Welcome to the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are currently in listen-only mode, and we will take your questions after the presentation. Now, I will hand the call over to Matt Capuzzi, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thanks operator. Good morning and thank you for joining us. With me today are Geoff Ballotti, our CEO; and Michele Allen, our CFO. 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 will 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.wyndhamhotels.com. 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 in the future. With that, I will turn the call over to Geoff.

Good morning and thanks everyone for joining us. As you'd expect, our comments today will be focused on our response to the pandemic and its impact on our business. It's clear that the near-term outlook for the economy is dependent on many factors including the duration of government stay-at-home restrictions around the world. That said, we'll make every effort to address the issues that we know are important to you. Our highest priority throughout the COVID-19 outbreak has remained the health and safety of our guests, owners, and team members to whom we are providing continuous support and assistance. And we hope that everyone listening on this call today is healthy and remains so during this difficult time. First, we want to reiterate that our franchise, leisure transient, fee-for-service business model is highly resilient during economic turmoil. Over 90% of our hotels here in the United States remain open and operating. And we have an unwavering confidence in our ability to weather this crisis. This confidence is reflected in our Board of Directors' decision which we announced yesterday to maintain a quarterly dividend now at $0.08 per share with the goal of raising the dividend in the upcoming quarters as visibility improves and travel demand continues to recover. We have made difficult and measured decisions to adjust our cost base to this new reality to preserve liquidity and to support our franchisees. Altogether, our actions since the start of this crisis have resulted in the identification of approximately $255 million in cash savings that will help mitigate revenue declines and provide us with the funds to continue to offer support to our franchisees. The actions affecting our team members were especially difficult decisions. To support them during this challenging time, we have provided benefits and partnered with several organizations to give displaced team members access to job opportunities across various industries that are now rapidly expanding their workforces such as retail, grocery, healthcare, and senior living. Our team members' passion for hospitality makes them ideal candidates and we're extremely grateful to have been able to partner with so many leading companies. To further assist team members we have increased and expanded our fundraising efforts for the Wyndham Relief Fund which was developed many years ago to support team members facing unforeseen financial hardships. A great number of people many of whom are experiencing their own challenges from this crisis have stepped up to support their colleagues, a strong testament to our values-driven culture. Our thousands of franchisees are also very much top of mind. This is an incredibly challenging time for them and their long-term success is critically important to us. We've taken proactive steps to help them preserve cash during this period. We have suspended certain fees and we've provided payment relief by deferring receivables and suspending interest charges and late fees. And we've deferred property improvement plans in certain non-essential brand standards requiring cash outlays. In addition, we are drop-shipping difficult-to-procure emergency supplies grounded in guidance from the CDC for all of our U.S. hotels employees and guests. And we have partnered with industry associations to advocate for increased government relief through constant communications and webinars with leading subject matter experts we have guided our franchisees through the relief provided by the CARES Act for which the majority of our owners qualify. While Wyndham is not applying for any federal loan assistance, industry estimates suggest that more than 95% of our franchisees have applied for a PPP and/or an idle loan. The nearly 80% were approved for one or both. As a reminder, the vast majority of our franchisees are financed by local and regional banks, of which nearly 90% are already providing forbearance or other forms of debt relief according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. And a large portion of our franchisees are SBA loan borrowers and are benefiting from the six months of debt relief the SBA is providing. Furthermore, with over 90% of the hotels in our system in the select service space, these hotels are less labor-intensive and typically operate at higher margins than full-service hotels. They generally average fewer than a dozen full-time employees and staff levels are highly scalable to demand. We believe that the majority of our hotels can support debt service at occupancy levels of approximately 30% before receiving any governmental assistance, which lowers this 30% breakeven considerably. We could not be prouder of our franchisees and how they have risen to the occasion. So many have volunteered free stays for traveling doctors, nurses, and other first responders and others are offering their unused kitchens to help feed those who