Pebblebrook Hotel Trust Q3 FY2024 Earnings Call

Greetings and welcome to Pebblebrook Hotel Trust Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants are currently in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Raymond Martz, Co-President and Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Donna, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter 2024 earnings call and webcast. Joining me today is Jon Bortz, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Fisher, our Co-President and Chief Investment Officer. Before we begin, please note that today's comments are effective only for today, November 8, 2024. Our comments may include forward-looking statements as defined under federal securities laws, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed today. For a comprehensive analysis of potential risks, please consult our most recent SEC filings and visit our website for detailed reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures mentioned today. Okay. We have a lot to cover today. So let's move to our third quarter results. We are pleased to report that despite the negative impact of two named storms on several properties this quarter, our third quarter hotel operating results were in line with our outlook. RevPAR growth was driven by occupancy increases at both our urban and resort properties, market share recovery and gains at many of our recently redeveloped properties. The ongoing recovery of business group and transient demand along with strong resort and urban weekend leisure travel fueled our occupancy gain, even as the broader industry experienced a continued normalizing of leisure travel trends. In the third quarter, same-property RevPAR increased by 2.2%, landing squarely in the middle of our outlook range and would have exceeded 2.4% if not for the impact of the hurricanes. Our outperformance significantly outpaced the industry's RevPAR growth of 0.9% and a 0.5% gain in our specific markets, highlighting our portfolio's success in growing market share. This growth is largely driven by our recently redeveloped and renovated properties and the strong recovery of our urban markets. Total RevPAR rose by 2.7% propelled by increased occupancy and strong out-of-room spending, which grew 3.8%. These positive trends more than offset the approximate 30 basis point negative impact from the storm. Our same-property hotel EBITDA reached $110.8 million, comfortably in the middle of our outlook range even after absorbing an approximate $1.2 million negative impact from the two named storms. It is important to note that while LaPlaya was the most significantly affected property by the storms, it is excluded from our same-property reporting due to its restoration following Hurricane Ian. We're also pleased to report that adjusted EBITDA exceeded the midpoint of our Q3 outlook by $8.7 million and surpassed the top end by $6.2 million. Adjusted FFO beat the midpoint of our outlook by $9.7 million or $0.08 per share despite an estimated $1.5 million negative impact from Hurricanes Debby and Helene. This outperformance was largely due to $7.1 million in business interruption proceeds related to LaPlaya from Hurricane Ian, which we hadn't factored into our prior Q3 guidance. We had previously anticipated $2.7 million in BI proceeds in the fourth quarter, which we no longer expect. Our strongest urban markets in third quarter were Chicago, San Diego and Boston. These cities benefited from active convention calendars, improved weekday business travel and the ongoing return of leisure demand. Additionally, our urban Portland properties showed a promising 18% increase in occupancy compared to the same quarter last year. We're optimistic that this represents the beginning of sustainable recovery in this late-to-recover market. Our urban properties occupancy increased by 3.7% year-over-year in Q3. Urban weekend occupancy rose by 3.9%, exceeding 85% bolstered by a sustained return of leisure travel in the cities. Urban weekday occupancy grew by 3.8% year-over-year, 77.8%, reflecting continued healthy recovery in group and transient business demand and a strong convention calendar in a number of our markets. Out-of-room spending remained healthy, resulting in a 2.7% increase in urban total RevPAR. The demand at all of our Southeast properties were impacted by Hurricane Debby in early August and more significantly, the Hurricane Helene in late September. While LaPlaya Beach reported in April has seen modest physical damage, it’s important to note that storms historically lead to cancellations and reduced bookings both before and after they hit, which explains a broader impact on our Southeast properties. In our resorts segment specifically, despite the impact of the named storms, same-property occupancy declined by 5.9% year-over-year, reaching 74.3%. Resort weekday occupancy improved by 6.7% and resort weekend occupancy grew by 5.2%. These are very encouraging trends that highlight the benefits of our significant capital reinvestments, making our properties more appealing to both group and leisure travelers, and allowing us to gain meaningful market share. A key driver of our resorts weekday occupancy growth was the over 10% increase in group demand, led by a surge in the business group segment specifically. While business group demand at resorts typically comes at a lower ADR at weekend leisure bookings, essentially given the impression of declining property ADRs, the business group segment generates substantial out-of-room revenue, particularly in food and beverage, and frequently drives more total revenue and EBITDA per occupied room than transient segments. For example, in Q3, our same-property resort ADR declined by 4.8% compared to the prior year period, primarily due to a higher mix of business group booking. Excluding business group, our resort ADR declined by only 1.9%, highlighting the impact of demand mixes on ADR, specifically a higher portion of business group in this case. This also reflects the normalization of leisure weekend ADR, which appears to be stabilizing. Strong demand for business groups and the resulting shift in our customer mix contributed to an overall increase in same-property resort total RevPAR of 2.5%, significantly higher than the 0.8% increase in same-property resort RevPAR alone. Across our total same-property portfolio in the third quarter, group room nights grew by 9.1% year-over-year with ADR increasing 1.9%, driving a total group revenue increase of 11.2%. Group revenue accounted for about 24% of total room revenue in the quarter. Transit demand also strengthened with room nights up 2.8% year-over-year across the portfolio, but transit revenue remained roughly flat. This growth was supported by higher