Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

So the summer essentially shot and as Bruce mentioned, four looks okay, but we’ll have to see how that works throughout the rest of summer given our booking windows around 100 days.

Jonathan Jenkins: Okay. Very helpful, Ryan. And then maybe following up on that booking window discussion, can you talk about the booking window for that MICE group business intimate? Just trying to get a sense of maybe potential implications for 2025 from this near-term headwind.

Ryan Hymel: Yeah. So the if they did traditionally book at least the absolute shortest maybe nine month average traditionally 12 to 18 months. So it certainly would have a potential impact on 2025. Again, not going into much detail yet, but it’s also Bruce mentioned into those potential plans to look at also renovating the Shoemaker asset as well, which would have an impact, but that’s our traditional booking windows. The last couple of months been around 90 to 100 days with the exception of mice that books further out.

Jonathan Jenkins: Okay very good. And last one for me if I could maybe on the relationship with PI. Any updated thoughts on that relationship and kind of what percentage of Hyatt stays or redemption seats?

Bruce Wardinski: Yeah. So traditionally, our highest redemptions have been around low to mid single-digits, as a percentage of our — of the of the overall business we get from Hyatt. But the relationship has been good. I mean yeah, we’ve had the benefit of having all of these Hyatts having been converted now for over 10 years now they’re well known in the system. They’re well-known in the markets and the NPS scores speak for themselves and a lot of that has to do with the operations teams at the resorts that are obviously run by us, but also just the Hyatt customers are higher-paying discerning customers. So it’s been a really nice marriage between the two. And obviously they bought Apple Leisure Group a few years ago and they’re kind of still working through that. But our relationship is still very, very good. And I think mutually beneficial to both.

Ryan Hymel: I mean it’s been it’s been a great 11 years with Hyatt and jointly we really developed the Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt Zilara brands. And I think the exceptional performance of our teams in all three of our countries that we operate in is just a testament to the strength of our operations and then the fantastic properties that we own and operate as well as you know the great affiliation with Hyatt.

Jonathan Jenkins: Okay, excellent. Thank you for all the detail. That’s all for me.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Gregory Miller with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Gregory Miller: Thanks. Good morning. I’m on for Patrick Coles up. First question I have relates to the CapEx plans for Los Cabos. And if you’re willing to share beyond that for 2025, could you share what your current high-level cash-on-cash return expectations are for your CapEx work?

Ryan Hymel: So in Cabos and this is definitely more defensive in nature. It’s — we don’t talk about the two resorts in the Pacific as much because it’s really just too, but they generated nearly $60 million of resort EBITDA in 2023. And Los Cabos is a substantial portion of our MICE business. I say it all the time. So I kind of sound like a broken record, but that hotel has punched above its weight for a number of years. Now considering that as Bruce mentioned, we have not done quite a bit. We’ve not done any real renovation of that property particularly in one of the older towers, since the since the hurricane. It’s doubled. Its EBITDA from 2019 to 2023. And again, large in part due to the MICE business. And so we want to continue to ensure that we capture that share of that booming MICE business for many, many years to come.

So yeah, I can tell you the sales and marketing teams internally are happy about the things we are targeting particularly one of the older towers some of the meeting space adding a new gym. That’s it attacking the things that have failed us at that property and prohibited us from kind of pushing rates or potentially losing business to other newer properties that have come in over the last couple of years. So no explicit cash on cash returns on that, because it’s something that just needs to be done to protect the value of that real estate and give us a chance to capture that market even further.

Bruce Wardinski: Expanding some of the meeting facilities like the pre-function area at the ballroom and different things are going to make us more attractive to a large segment of groups. And so again as Ryan said, the MICE business there is really important and has been really successful in. I think one of the things we’re doing are just really positioning us to continue to maintain a really strong MICE business going forward.

Gregory Miller: Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it. So I’d like to shift gears on my second question, I recognize that the third-party management business is a smaller piece of the overall of our portfolio. But you did announce some Wyndham Alltra deals in the Dominican Republic recently. I’m curious what opportunities, do you see with this brand as a third-party manager going forward? What kind of hotels are best suited for conversion and for your operations?

Bruce Wardinski: I mean, as we said and you described it appropriately, the third-party management business is lower profit contributor for us. I mean, the vast majority of our profit comes from our owned assets. So you know there is a lot of focus on that. Having said that, the all-inclusive space, it is really dominated by the middle, kind of like the same with most hotel markets around the world in the US, there’s just a huge number of hotel rooms in the middle. Well, that’s certainly the case in all inclusive. So when you look at Wyndham Alltra what excited us working with Wyndham on having the opportunities to convert some of those is just the broad number of hotels, resorts and rooms that could be converted to that brand, and many of them could be converted with relatively, not insignificant capital.

But I mean it’s just more even more easily done that if you go into a very high end or luxury property. So I think there’s a lot of opportunity and we’re excited to be partners. I can’t really project how many we’ll do, but we’ve had some really good success with Wyndham Alltra brand and we love working with Wyndham. They’re a great partner.

Gregory Miller: Thanks Bruce and that’s all from us.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.