Shaun Kelley: Thanks so much.
John Geller: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Lambert with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Ryan Lambert: Hi, good morning.
John Geller: Good morning.
Jason Marino: Morning.
Ryan Lambert: Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on some of the progress you’re seeing with the demand at your new Waikiki property. In terms of some of the puts and takes with guidance changes, it looked like, at least to me, and correct me if I’m wrong, a little bit more spend this year on inventory. And I’m wondering if that’s just a function of timing or if you’re seeing anything on the development side with higher input costs.
Jason Marino: Yes, Ryan. This is Jason. What you’re really seeing there is the add-back from net income or adjusted EBITDA. So it’s really, we had a little bit lower product costs, and we think that’s going to continue versus our initial expectations. So it’s not necessarily on the spending side. It’s really on the add-back and really impacted by a little bit lower product costs than we had originally anticipated.
Ryan Lambert: Okay, great. And following up on some of the rental comments, it sounds, you know, a lot more positive for this year. When you look into next year with some additional inventory, is that — are your expectations for 2025 incrementally better, or would that just be kind of a continuation of the trends you’re seeing in 2024?
John Geller: Yes, it’s a great question. It’s a little early for ’25, I guess, in terms of working through all that. But given Waikiki coming online, that, to your point, I think will give us, you know, additional keys, right? Some of those will obviously be used by owners and all that, but that’ll create other rental availability at other properties depending on where people stay. So I think, you know, we’ll know more as we get through the year. Like every year, the way to go rentals, right, is, you know, driving your RevPAC every year. And also, big focus this year on keeping maintenance fee increases back to more historical levels, which will help on the cost of that inventory given our unsold maintenance fees we have. So — but, yes, if, you know, we’re able to continue to drive some rate in occupancy as we go into ’25 on potentially, you know, some more keys, if you will, with some of the new inventory coming online, that should bode well.
Ryan Lambert: Great. Thank you.
John Geller: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Scholes with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Patrick Scholes: Hi, good morning again. Just a follow-up question –
John Geller: Hi.
Patrick Scholes: Hello?
John Geller: Yes, you’re breaking up a little bit. Go ahead, Patrick.
Patrick Scholes: Okay. Can you hear me okay?
Jason Marino: We can.
John Geller: Yes.
Patrick Scholes: Yes, great. So I’m just wanting to follow up a little bit on the BEYOND sales program, you know, had been an issue last summer. You know, can you, I guess, safely say sort of those hiccups have been put to rest here? And, you know, how has the — I believe the challenges were with the legacy Westin customer. You know, how is that going with that customer at this point? Thank you.
John Geller: Yes, sure. Yes, as we talked about on the last call, yes, you know, the transitions are behind us, right? You know, the impact we saw, you know, more in the second quarter, because if you recall, third quarter last year, we actually saw VPGs improve significantly off of what we kind of saw at the transition site in the second quarter, you know, was really around just the marketing sales teams selling the product, getting up to speed better and getting confidence in selling the new product. It was a different sell, selling the system and all the Abound exchange opportunities. But we also talked about, and we talked about the fact that more people in the legacy Vistana systems, your Westin and Sheraton, are now enrolled in Abound, they’re using the product, right?
There’s that getting familiarity with the benefits of the program and actually using it. So those two things, you know, continue to go well. And, you know, we’ve seen those VPGs, you know, over the balance of last year really kind of come back to where we were before we launched Abound. So behind us, like we said last call, I don’t expect any, you know, impact going forward.
Patrick Scholes: Okay, good. And then just a last follow-up question here on last year, you had announced two new Westin club projects, Charleston and Savannah. Do you have opening dates? Is that next year or the following? And then related to that, are those going to be part of the Abound trust? Do those go into the trust system or will it be separate? Thank you.
John Geller: Those will go into the trust into the, you know, now Marriott Vacation Club trust, right, as we’ve talked about feeding all kind of new U.S. inventory into that trust. So both of those will create points in the trust. You know, from an opening date perspective, I think we’ve got Charleston in ’26, and then Savannah is ’27.
Patrick Scholes: Okay. And did I hear correctly previously, the Waikiki new Marriott Vacation Club resort, is that still scheduled to open in the back half of this year and the sales center, correct?
John Geller: I was just out there visiting our teams in Hawaii, got to see and tour the new Waikiki property. It’s coming along great. And it’ll open up — we started taking reservations already beginning in October. So we’re on track there.
Patrick Scholes: Great. I think that’s it for me. Thank you.
John Geller: Thanks, Patrick.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from the line of Ben Chaiken with Mizuho securities. Please proceed with your question.
Ben Chaiken: Hi, thanks for taking this follow-up –
John Geller: Hi, Ben.