bookings through consortia partnerships. However, international inbound demand still remains well below pre-pandemic levels. Turning to profitability, our intense focus on efficiency and cost reduction across all departments continues to yield positive results. Total same-property hotel expenses before fixed expenses such as real estate taxes and insurance costs increased by 3.2%, while same-property occupancy grew by 4.2%. This means we're able to decrease cost per occupied room again in the third quarter. Year-to-date, total same-property hotel expenses have increased by just 2.7%, with occupancy up 3.7%. Our aggressive approach to efficiency and best practices has effectively mitigated inflationary pressures, including wages and benefits. These continuous and relentless efforts position us well to manage anticipated wage and benefit cost pressures in 2025 and beyond. Regarding capital investments, we rebranded our Delfina Santa Monica Hotel as Hyatt Centric on September 18. The $16 million property refresh is already underway and expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year. The brand transition temporarily disrupted property performance in September and we expect that impact to continue significantly into Q4. However, as we realign customer awareness and marketing programs with the new Hyatt brand, we believe this integration will drive a strong rebound once fully embedded into the Hyatt system. Net of key money provided by Hyatt, we expect to invest $90 million to $95 million in capital projects across our portfolio this year. Over the last several years, we have completed major redevelopment and repositioned nearly all of our properties. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars to dramatically enhance our portfolio's quality and elevate properties' market position. Where we have already made substantial investments, the majority of the upside remains to be realized. We're already seeing incremental returns from these investments, with many of our recently redeveloped properties outperforming during the quarter and year-to-date. We expect this positive momentum to continue as these properties further ramp up their performance. Now that our major capital investment program is largely complete, we're poised for significantly lower CapEx over the next few years. Moving on to the restoration of LaPlaya, as we detailed in our Hurricane Milton press release last week, the resort experienced property damage from Hurricane Helene on September 26 and from Milton on October 9. The damage was primarily due to storm surge, with water and sand intrusion affecting approximately 20 ground floor guest rooms in the 79 room Beach House building and the resorts pool complex. Fortunately, the majority of the resort, including the Gulf Tower and Bay Tower, which together has 110 guest rooms sustained minimal damage. Our previous capital investments in LaPlaya and our other Southeast properties have significantly enhanced their storm resilience, minimizing damage and reducing the time needed to restore operations even after such events. And we're pleased to report that the Gulf Tower and Bay Tower fully reopened on November 1. After being closed, we first evacuated and closed the day before Hurricane Milton in Florida on October 9. Thanks to our team's extensive preparation efforts, including positioning a third-party remediation team nearby, we were able to begin cleanup and repairs immediately after the storms. We are targeting to reopen our pools between now and the end of the year as soon as the new pool permit arrives. We're also targeting to reopen the upper floors of the Beach House in the next few months and complete ground floor guest rooms by the end of the first quarter of next year. Our ability to achieve these targets is based upon receiving all necessary governmental approvals in a timely manner and avoiding supply chain delays for construction materials and FF&E. Costs for these repairs and restoration work will be covered by insurance after deductible. Turning to our revised outlook for the fourth quarter in 2024, we estimate that the combined impact of Hurricane Helene and Milton will reduce Q4 same-property RevPAR by approximately 100 basis points resulting in a $2.5 million decrease in same-property hotel EBITDA. Please note that these same-property numbers exclude LaPlaya, which was not part of same-property reporting this year. When including LaPlaya, we estimate the total negative impact in Q4 from the two hurricanes to be about $10 million and adjusted FFO and adjusted EBITDA with LaPlaya accounting for $7.5 million of this amount. We also estimate that the Hyatt Centric brand transition will reduce our Q4 RevPAR by approximately 100 basis points, leading to a $1.4 million reduction in same-property hotel EBITDA. So now, for the weather and rebranding impacts, our Q4 RevPAR outlook would be 1% to 3% increase. The remaining $3 million reduction in our Q4 same-property EBITDA outlook is attributed to slightly weaker-than-expected transient demand in several urban markets, including LA, San Francisco, Austin, and Washington DC. Most of the softness seems to stem from a weaker final week of October and the first week of November, as the election appears to have had a more significant impact on travel than previous presidential elections. Shifting now to our balance sheet, we've actively worked on to strengthen our financial position and extend our debt maturities. On October 3, we successfully completed our inaugural issuance of $400 million of attractively priced 6.378% senior unsecured notes maturing in 2029. We used these proceeds to significantly reduce our 2024, '25, and '27 bank term loan. Additionally, on November 4, we announced the extension of the vast majority of our remaining 2025 bank term-loan to 2029. We also extended the majority of about $600 million of our $650 million unsecured credit facility from 2027 to 2029. As a result of these refinancing efforts, we have no significant debt maturities until December 2026 and our debt is well-structured with a weighted-average interest rate of just 4.3%. And finally, as the hotel industry and our portfolio continues to normalize, we made the decision to discontinue the monthly operating update we started during the pandemic. We initiated these updates during the pandemic to provide timely information to our shareholders during a period of significant uncertainty and rapid change. Stepping back from these monthly updates signals our confidence in the improved stability of both the industry and our portfolio. And with that comprehensive update, I'd like to turn the call over to Jon to provide more details on our hotel operating results and our expectations for the future. Jon?