need meals. We've been moved by many of our loyal guests who are also supporting recovery efforts around the world. As last month, we launched Wyndham's #EverydayHeroes initiative, which provides essential workers like truck drivers, warehouse workers like grocery associates, and of course health care workers with complimentary upgraded gold status through our Wyndham Rewards program. Our brands which are concentrated in the select service chain scale segments have been outperforming the higher-end full-service hotels. Nearly 90% of our domestic properties are positioned along highways and suburban small metro locations, which have fared better than those in downtown metro markets. Our customer profile in the U.S. is about 70% leisure and almost 90% drive-to, making us less reliant on business days and air travel. While the impact of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve and the ultimate duration remains highly uncertain, as this pandemic abates here in the U.S., our franchisees should be among the first to benefit, positioning us well for a quicker recovery. As it relates to net rooms growth, we finished the quarter with 828,000 rooms, a 2% increase over the prior year. The pandemic has inhibited our ability to open rooms both internationally and domestically. Room openings in the quarter declined from approximately 12,000 last year to 6,000 this year as franchisees have been focused on the crisis and our development teams and opening teams have had to curtail travel. New construction projects are being completed, but some owners are waiting to open until travel demand begins to recover. We expect that new construction starts will slow over the next 12 months to 24 months as financing is expected to be constrained until there are signs of recovery. Our global development pipeline ended the quarter with 189,000 rooms, an increase of over 8,000 rooms or 4% year-over-year. Our new construction pipeline grew by 3% and our conversion pipeline increased 8%. Our pipeline in the U.S. is now 52% conversion and 48% new construction, while we still believe we can continue to grow our new construction system with low-cost and highly efficient prototypes in our select service brands. We believe that this growth will continue at a slower pace than it has in recent years. Converting independent hotels to our brands has always been an important part of Wyndham's consistent rooms growth through both up and down cycles. And as this industry recovers from COVID-19, we believe conversions will become an even more important growth vehicle for us. With over 15,000 independent economy and mid-scale hotels in the United States, we have restructured our franchise sales and development teams to increase our conversion coverage by approximately three times, redeploying new construction salespeople to convert independent economy and mid-scale franchisees to our brands, brands that are designed to drive higher market share through our larger loyalty and marketing programs. In addition to the increased support our teams can provide franchisees, navigating through the post-COVID-19 recovery, our brands could help increase franchisee profitability by driving lower sourcing, technology, distribution, and OTA commission costs given our size and scale as the world's largest hotel franchise company. Our brands such as Days Inn, Super 8, and La Quinta generate some of the highest unaided brand awareness in the industry and provide significant value to our franchisees, especially during difficult times. Like never before, travelers today and going forward will be looking for brands that they can trust not only for quality, but also for cleanliness and safety. Our field teams are focused on helping to ensure that our franchisees are as prepared as ever, ready to confidently welcome guests back to their hotels. We are working to implement enhanced rigorous cleaning protocols based on guidelines and safety information provided by the CDC and using EPA-registered disinfectants provided by Ecolab. And leveraging our scale and relationship with world-class distributors, we're providing our franchisees with what they most need and yet can't individually source themselves: washable cloth masks for team members as well as hospital-grade, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes for our guests at check-in. We are providing new health and safety training to our frontline team members. We're making health and safety training available to our franchisees so they can address guest concerns. And we're mandating new health and safety operating standards. At the same time, we're identifying offsets to the cost of these new standards to help our franchisees drive profitability. And we're also updating additional existing brand standards to address social distancing and other protective measures, building on our established processes and procedures to provide a clean and safe stay. We are extremely proud of how the entire Wyndham family has responded to this crisis. We remain confident in the strength and the engagement of our team and our franchisees and property owners whom they support. While these are extraordinarily difficult times, we are certain that our asset-light select service franchise business model is optimally positioned for continued long-term growth. Travel will inevitably rebound. And when it does, Wyndham will be there, ready to welcome the everyday traveler to our approximately 9,300 hotels around the world. With that, I'll turn the call over to Michele.

