group side, I mean the rate story has been really strong. And what I'll say is for the second half of the year, we actually picked up 30 basis points in rate relative to what we had at the end of Q1. So our rate for the balance of the year is around 4.7%. And that holds true not only for the second half of the year but also looking out into 2023, where our rates are up close to 5% as well. What's super encouraging on the group side, I think a good stat to really look at is most recently, so despite all the macro noise, if you look at what we picked up in June for Q2, so we picked up 121,000 group room nights in the quarter for the quarter, which is 77% above 2019. In the second quarter for Q3 and Q4, we picked up about 319,000 room nights and that's 40% above 2019. And when you look at just June again for the second half, we picked up 126,000 room nights, which is 61% over 2019. So these are obviously meaningful pick-up, most recently not only for Q2 but at the end of Q2 in June, which really indicates sort of strength in the group business, particularly I would say corporate group and the association is falling right behind it as well and picking up for the second half. And the rates thus far are super encouraging again for June relative to 2019 group rate was actually up 44%.

Aryeh Klein, Analyst

Thanks. And then just on the sustainability of in-quarter for the quarter bookings. Is that something you'd expect to continue?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

We do it. I mean it probably temper a little bit. I mean it's very difficult to say because it's such short-term business how much in the quarter for the quarter business will get or how much in the month for the month. But based on the trends we saw in Q2 in April, May, and June, we would expect again a meaningful amount. I don't know if it's going to be exactly what we saw in Q2, but certainly a meaningful amount of short-term business pick up in the third and fourth quarters.

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Aryeh, one comment on 2023. One of the very encouraging facts that we can point to is that meeting planners have not hit pause. We're still seeing strong booking activity into 2023 with $2.2 million definites on the books for 2023 and the total group revenue pace continues to improve. It's down 9% now to 2019, with strong ADR growth. So hotels booked I think 253,000 group room nights in the quarter for 2023. That activity was about 83% of 2019 levels, which is about on par with where it was in the first quarter. So very encouraging as we look out beyond even 2022.

Aryeh Klein, Analyst

Thanks.

Chris Woronka, Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys. Jim, realizing that you don't solve for occupancy and understanding your data points about how much corporate and group occupancy is still possibly to be captured going forward. But do you think we're headed for structurally lower occupancy given the rates that you're able to get on the business you have? And the fact that the labor market might be tight for a while and you might not be able to get as much labor as you need at the price you want. So do you think we're going to end up 300 basis points or something lower on when we peak this cycle?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, there’s a lot to unpack in that question. Regarding labor, we’ve been running at about 94% of optimal levels compared to 97% pre-pandemic. That 97% figure may be slightly inflated because during the pandemic we took the chance to reevaluate our budgets for every hotel. We’ve reduced several positions, leading to improved efficiency and productivity, which is reflected in our margin performance. I believe the labor situation will stabilize. We expect wage growth this year to be around 4% to 5%, likely closer to the lower end of that range. This is not excessive. Regarding occupancy, we are seeing positive trends in both the group segment and the business transient segment. We are increasing business transient room nights and are not experiencing any softness in that area. It’s just a matter of time before we see changes, though this recovery will not happen uniformly across the country. Some markets will take longer to return to 2019 levels, while others are already experiencing this recovery. In summary, we fully expect to see a return to peak occupancy levels in both the business transient and group segments.

Chris Woronka, Analyst

Great. Thanks, Jim.

Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst

A little bit about holiday bookings. How do those bookings look relative to what you normally have on the books at this time and any new patterns emerging?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Duane, I think, you were asking about holiday bookings. Looking out into Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst

Exactly. How does that look relative to what you normally have on the books at this time? I realize it's a long way out. But clearly the trend on 3Q is a rotation from leisure to more corporate and group dependent. But as we look to kind of fourth quarter and beyond how do your holiday bookings look?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Very strong. Very, very strong. If you look at total Host, I would tell you that we're up into the double digits in terms of total revenue for Thanksgiving. And actually for Christmas, we are seeing a solid pickup as well, obviously, being driven by the Sunbelt markets and Maui. But that stat in and of itself gives us comfort that there's not going to be the pullback in consumer spending at our resort properties that some folks have talked about.

Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst

I appreciate that. I have a quick follow-up regarding the group. I know you mentioned some significant events that recently took place in New York. What is the trend in average group size as your bookings increase?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

The average group size is actually very similar to what we saw back in 2019. It's not necessarily lower. There certainly what's happening is certainly certain groups are contracting for less, but then ending up increasing the minimum and actually spending more. Therefore, you'll see sort of a banquet and catering business pick up meaningfully well as well.

Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst

Thank you.

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And that's not just for Host that's across the board. And just a quick stat on Labor Day and Jim's touched upon Thanksgiving and Christmas, our transient occupancy pace is ahead by 20% and our rate is a pace ahead by 17% relative to 2019 for transient rate.