Thanks, Ray. I thought I'd start with a simple evaluation of the industry's performance, provide some further insight on our performance, briefly highlight some of the significant share gains from our redeveloped properties and then provide some high-level thoughts on 2025 for both the industry and for Pebblebrook. So let's start with the industry. In Q3, business group demand continued to grow and business transient demand continued to recover as return-to-office patterns improved. Leisure demand was a little more complicated. While overall leisure demand remained healthy, it was roughly flat year-over-year. This was partly due to international outbound travel, boosted by the Olympics in Paris, outpacing the inbound recovery following the pandemic. In addition, the return of leisure demand to the cities, particularly the coastal cities that suffered most during the pandemic has negatively impacted overall industry resort demand as historical demand patterns normalized. We also continue to see a noticeable difference in demand across price segments with stronger performance at the upper end compared to the mid to lower priced segments. We talked about this before. We believe this is largely due to economic pressures impacting individuals in lower-income brackets where pandemic-related governmental support has largely phased out, personal savings have diminished and high credit card interest rates along with inflation have created added financial strain. The STR data reflects these challenges and we've heard similar comments from companies in many other industries. Encouragingly, employment remains strong and wage increases in this lower-income group are solidly outpacing inflation, which should provide support for a better 2025. The unusual aspect of the hotel industry this year, at least from our perspective, is that demand has remained flat despite healthy GDP growth, a trend persisting since April of last year. This suggests that demand patterns changed significantly during and after the pandemic and have been normalizing over the last 18 months. We believe most of this normalization has now occurred and is winding down, positioning the industry favorably for 2025. Assuming continued healthy economic growth, as most economists are forecasting, we expect demand growth in 2025 to better align with GDP growth. With supply remaining extremely limited, this should result in healthy occupancy growth next year. For Pebblebrook, as evidenced by our Q3 and year-to-date results, we're not following the industry's flat demand performance, thanks to several factors. First, our properties are all positioned in the upper-upscale or luxury segments, making them much less impacted by the challenges faced by travelers in more price-sensitive segments. Second, a significant portion of our portfolio resides in the urban markets that continue to regain significant occupancy with leisure and business transit demand returning and group bookings growing. Third, we're also regaining occupancy that was previously displaced by last year's renovations and redevelopments. And fourth, we're gaining market share in most of the properties we redeveloped over the past few years. However, we faced certain market headwinds all year, including in the third quarter that are negatively impacting our performance. Three urban markets, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland, all took a step backward this year, each for different reasons. San Francisco experienced a significant decline in convention business this year, negatively affecting occupancy but even more so putting pressure on rates. Encouragingly, this demand drop was more than offset by increases in business transient, in-house business group, and recovering leisure travelers to the city. Convention calendar is expected to strengthen significantly next year, up 50%, and is currently trending to be in better shape in future years. Los Angeles and Portland have had different headwinds. LA faced significant reductions in demand due to the entertainment industry strikes last year and the potential for a strike this past summer. We're seeing production begin to return, albeit gradually, and we're encouraged that this trend should accelerate as the Governor just announced a doubling of entertainment production financial incentives next year. Portland's recovery has been slower due primarily to quality of life challenges that were exacerbated during the pandemic. However, there have been noticeable improvements recently as local policies have been implemented to promote a safer and cleaner city. As Ray indicated, we've seen a significant recovery in Portland's business demand this year, particularly in Q3, and we expect 2024 will represent the market's bottom with a more robust recovery ahead. The combined RevPAR for