Thanks, Geoff. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin my remarks today with a brief review of our first quarter results and provide more detail around recent RevPAR trends. I'll then provide some insights on the rest of the year where possible as well as capital allocation. Constant currency RevPAR declined 23% on a global basis in the first quarter, or 17% on a comparable basis, which excludes closed hotels. Comparable RevPAR was down 16% in the U.S. and 20% internationally, led by China, not surprisingly, where RevPAR declined 61%. First quarter revenues decreased $58 million or 12% to $410 million, including a $29 million decline in cost reimbursable revenues due to hotel closures as well as asset sales by CorePoint Lodging. Excluding cost reimbursements, revenues decreased $29 million or 9% reflecting the RevPAR decline as well as a $4 million decline in license fees from Wyndham Destinations. Our adjusted EBITDA declined $4 million or 4% to $107 million in the first quarter, reflecting the revenue decline, partially offset by $19 million of cost savings, primarily related to our COVID-19 mitigation plan. Adjusted EPS declined 4% to $0.50, reflecting lower adjusted EBITDA and a higher tax rate, partially offset by lower depreciation expense. Our first quarter results clearly do not reflect the full effect of the pandemic on travel demand, especially in the U.S., where we're showing preliminary RevPAR results for April down 66%. Occupancy was at its lowest point during the week of April 11, averaging 22%, but has been showing slight improvement sequentially since then, up to 29% last week. Nearly 5,900 of our 6,300 hotels in the U.S. remain open and operating, and the economy and mid-scale segments where 75% of our portfolio is concentrated are showing relative strength, with these brands outpacing all other chain scales, running occupancy now in the mid-30s for our economy brands and high-20s for our mid-scale brands. In China, we now have over 85% of our system back open and we are seeing gradual signs of recovery with recent occupancy levels running in the mid-20s, up from low single digits back in March. In Southeast Asia, we are running occupancy in the low-30s and Europe, the Middle East, and Canada are all running occupancy in the low-20s, while Latin America is running in the mid-teens. As Geoff mentioned, we've taken a number of steps to mitigate these impacts. This payment to this year with a cost infrastructure that was 65% variable and 35% fixed. We've already reduced our expected cash outflows in 2020 by approximately $255 million. In addition to workforce and salary reductions, we reduced advertising spend by over 50%, cut our travel budgets by over half, and eliminated 100% of nonessential discretionary spend. We've also reduced our capital budget by nearly half, funding only the highest priority projects. While variable and marketing expenses will eventually return, we believe at least $100 million of these cost savings will be permanent and reset our ongoing cost base, which is about a 500 basis point improvement to our 2019 full-year margin. At March 31, we had $749 million of cash on hand. Free cash flow was a net inflow of $10 million in the first quarter compared to a net outflow of $2 million in the same period last year. Year-over-year free cash flow benefited from $17 million of lower special item cash outlays related to the 2018 acquisition of La Quinta and separation from Wyndham Worldwide. Looking at the balance sheet, as a reminder, we have limited financial and operating liabilities, excluding long-term debt. And our debt maturities are well-laddered, with the first not occurring until 2023. Last week, we successfully completed an amendment to our credit agreement leaving the quarterly tested leverage covenant until the second quarter of 2021. The covenant calculation was also modified for the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2021 to use annualized EBITDA rather than the last 12-months EBITDA as previously required. In return for this modification, for the amendment period, we agreed to maintain a minimum liquidity of $200 million, paid 25 basis points of higher interest on outstanding borrowings, and restrict share repurchases. Importantly, we retained our ability to make future dividend payments provided we maintain at least $300 million in liquidity. And we have the ability to elect out of the waiver period earlier, which would eliminate the restrictions on both dividends and share repurchases. The amendment, coupled with our substantial cash reserves gives us ample liquidity to operate our business and support our franchisees through this crisis and through the recovery period. Let me take a moment to address the dividend. As Geoff mentioned, we have reduced the quarterly expected dividend payment from $0.32 per share to $0.08 per share. The impacts of COVID-19 are significant, but temporary. Over time, our business will naturally produce significant free cash flow. Maintaining a quarterly