Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And in many of these markets, that rate opportunity is limited by the surrounding product. So I think there’s a €“ it’s a segment that we know well. I think we’ve worked well with our owners. We’ve improved what we’re delivering to our hotels. And there are a lot of brand options in these segments. So there are a lot of brands that play in midscale, that play in the economy segment. We’re not seeing competitive pressure in that. And in fact, the underpinning of our strategy here is we’ve been able to attract better hotels to our franchise success system, and that’s because of the investments we put in place to help our owners, particularly in the last three years, overcome a pandemic, overcome labor shortage and now overcoming inflation. So all of those are key things that we have spent decades as a company focused on, and we feel very confident in our ability to continue to grow on that front.

Dom Dragisich: And then when you take a look at just the conversion, it’s historically around two-thirds of our opens in that space come from. Conversions versus new construction, again, what we’re seeing kind of in the marketplace in the past point, we’re seeing very little if any pressure whatsoever on our existing conversion brands.

Brandt Montour: That’s really helpful. Thank you for that. And then just a quick follow-up. You guys gave the 2% RevPAR growth for 2023. You also gave sort of ex-Radisson EBITDA growth on a comparable basis of 7%. I’m just curious if €“ and I know you guys gave us the sensitivity for royalty fees to a number of different levers. But is that the right flow-through that you sort of think about this business going forward on a sort of comparable basis is that 2% to 7% sort of ratio?

Dom Dragisich: Help me understand the 2% to 7% ratio, Brandt?

Brandt Montour: Sorry, 2% RevPAR growth, 7% EBITDA growth, ex-Radisson.

Dom Dragisich: I think that’s probably I mean, when you take a look at just the historical growth rate of this business, the RevPAR growth has been anywhere from kind of, call it, 2% to 3% on average, and our EBITDA growth typically year-over-year is right around that 7% to 8%. So obviously, as we expand the platform, we have the opportunities like you saw today with Wells. You have some of those other revenues that have continued to flow through. Could you see that 7% accelerate? Absolutely. The business just continues to get stronger year by year. A lot of it also has to do with the other two revenue levers, right? I mean, it’s not just a RevPAR play but an effective royalty rate play. And as we continue to improve the value proposition of this business, the price that a franchisee is willing to pay and the value that we’re driving continues to increase.

We see a potential tailwind on the Radisson side as well on that as Radisson’s effective royalty rate is somewhere in that 4% range. And so as we continue to improve that value prop, that could continue to be a tailwind for us as well. And then obviously, we’ve talked a lot about the net unit growth algorithm of the company throughout the call.

Brandt Montour: Perfect. Thanks so much guys.

Pat Pacious: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Joe Greff with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Joe Greff: Good morning. I have two questions, one question and one follow-up with respect to your 2023 outlook. Dom, what’s embedded in the outlook for adjusted G&A for the year and what’s the cadence of that throughout the year?