these three urban markets declined 5.7% in the third quarter, and we're forecasting a decline of 5.6% for the full year. Combined, these three markets present a year-over-year EBITDA decline of over $17 million for this year. In contrast, our urban properties in Boston, San Diego, and Chicago grew combined RevPAR by 9.6% in the third quarter, and they're forecasted to achieve 8.1% growth for the full year. Combined EBITDA from these three markets is currently forecasted to increase by $15.5 million this year. So quite a contrast between the faster recovering cities and the slower recovering cities. We anticipate that these three slower and late-to-recover urban markets should no longer be a drag on our performance in 2025 and should even become a tailwind next year and beyond. In addition, we expect significant further benefits from our recently redeveloped properties throughout our portfolio, which have achieved substantial market share gains in 2024. And let me provide a few examples. We previously talked about the redevelopment and conversion of Hotel Vitale in San Francisco into the 1 Hotel San Francisco. In a very challenging market, which generally makes it harder to gain share, 1 Hotel San Francisco gained another 765 basis points of RevPAR share year-over-year in the third quarter and it's gained over 1,000 basis points year-to-date. This is on top of last year's 2,400 basis point gain. Margaritaville San Diego Gaslamp Quarter gained over 2,600 basis points in the third quarter and over 3,600 basis points year-to-date. Newport Harbor Island Resort gained over 400 basis points of RevPAR in just its first full quarter of being opened following its redevelopment. Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa gained over 400 basis points in Q3 and over 1,000 basis points year-to-date. Properties redeveloped in prior years are also showing strong gains as ramp-up typically takes three to four years and was interrupted by the pandemic. L'Auberge Del Mar gained almost 700 basis points of RevPAR share this year so far. Harbor Court in San Francisco has gained over 1,000 basis points this year. Chaminade Resort in Santa Cruz gained over 600 basis points year-to-date. Viceroy Santa Monica and Hotel Zena in Washington DC each gained over 400 basis points. Ziggy in West Hollywood over 300 basis points. Westin Copley in Boston gained over 800 basis points. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Continuing RevPAR share gains from all of our major redevelopments will drive significant RevPAR growth and EBITDA gains over the next few years, particularly with limited to no supply growth in our markets. Looking forward to 2025, group pace for our portfolio continues to be very favorable. Group room nights are currently ahead by 6.2% year-over-year with ADR up by 2.2%, and total group revenue on the books is up by 8.5% compared to the same time last year. When combined with transient, total room nights on the books for next year are ahead by 12.2% with rates up by 0.1% and total revenue on the books ahead by 12.3%. We're particularly encouraged by next year's group pace at our resorts. They're currently ahead by 11.2% in group room nights, 2.7% in ADR, and 14.2% in group revenue. Our redeveloped resorts are leading the way to this favorable pace. As we look out to 2025, we see several very significant positives. First, we expect headwinds turning into tailwinds in our three challenging urban markets with our other urban markets set up for continuing growth in 2025. Second, we expect significant growth from ongoing share gains in our redeveloped properties. Third, we believe the recovery in business transient and business group will continue. Fourth, we expect the trend of leisure travelers returning to the cities will continue next year and international inbound versus outbound should begin to become a tailwind, further benefiting the urban markets. And fifth, we believe it's likely that overall hotel industry demand growth will return to its normal historical relationship with GDP growth, leading to higher occupancies as demand growth outpaces a very low level of supply growth. Of course, all of this assumes a relatively normal year of economic growth but is consistent with the current consensus forecast. So that completes our prepared remarks. We're now happy to address your questions. So Donna, you may proceed with the Q&A.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. Today's first question is coming from Dori Kesten of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. It may be a bit early, but do you think LaPlaya should be able to exceed this year's original $24 million EBITDA expectation next year? And can you just let us know what you're able to do to change the property so that future storms might be less impactful?