dividend payout is a clear demonstration of the resilience of our business model and of our Board's confidence in the long-term growth prospects of the business. Moving on. While we are unable to provide outlook given the uncertainties ahead, we would like to give you our best current view on certain operating statistics and financial metrics for 2020. At this time, we cannot predict future RevPAR trending given all the uncertainty. With respect to room growth, we expect new construction room openings will be delayed beyond their scheduled dates and that conversion activity will be slow in the near term, but accelerate when travel demand begins to normalize. Also, consistent with our strategy to increase our direct franchise portfolios, we are increasing our efforts to eliminate noncompliant hotels in our China master portfolio and expect to remove another 9,000 rooms in the second quarter. These solutions will have minimal effect on revenues. We expect our marketing funds will adversely impact EBITDA in 2020, the amount of which will depend on the length of the pandemic. Normally, we offset marketing fund revenue declines by proportionately reducing variable expenses. However, given the magnitude of declines, it is likely that we will see some EBITDA impact in 2020. On average for every point of RevPAR decline, you can expect to see about $1.5 million of impact to EBITDA in this environment. License fee revenues will be at least $70 million, reflecting the minimum levels outlined in the underlying agreement, $65 million from Wyndham Destinations and $5 million from Platinum Equity. Even as managed hotels reopen throughout the year, we expect cost reimbursement revenues to continue to decline as CorePoint executes its asset disposition strategy. I'll remind you these revenues have little to no impact on EBITDA. Turning to expenses. As discussed, we have implemented $255 million of savings, $20 million of which is capital related with the remainder impacting the P&L. Consequently, we now expect expenses to be $235 million lower than our original guidance. As Geoff mentioned, we have deferred franchisee payments until September 1 to provide a few months of positive cash flow at the property level. As a result, we are expecting a working capital drag in the second quarter that reverses in the back half of the year and into 2021. We now expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $25 million to $30 million. Last, I'll remind you that we still have about another $30 million of special item cash outlays remaining in 2020, primarily relating to the La Quinta acquisition and our separation from Wyndham Worldwide, as well as two restructuring charges now in 2020 that will require cash payments of approximately $30 million in total, the majority of which will be made this year. We've updated our regional RevPAR sensitivities which can be found in the appendix of the investor presentation we posted on our website last evening. Geoff covered our portfolio dynamics and how our franchisees are well-positioned through this crisis and for the recovery. But before we open for Q&A, I would like to clarify a few other elements of our business model that are unique to us and particularly attractive in a down cycle. First, 96% of the hotels in our system are franchised. So we have minimal exposure to asset risk and the associated operating cost and capital requirements. We are truly asset-light, requiring less than $15 million in annual CapEx spend compared with $200 million to $600 million at Big Box Lodging C Corps. We also have minimal exposure to incentive fees, so our revenue will improve as occupancy improves. As demonstrated, our cost structure is highly variable and can be quickly modified in response to market dynamics. With the $255 million of recently implemented savings, of which at least $100 million will be recurring in 2021, we will emerge from this crisis more efficient than ever, generating even higher margins. Next, our growth is independent of the new construction environment. We have a long proven track record of growing net rooms during lodging cycle downturns by igniting our conversion engine, which is fueled by the strength and flexibility of our value proposition. Even during the great financial crisis of 2008 when debt markets were closed, we grew our system 3%. Finally, our business naturally generates substantial excess cash. We know we will get through this. And when we do, we will continue to put that cash to work by investing in the business to produce long-term results or absent that opportunity by returning it directly to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. In conclusion, our asset-light business model is remarkably resilient and our concentration in the select service segment provides a path for strong recovery, sustained system growth, and substantial free cash flow—which, as always, we are committed to using to achieve high returns for our shareholders. With that, Geoff and I would be happy to take your questions.