Bill Crow, Analyst

Hey good morning. Just a couple of questions. I apologize for that more than one here. But what are you seeing on shorter nights on Thursdays and Sundays that may or may not be indicative of any changes to the consumers' appetite?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

We are actually seeing in the second quarter particularly as you saw in May and June things are returning to very similar patterns of what we saw in 2019 in terms of weekday and weekend. And now the weekday occupancy as we talked about has exceeded weekend occupancy for the portfolio it's about a six-point difference when you look at the second quarter's weekday occupancy at 76% versus weekend at 70%. And when you look at Sunbelt and Hawaii, it's about a five-point difference; and then the urban it's about an eight-point difference. So urban is right now at 76% and weekend at 69%. So as we get back to a more normalized mix of business and as the urban downtown hotels pick up occupancy, we are seeing very, very similar weekday and weekend patterns relative to 2019.

Bill Crow, Analyst

Okay. So maybe fewer long weekends than what we had seen before. Is that fair?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That's fair.

Bill Crow, Analyst

I have two questions regarding 2023. First, regarding your Sunbelt resorts, specifically in Florida and Arizona, do you anticipate that RevPAR will increase at those properties compared to 2021 and certainly 2019? Secondly, Jim, I'd like to push back on your view about group demand for next year. Should we really consider being down 16% in demand compared to 2019 a cause for celebration, especially given that we haven't had meetings for two years and there is clearly pent-up demand?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

You're talking about 2023, Bill? Yes, I'm talking about 2023, but in both cases the Sunbelt leisure comp to 2021 or excuse me to 2022 and where the group pace is? Again, the trends are moving in the right direction on the group pace. Let me talk about that first. The fact that we were able to book 253,000 group room nights in the quarter for 2023 and the activity was about 83% of 2019 levels. I think that we're not seeing anything that would lead us to believe that group is not going to continue to come back. I mean there is a lot of pent-up demand there. And based on conversations that our asset managers and revenue managers are having with our property managers and media planners everyone intends to get back to normal. I mean keep in mind what happened this year in the first quarter with Omicron. It really put a damper on things and we're seeing the business recover and feel pretty good about how 2023 is going to play out. So we're down 9% on the group revenue pace I think we'll see that gap continuing to close. So group revenue is pacing ahead of same time in 2019 for markets like the Florida Gulf Coast, Hawaii, New Orleans, and San Antonio. So we are seeing some positives in individual markets and we expect that will continue going forward. With respect to resort ADRs, we talked about this on the last call. And we do have some seasonality involved here with respect to our properties, but the fact that we drove $1,000 transient ADRs at five resorts in Q2 is very positive. We're not seeing the consumer pullback whatsoever and we intend to continue to ask for rate going forward. We're optimistic that we're going to be able to continue to drive rate maybe not at the same levels as we did in 2021 in this year, but we'll continue to ask for a rate going forward as long as the demand is there.

Bill Crow, Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Floris Van Dijkum, Analyst

Hey, guys. A question on capital allocation. With the increased authority to buy back stock, maybe if you can talk about sort of how you weigh all the options of buybacks versus refurbishments versus new acquisitions? And maybe touch upon what you're seeing right now in the acquisitions market and we haven't seen a whole lot of hotels trade? What your view is and whether that provides a competitive advantage to Host? And could we expect something activity there, or will you look at your own stock trading at a pretty substantial discount to consensus NAV and look to invest in? What's going to be the trigger for those decisions?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

We are uniquely positioned as a buyer of assets in the current marketplace due to the challenges in accessing debt for acquisitions. We are monitoring numerous transactions and will evaluate whether to invest in an asset, considering our current cost of capital and underwriting requirements, as opposed to repurchasing our stock this year and into next year. There hasn't been a significant adjustment in the price expectations from buyers or sellers in the hotel market, which is one reason for the slowdown in transactions. Additionally, it is quite difficult for buyers to tap into the debt markets right now. With our current liquidity, including a $1.5 billion revolver and the cash we expect to generate as our business progresses, we are well-positioned. We prioritize investing in our assets where we can measure the return on investment, particularly through major renovations and projects. We will balance this investment with share buybacks and further investments in hotels.

Floris Van Dijkum, Analyst

Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it.

Michael Bilerman, Analyst

Thank you, Jim. I’d like to discuss the share buyback. How did you determine the size of the $1 billion buyback compared to the previous authorization? What prompted the decision to increase it to that amount? Also, could you share your thoughts during the quarter when discussions were happening about leveraging the market volatility? If you hadn’t proceeded with it then, how are you planning to approach buybacks in the future?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, we took the buyback authorization to where it was pre-pandemic, Michael. We had a $1 billion authorization. We had $371 million remaining on it. So we took it back to $1 billion. And we will continue to watch where our stock trades relative to our view of the business environment and how 2022 is going to play out and how we're feeling about 2023, as we get in a little further into this year and start thinking about budgets next year. And if there is a disconnect between the value of our stock price and how we think the company is going to perform, then we'll take advantage of that dislocation and enter the capital markets. We view the share buyback activity as another capital allocation tool.