Sure. Well, I appreciate your qualifier. It is a little bit early, but I would say if we're successful with the schedule that we laid out, the timeline, I do think we should be able to get back to where we were expecting to be for this year for a couple of reasons. First is, we have a lot more group on the books this coming year, in fact, much more in line with sort of pre-hurricane pace. Second, the club continues to grow there and that growth continues to add EBITDA to the property. So I do think that's a reasonable scenario for next year provided we meet the timeline that we've laid out. And then, I'm sorry, what was the second part of your question?

On the enhancements that we do.

Yeah, sure. So we did a bunch of enhancements after Ian as part of the rebuild. Systems are in the Beach House are out of storm surge way. They're on upper floors. We've rebuilt dunes on the beach. We've added hurricane-proof sliders and windows and things like that. We're looking at we did a lot of temporary protection just around on that kept water, at least in the second storm, from getting into the Beach House in a meaningful way from the ocean side. We did have some flooding in the streets on the bay side that caused water to come in from the other side. And so we've laid out some other both permanent and temporary protections that we plan to do between now and next year's hurricane season that we think will dramatically mitigate even further the impact from storms.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Jay Kornreich of Wedbush Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just going back to your comments on the 2025 outlook looking much more promising for the hotel industry, can you just provide some more details as to what you expect from the leisure customer and specifically really being able to start pushing rate at the resorts?

Yeah, I mean, I think where we are with the leisure customer as we've sort of gone through this normalization process over the last 18 months to 24 months following the sort of peak demand post-pandemic in 2022, it's hard to say where average rate will end up. I think as Ray explained, as we add group and we look at group coming into next year, I mean, we're ahead in rate on our group rate. Now, we're going to do more group at our resorts next year. That's our objective. We're not yet back to where we used to be pre-pandemic. And we've also added event lawns and meeting rooms and other facilities that we think should drive additional group into the mix in these properties. So I don't know where the average rate will come. I do think ADR in terms of what we're charging for leisure guests and where we're posting it, that those are generally stabilizing at this point. And as we continue to build occupancy further, some of which does come from some lower-rated customers on international or wholesale channels, I think we'll be in a position to get more compression, have more high occupancy weekends and holidays and begin to grow rates again, as we're doing at some of our properties, particularly the ones that have been redeveloped.

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks, Jay.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Smedes Rose of Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks. I wanted to ask you just a little bit about what you're sort of thinking about for wages and benefit growth and overall cost growth next year or prices sort of moderating or how do you think about that right now?