And our first question comes from Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning everybody and thank you for the slide deck and hope you and your families are healthy and well. With respect to Slide number 25, the April cash burn. I just had a few questions on that. With regard to the $32 million of franchise and management fees, I'm presuming that, that the cash number as it relates to franchise. So is there a deferred franchise number that this $32 million is net of?

Yes, hi Joe. Actually this is not net of any deferrals at this moment. We're still collecting cash. I think back in the great financial crisis of 2008, we saw about a quarter of our franchisees needed additional assistance. So if you were to apply that same percentage you could see about $8 million a month in working capital drag.

And that is your expectation is that going forward through September 1 as you would see that drag?

Yes, it's difficult to foresee, but we are definitely planning for that as the minimum amount.

Okay great. And then with respect to the $45 million expenses on the other side of slide number 25, is that inclusive of some of the cash charges of $18 million that you'll take in the 2Q? And then secondarily on that $45 million is that fully taken into account the $235 million of OpEx savings?

Yes and Yes.

Yes, it's straightforward. Regarding your development pipeline, I clearly understood your earlier comments. Out of the 48% that represents new construction, how many of those have secured financing? I understand the delays you've mentioned.

Thanks, Joe. So if you look at our pipeline, as you point out 40% is new construction. And of that 40% of the pipeline that's under construction, we would expect those to continue and to open within the next 12 to 24 months.

Okay. And then, what did you see with regard to conversion activity in April? Was there much in the way of that? I kind of get the environment but just to get a sense of how conversions look early on in the pandemic?

I think Michele made a good point about slide 7. Looking at the last downturn, we can see similar patterns emerging again. In the first quarter of 2020, our openings were heavily focused on conversions, and we noticed that trend continuing in April as well.

Great. Geoff, earlier in the call, you mentioned that about 95% of franchise owners in the industry have received PPP or some form of idle loan, with an 80% approval rate. Do you have specific numbers for your franchisees? Do you believe it's comparable?

We think it's really tough to be specific on that, Joe. But the HLNA is doing a great job. They released their survey last Friday, which estimated that 95% of domestic franchisees have applied for either the PPP or the idle loan, and we believe we're likely in that range.

Great. Thank you very much guys.

We'll take our next question from Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Hope everybody is safe and thank you for the additional disclosures. So, maybe just a follow-up on the franchise fee deferral point. Michele, I think if I caught that comment correct in the last question, roughly an $8 million expectation for April. But I think you said that that would be consistent with behavior back in terms of what you saw in the relief needed in the global financial crisis. And so I guess the first question is, may I be right to think if we're looking at sort of an $8 million number over the next six months something in the $50 million ballpark could be a helpful guide for working capital needs for the business. So that would be kind of the first part of the question.

Thank you, Shaun. I believe your perspective is accurate regarding the $8 million per month, which could lead to a total of between $50 million and potentially $75 million for the entire year of 2020. We anticipate that not all franchisees will require assistance, but we do foresee that some will need extra support and extended payment terms. This may result in deferring certain fees from 2020 into 2021.

Okay great. And then, just to drill down a little further, I'm sorry to get lost in the weeds here, but I think this is pretty important, because you're the first major franchisee and managed franchise or a management company to report. So, in terms of what's actually being deferred, are these both royalty and sort of system and services fees that would be in that, or are of both those on the table, or is it only a portion of the overall fee structure?

No. It's 100% of the royalty and the system fees both.

Okay, both. That's helpful. And all of that incorporate in the $8 million or the numbers that you're seeing thus far?

That's...

Okay. I think that’s it for me. Again, I really appreciate all the extra help on disclosures.

Thank you, Shaun.

We'll take our next question from Patrick Scholes with SunTrust. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Patrick.

Wondering if you can provide a little color on your hotels in China, specifically, what percentage are open today? And what does that compare to at the trough likely in February? And then, additionally, of the customers that are coming back to your hotels in China, what are the characteristics? Is it primarily leisure outside of the city? What customers are coming back first? That's my first question. Thank you.