Michael Bilerman, Analyst

Jim, how did you perceive the volatility during the quarter? Your stock performed exceptionally well from January to early June, but then it dropped from $21 to below $6. Were you unable to act at that time, or did you feel uncertain about the market’s direction? Given how well your assets were performing due to your investments and your operating platforms, as well as the assets you retained compared to those you sold, why didn't you take any action? I understand hindsight is easy, but I'm trying to grasp the Board's perspective during that period, especially after having reinvested when the price was substantially lower than its recent highs.

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, we certainly hope that the price doesn't go down from here. But at times, Michael, it just pays to be patient. And as things were playing out with geopolitical events, the price of oil, and quantitative tightening, we just felt that it was more prudent at this point in time to preserve cash, to sit back, and to see what other opportunities might present themselves. So as I said, it's real time. There's a famous saying out there, when the facts change your opinion changes. So we'll keep it on how things are playing out.

Michael Bilerman, Analyst

I'll remind myself of that on our ratings too. You got to stay active when the facts change. I appreciate that Jim. Thanks for the time.

David Katz, Analyst

Hi. Good morning everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Just looking at Host as a platform and an enterprise, I know that you've historically been somewhat of a leader in putting forth analytics resources and so forth. You've covered an awful lot of operating ground, but I'd love to hear you talk about some of those and what you've added and how you're utilizing those in the current environment?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure, David. We could talk for a long time about that because our analytics platform is highly comprehensive and plays a crucial role in our capital allocation decisions. This includes identifying markets with growth potential above our portfolio and analyzing data for our existing assets to uncover opportunities for value creation upon acquisition. We've even pinpointed these opportunities before the acquisition process to see how we can unlock value. This applies not only to operational improvements but also to return on investment opportunities. Our CapEx team is very strong, and when we identify these opportunities, we examine both revenue potential and cost metrics to ensure we are confident in the expected returns from any investment. The same is true for asset management; our analytics team, particularly in revenue management and business intelligence, collaborates closely with our property managers to identify opportunities and conduct various proof of concepts. We strive to be first to market, whether that involves using new technology for productivity enhancements or developing innovative sales strategies for our hotels. Our approach encompasses not just individual assets but also seeks to identify meaningful drivers at a portfolio level. We conduct extensive portfolio analytics that can have a significant impact. If we notice trends at one or two hotels, we work with our brand partners and key managers to implement those changes across our portfolio. I'm happy to provide further details on this topic, as I am quite passionate about it, but I also want to be mindful of our time.

David Katz, Analyst

I appreciate that. The point being, are you able to prove to yourselves that this is an advantageous asset in the current environment?

Sourav Ghosh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

100%. Because we have data down to every account level detail and I would say, it's not just quantitative data, frankly, we have done a lot of qualitative analysis. And what I mean by that is our revenue management teams or our BI teams, actually go out to the properties, every single property that we have in our portfolio, and understand the actual organizational structure, and the various processes that they have in place. And it really is a partnership with our managers to drive improvements at our assets. And so we have a lot of best practices that we are aware of, which we can certainly apply the time to make an acquisition.

Anthony Powell, Analyst

Thank you for fitting me in here. A question on development overall. I mean, can you give us an update on the prospects for the golf course development in Maui, maybe more broadly, I know hotel room specifically don't develop, but you guys have a lot of data, you have a lot of expertise in construction. You may be one of the better positions to develop and we've seen the premium for newer assets in the market in terms of rate. So this cycle would have made more sense to explore development opportunities as the cycle continues and we recover?

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Anthony, we're not typically a developer per se. We have developed a few properties over the course of time, most recently on an excess parking lot at our Westin Kierland in Phoenix, we build an AC Hotel, and we will work through the entitlement process and look to add value at the golf courses in Maui, and continue to really drive ROI projects, like we did with the 19 villas at the Andaz Wailea, and other properties like that. But I don't think you should expect us to be a greenfield developer, where we're out doing big ground-up deals. We just don't think that that is a good use of our capital. And I might add that as part of the Noble Investment, we do have the ability to participate in a development fund with Noble, and bring out our expertise to bear, and not tie up all of our capital on our balance sheet. So that's one of the reasons we made the strategic investment in Noble.

Operator, Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. The Q&A session has concluded. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Jim Risoleo for any closing remarks.

Jim Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us on our call today. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our quarterly results with you. We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer, and look forward to seeing many of you in-person this fall. Thank you for your continued support.

Operator, Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.