Sure. Well, we've just begun to receive our first preliminary budgets or proposed budgets from our properties, and our teams are just starting to work through those and work with the operating teams. I think it's a little early to tell you where it's all going to come out. I think as a general perspective, I think the sort of the average wage increases from a philosophical perspective are going to be slightly lower than they were last year, given the lowered inflation rate overall. So I think as it applies to most employees throughout our portfolio, I think that will apply. In the markets where there are new union arrangements either already agreed to, which is in most of the markets at this point or likely soon to come to resolution, I think those increases are going to be larger and those are going to be – those are going to drive the overall number up a little bit as it relates to those hourly workers in those union markets. And I think that applies whether you're union or non-union unless you really want to take the risk of either losing your employees because in many cases, labor is still reasonably tight for the positions that fall under the CBAs or you're going to risk being unionized. So our non-union properties typically follow the union agreements. And so as a result of that, I think in the cities, some of them, we're going to have a higher increase on average than we're going to have in any of the secondary markets or in the resort markets in general.

And Smedes also where the union.

You have said, sorry, go ahead.

Well, why don't you finish your question, and I'll continue on expenses. Why don't you finish your question, Smedes?

My question was, I'm just wondering if you, I'm sure it varies by market, but if you guys just have a sense of where the union contracts are coming in, it looks like a number of them are getting settled. I'm just wondering if you have a sense of what kind of first-year wage increases are as a percentage?

Yeah, I mean, I think we have a pretty good idea of where the agreements have come in because we're in some of those markets and they apply to our properties. I think the – it varies by market. I think there are offsets in many of these markets that relate to other either reductions or credits for other categories. And I think that giving you a number at this point would be probably misleading, particularly since we have – what we're really focused on is what are the averages going to be at each of the properties for all of our wages and benefits on a combined basis, and we don't have that at this point.

Wages and benefits are a significant part of our cost structure, accounting for around 60% of our total expenses. However, the remaining 40% includes various other input costs that have decreased substantially over the past 12 years as inflationary pressures ease. Specifically, we are seeing reduced pressure on food and beverage expenses, and energy costs are stabilizing. In some instances, costs are not only declining but turning negative, while advancements in technology are helping us reduce additional expenses. While we pay close attention to wages and benefits due to their importance in our overall cost structure, we also have control over the other 40%, which presents opportunities for savings. Therefore, it's essential to consider the entire cost picture rather than focusing on just one element.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Ari Klein of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks and good morning. Jon, you noted some of the optimism in the struggling urban markets. I'm wondering how you stack rank San Francisco, Portland, and LA from a longer-term standpoint? And then dispositions have largely focused on reducing exposure to West Coast markets, given your view on the tailwinds that you're comfortable with the existing exposure?

Sure. Our perspective on Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles is that the core fundamentals of these markets, which contributed to their success before the pandemic, will also underpin their recovery after the pandemic, once they overcome the challenges they faced, many of which were self-inflicted. Los Angeles has some unique factors due to the entertainment industry but shares similar quality-of-life challenges. What gives us hope is the recent election results, where we saw more business-friendly, moderate representatives take office. This shift is already leading to policy changes and a more pragmatic approach to the issues these cities face, helping them to thrive rather than struggle. We're pleased that the essential economic foundation of these cities remains intact, along with their educational systems, pleasant weather, natural beauty, vibrant restaurant scene, and cultural activities, which continue to drive interest in these markets. Sports events are also gaining momentum, among other positive developments. We feel confident about the rebound in these areas, although we are disappointed by the slow pace of recovery, which was somewhat anticipated. It’s going to take time to reverse the current trends, but we believe there will come a time when these markets will experience significant growth. While they faced setbacks this past year, we are committed to being proactive in reallocating capital to seize opportunities to buy back our portfolio at substantial discounts relative to the true value of those assets. A more dynamic transaction market is what we need, and we expect to see this emerge in 2025. However, there remains uncertainty regarding the outcomes of the election and its potential impact on the recovery of the transaction markets in these areas.

And, Ari, just to remind you, since 2019, we've sold 15 hotels, largely in the West Coast markets, in markets like San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, and redistributed a lot of that capital to more leisure markets and some more in the East Coast. So the portfolio has changed since 2019, and we'll make some continued progress we expect and hope in 2025.

Thanks. And then just maybe a kind of unrelated follow-up, but just on the Delfina conversion impact, did something happen there that was unanticipated? Because obviously, we knew about that before this quarter?