Thanks, Patrick. Currently, about 200 of our 1,600 hotels are still closed, a significant decrease from the peak when approximately 1,200 were closed. Occupancy rates have improved, currently in the 20s, up from the single digits and low teens just two weeks ago, which is promising. In terms of travelers, the situation is similar to here, where business travel has resumed for those who needed to travel, including government and emergency personnel. We're also starting to see an increase in leisure travel in China.

Okay. Thank you. And then my last question concerns your pipeline and how we analysts should think about a growth rate for this year. It had been 2% to 4%. And what would you state, a ballpark, a realistic range today that your growth would be for you, for this year?

Well, I think it's absolutely possible to see positive net room growth this year, Patrick. As we pivot to more conversions, as we're able to do it in 2008 and 2009 and 2010, and to Joe's question earlier, we saw a big pickup in terms of our mix of opens in the first quarter domestically. 85% of our opens were conversion. And that's sort of, to Joe's question, where we picked it up. We have an ability to continue to add rooms from a conversion standpoint and look to do that. When you look out across the industry, in terms of the hotels that are closed right now and you look at Smith's numbers, it is in the independent space that our teams will be focused on. And so, yes, it is absolutely possible, and that's our hope longer term, absolutely, to continue to maintain our 2% to 4% guidance with a look to move that up over time to 3% to 5%.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Thanks, Patrick.

We'll take our next question from Anthony Powell with Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Hello. Good morning, similar question in terms of the U.S. RevPAR trends, you mentioned that you saw a trough in early April with improvement since. What kind of customers drove that incremental, I guess, demand over the past week or two in the U.S.? Do you see more discretionary travel happen here?

Yes. We're continuing to see a real wide mix and it just continues to expand. I mean, what we saw immediately, it was our hotels that many of them filled and have been running the occupancy in the economy in mid-scale in the sort of 30% range right now filled with emergency care case workers filled with armed force both Navy and Army business be it fleet relocations or family stays, a lot of government from state and county buyouts. But what we're most focused on right now or what we're beginning to see pick up are what our GSO team refers to as boots and beds. Those who are traveling still traveling who continue to have project-related lodging needs. It's the construction workers, it's the transport workers, it's utility infrastructure, petrochemical. And look, as long as they have place – orders remain in effect, that will be the business that our global and national sales teams be it in China or here in the United States target. But as people begin to travel and we begin to see and believe that they will, the first thing they want to do is get in their car and drive to visit family members and friends. We're not seeing a lot of that yet, but we have had a lot of pickup from the groups, I just mentioned.

Got it. And you love yourself room to maybe increase the dividend to $0.16 a share quarterly this year if you see improvement in demand. What exactly are you looking for to make a decision? Do you need to reach a positive cash monthly, or what kind of exactly are you looking for to make that up?

Hi, Anthony, I would say, what we're looking for is some certainty in the outlook, right? So we're just looking for when will travel demand begin to recover. So we can put a pin in our outlook and in our liquidity analysis. And then, I don't see a reason why we wouldn't look to increase it to the maximum allowable amount under the credit agreement.

Maybe one more Geoff, what you just said about leads and kind of the leisure travel. Can you just give a bit more color on what kind of leads you're seeing? And that's all for me. Thank you.

Sure. From a leisure transient perspective, we are starting to observe a business shift, particularly in response to the earlier question about international developments. As travel restrictions ease, we're noticing an uptick in leisure travel. Over the weekend, we saw Beijing relax its quarantine rules for arrivals, and Ctrip reported increases in both domestic and international travel. We anticipate this trend will accelerate in the U.S. as travel restrictions are lifted. Currently, our primary focus is on emergency management in health care, targeting hospitals and medical personnel who need to travel right now. Thanks, David.

We'll take our next question from David Katz with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Good to hear your voice. Hope everyone's well. I wanted to ask about conversion hotels versus new builds. And if you could talk about the economic impact broadly speaking of conversion hotels entering your system, the degree to which those start to earn compared to a new build which presumably goes through the ramp-up phase. Is there any differential between the garden-variety conversion versus a new build and the rate at which they start to earn generate fees.

Hi, David.

Hi.