Yes, we were aware that the brand change would occur on September 16 and anticipated significant disruption. Changing all the systems and renaming the property involves coordination with third parties, online travel agencies, review sites, and more. Hyatt dedicated a considerable amount of staff to assist with these changes. However, some aspects were beyond our control and took longer than expected. We expected this disruption to be significant and implemented various policies to manage occupancy, even at lower rates, during this period. Unfortunately, the disruption has been greater than we anticipated. We believe it is a temporary situation that should gradually improve by the end of this quarter and more significantly during the first and second quarters of next year.

Thanks for the color.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Duane Pfennigwerth of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Jon, appreciate your thoughts on demand and normalization over the last 18 months. It sounds like there's some optimism we could see acceleration or a pickup. I wondered if you put a finer point on it, what segments do you think have the most upside potential, which chain scales could see the biggest pickup if that view plays out?

That's a challenging question to address in detail, but from a high level, we are excited about the potential growth in business travel, particularly driven by group travel, while still seeing a recovery in business transient travel. This week has seen some developments, and it's clear that both the business and investment sectors have reacted positively to the national election, which bodes well for business travel next year. The forecast for increased business profits looks promising for next year, and even for this year, which suggests a positive connection between profits and travel opportunities. We are optimistic about a potential acceleration in business travel growth in the coming year. We're also looking forward to the full normalization of leisure demand and the prospect of rate stabilization or increases next year in that sector. The return of international inbound travel is usually something to be excited about, but the election results and the stronger dollar could pose challenges to that recovery. Over time, especially if the Federal Reserve continues to lower short-term rates and we see stabilization in the long-term rates, we might experience some favorable currency dynamics that could aid international inbound recovery. Additionally, we hope to see the administration make efforts to expedite the visa process for travelers, even if that may be an unrealistic expectation.

That's helpful. And then just in terms of the lagging markets and some of the changes you alluded to, changes in mayors, district attorneys, I think it's Prop 36, how long do you think it will take for those things to kind of change the perception of the markets and move the needle on your results? It certainly seems directionally positive, but is this more of a five to 10-year phenomenon than a one or two year? Thank you.

Yeah, well, I'd like to think it's not a five to 10 year. It shouldn't take that long for the truth to come out. Because I think the good news is the reality on the ground in these markets, the condition of the cities, the cleanliness, the safety side is dramatically improved. In fact, when I go to San Francisco, I think San Francisco is in better condition than it was in 2019, certainly when we were there for Nareit back, I think, it was '18. And so I think things have dramatically improved. We've been working to try to get that news out. Sometimes there is a competing narrative that perhaps is politically driven. But I just think it takes, like anything, it takes getting people there to see the truth and to have a good experience. And I think that is what's been happening. I think people have had good convention experiences when they go to San Francisco. I think they have good leisure experiences when they go there. I think that's the case in Portland as well. It's much improved. Although I do think Portland still has a little ways to go on the ground in addition to the perception, and again, I think the elections, the Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments, the return of staffing for police forces, the focus on the, I mean, you just saw a change in law in California on theft. And I think that's, again, an indication that the people who live there have had enough and see that the prior policies haven't worked. So I do think there are a lot of positive things happening. That's extremely encouraging. And I do think the perception will follow. It's still probably about a year behind, Duane. But I don't think it takes five years. I think it takes a couple of years.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Gregory Miller of Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I'm hoping you could provide an update on the progress and goals with Curator and items I personally think about relate to the financial performance for Curator itself and the number of hotels. And as a brief aside, I'd be curious to get your thoughts about KSL sale of Davidson and if that impacts either Curator or your hotel operations at all? Thank you.

I think regarding Curator, we've been reporting the number of members and vendor partnerships. We've been around 100 for about four quarters and I believe we are on the brink of continued growth over the next 12 months. However, we are currently behind our expectations for where we hoped to be at this time. It's somewhat disappointing for our industry that either operators or owners seem hesitant to save money and create value, which is what Curator is here to accomplish. It has been a significant cost saver for us, and we continually urge people to invest the time and effort into partnering with Curator, as it can create considerable value for their properties.

To add to that, Greg, Pebblebrook benefits from having over 100 hotels. For instance, Curator recently secured a new contract with Avendra, leveraging our scale not only at Pebblebrook hotels but also among Curator member hotels. As a result, Curator is getting a better deal with Avendra thanks to the larger contract we negotiated. This means our costs in certain areas will decrease, and we are also seeing some rebates. These are several advantages, along with the efforts being made in digital marketing, which, while not directly reflected in our P&L, does help drive business to the hotels. Additionally, in the research and development area, Curator has introduced several new technologies and services. There is now an AI tool, a bot that can help reduce service requests at hotels. Previously, only larger companies had the scale to use such a tool, but now individual hotels can utilize AI bots for requests, like asking for towels.

So those are these different areas that we're able to do much better and provide more bandwidth here versus if we didn't have Curator under our belt here. And I think as it relates to the KSL sale of Davidson, obviously, we were well aware of the possibility from both Davidson and KSL that Davidson would get sold. We're pleased they executed well. They found a private equity group that's excited about the opportunity. And based upon what we know today, we don't see any impact either on our relationship with them or the relationship that either Davidson or KSL have with Curator.

Okay. Thanks, Jon and Ray. I'll leave it there.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is coming from Michael Bellisario of Baird. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Jon, you bought back a little bit of stock in the quarter, but it wasn't match-funded with the disposition. Can we read into this that you're making progress with asset sales? Or has your view changed a little bit on how you fund buybacks?

I mean, I don't think you should read anything into it from a transactional perspective. I think that will continue to be the primary source of proceeds that get used to buy our stock back. We are, as you know, generating very significant cash flow this year, $100 million or so, give or take. And you know that our dividend is still $0.01 a quarter. So it's an effort to continue to get capital back to our shareholders as a result of the significant free cash flow that we're generating. So again, we continue to try to find the balance with the way we allocate capital, the state of our income statement and our balance sheet.

Fair enough. And then just I know your redevelopments are largely done except the one that might happen in San Diego at some point. But when do you start thinking about maybe the next wave of projects and then sort of along those same lines, any initial expectations for CapEx spending in '25 ex any hurricane dollars that might need to be spent? And that's all for me. Thanks.

I'll go ahead and address the first part. There are no new major projects on the horizon. We have redeveloped nearly everything in our portfolio since acquiring the assets. There are always minor projects, and we have deferred some small ROI projects in favor of better capital allocation, but nothing significant is left. In a way, this is positive news. There is still potential for additional investments, especially in smaller ROI projects related to sustainability and energy, but the major projects have been completed. The only potential project remaining is at Paradise Point. The encouraging aspect is that we have already navigated the tough parts—investing capital and dealing with disruptions—and we are now in a phase where the investment has been made, and we can anticipate the benefits. We feel optimistic about the organic growth we expect over the next three to four years, and we do not foresee any substantial disruptions moving forward in the coming years.

Michael, when considering the capital expenditures for 2025 and beyond, excluding the potential for Paradise Point, a range of $65 million to $75 million seems to be a suitable run rate. We may need a few minor updates to properties that have not been refreshed in seven to ten years, but overall, this amount is significantly less than the capital expenditures over the past several years. Regarding hurricane restoration, the positive aspect is that the capital investments we've made will result in costs much lower than what we experienced with Ian. The losses from LaPlaya and Southernmost during Ian amounted to around $140 million to $150 million, but this time it will be substantially less due to our investments in strengthening our assets. Most of these costs will be covered by insurance, with only a few million dollars per our deductibles, depending on how that's allocated, resulting in a less significant financial impact. We are excited to get the Beach House operational; we are just waiting on some permits to begin the work. Our teams are set to move forward, and we anticipate being in a strong position by the end of the first quarter, setting us up for a successful 2025.

Helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Bortz for closing comments.

Well, thank you all for your time and your participation. Lots of exciting things going on in the world and we look forward to seeing many of you out in Las Vegas for Nareit and then perhaps not too long after the New Year. So hope you enjoy your holidays and we look forward to being in touch in the near future.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.