Whenever a new hotel opens, there is usually a period of adjustment as it begins to invest in paid search, enhance visibility, and accumulate reviews while building overall online awareness, particularly among leisure travelers. In contrast, a conversion hotel is already established in its market, so we anticipate that the profitability driven by our brands will begin immediately for those hotels.

Right. Now, if I may follow that up, you indicated that you're putting more resources right or ramping up the conversion engine. Does that involve adding inducements right? Presumably you're competing with other systems right to capture new units? Are you allocating any balance sheet or other financial resources to that may go up that we should contemplate?

We have earmarked $30 million in our initial guidance to support development activities. We do think there will be incremental opportunities in this environment and we'll be selective about using our capital. But yes, we could see it potentially increasing beyond the $30 million.

Got it. And one last one if I may. In the past when we focused specifically on the La Quinta system, but I suppose it's relevant broadly speaking. Can you talk about your exposure to oil-related markets? And what you're seeing or expecting or contemplating so far?

Specifically, David to La Quinta correct?

Well, actually I was kind of trying to slip in two at once there. So, yes, La Quinta and yes, broadly speaking.

Good to hear from you. The La Quinta oil market exposure is somewhat greater than our overall exposure. We represent 18% of La Quinta units, with all 1,000 La Quinta properties situated in oil and gas markets. So far, we've noticed little to no impact in these areas. As previously mentioned, we anticipated Q1 would be our last difficult quarter, with improvements to follow. Currently, we're observing that La Quinta locations in oil and gas markets are performing slightly better—by 200 basis points—over the last six weeks compared to the rest of our system. Notably, 96% of the 18% in oil and gas markets are operational, with crews engaged in maintenance, research, and cleaning. Additionally, crew assignments have shifted from doubling up to having one crew member per room. Overall, our oil and gas exposure remains consistent with last month, and in recent days, performance has either matched or slightly exceeded the rest of our system. The oil and gas markets account for 12% of our system, with 96% of hotels in those areas still open.

Got it. Thank you very much and be safe everyone.

Thanks, David.

We'll take our next question from Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. This is Mark on for Ian. Thanks for taking our question. So, thanks for giving all the details around the additional disclosures. But I just wanted to dig a bit into the international side. So, can you guys just walk through sort of what type of occupancy levels are needed for breakeven in Europe and Asia? Is that similar to the U.S. assets or the FIG's footprint? And then the tack on has there been any talks of government and financial support internationally there as well?

I will address the first part of your question. Geoff will provide more insights on governmental support, or possibly the lack of it. Regarding breakeven, I don’t have the numbers for the international regions available right now. However, on a global scale, we anticipate being able to breakeven at approximately 40% occupancy. It may be slightly higher in the international regions due to reduced infrastructure scale, so I would estimate it to be around the 50% mark. We'll need Matt to retrieve the specific figures and send them over to you.

And I think Michele answered Marc's second part of that question. There is nowhere near the amount of governmental assistance or support that we're seeing here in the United States, really in any of the regions that we're operating.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Thanks guys.

Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Jared Shojaian with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning everyone. I hope you're all doing well. Michele, maybe a question for you. I guess just going back to the $100 million of 2021 savings. If I run the math from the margin number you gave it, sounds like about half of that is EBITDA related, but correct me if I'm wrong on that. And then is the remainder savings for your franchisees? Is that the right way to think about it? And then as we think about the long-term, are these permanent savings beyond 2021, or do you think that eventually some of these costs are going to have to come back once you're operating back to a prior peak level?

Hi, Jared. The $255 million represents our total savings, and we estimate that $100 million of that will reset the ongoing cost basis, resulting in savings that extend beyond 2020. There are no savings from franchisees included in that figure, as those will be calculated separately for them. We are eliminating approximately 440 positions, which will result in future salary and wage savings. Additionally, we expect to see reductions in facilities and other discretionary spending, such as vendor expenses and certain tools that we will no longer use in the business.

Thank you. So just to clarify, I mean, are you saying that with these savings last year's $613 million EBITDA would have been $713 million? I mean, how do I think about that?

Yes. That's the right way to think about it.

Okay. Are you confident that once we return to peak levels in 2022 or 2023, you won't need to incur some of these costs? It seems like a substantial figure, especially since you're already operating at about a 70% margin. Can you provide any additional insights on that?

Yes. There will always be additional investments we make in the business as we move forward. The 440 positions we eliminated recently are not related to volume, and we do not anticipate those positions returning. The reductions in facilities are aligned with our current workforce, and we do not expect to need a larger facilities footprint in the future. We may choose to allocate some additional discretionary spending for new initiatives, but I believe the vast majority of that $100 million will be retained for future use.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you. And then just for a follow-up maybe for Geoff. On slide 8, you showed that independents in the lower chain scale segment are 2.5 times higher than your room count. Do you have a sense as to what percentage of those independents would have better economics from being a part of a brand affiliation because inevitably I would think for many it might not make sense particularly at the very low end? And then can you just talk about why they haven't converted previously? And why they may now be more likely to convert?

Sure. The reason for this is that they aren't getting the same level of support as many of their branded rivals. The main advantage for them, as we've discussed, is that a significant portion of their business, anywhere from 50% to 100%, is coming through an online travel agency at potentially a 25% commission rate. Reducing that commission significantly would be a strong incentive, along with the additional support from brands in terms of sourcing and other services we mentioned. Historically, in 2008 and 2009, we opened significantly more rooms than in 2019, with most of that growth coming from independent hotels. I believe this trend will continue in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with independents being more open to considering brand affiliation. Additionally, being associated with a major brand can provide a sense of security, especially as travelers prioritize safety and cleanliness in their hotel choices, which may influence independents who previously wouldn't have considered affiliation to rethink their options now.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Jared.

And we'll take our final question today from Michael Bellisario with Baird. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Michael.

Can you just remind us what happens if an owner hands the keys back to the lender? What are you, the franchise will do in that situation? Kind of what happens to the fee stream? What happens to the brand?

Yes, sure. First off, we just want to say that to date we have seen zero hotels out there hand any keys back to the bank or to any receiver and we've seen zero terminations due to coronavirus. But what happens is generally the banks would prefer to continue with the 20-year relationship with the local entrepreneur who has a franchise agreement. And again, we believe that demand is still out there. And for 2020 and hopefully into 2021, we're not going to see a lot of hotels handing keys back to the bank. As Michele said the breakeven occupancy is 30% it drops a lot when you factor in PPP or idle loans or who knows in terms of what's still coming. The passage of the Main Street Lending act could be another big support. We believe our franchisees have ample liquidity and support. Their banks are looking to work with them and defer those interest payments, be they three months, be they six months. We've heard stories are being deferred till the end of the year. So generally the bank is looking to work hand in hand with the operator, they're not looking to manage and the franchise or franchisee.

And I can cover the technical part of that question, Michael really quick. What typically happens is the franchise agreement would be assigned to a receiver. The receiver would enter into a short-term agreement with us while they look to sell the asset. When the asset sells we would be the incumbent which puts us in a better position to win the long-term franchise agreement.

That's helpful. And then if you look back in 2008-2009. Can you provide any stats about the percentage of hotels that may be handed back to the lender last cycle just for perspective?

Yes, it was very insignificant in 2008. It began to build in 2009. By 2010, I think we saw about 4,000 rooms come back, and at the peak it was right around there.

Yes, it is less than 4% of the system, I think over three to four years. But in total, it is less than 4% of the system.

That’s helpful. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. And there are no further questions on the line at this time. I'll turn the program back to Geoff Ballotti for any closing remarks.

Well, thanks David, and thanks everybody for dialing in. We all remain intent on making sure that we're taking the appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the crisis and ensure we're all well-positioned in the year ahead. Michele, Matt, and I look forward to talking to you in the weeks ahead and hopefully seeing you in person very soon.

Thank you. This does conclude today's Wyndham Hotels & Resorts first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.