Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ:PLYA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Ryan Hymel: Yes. No — and that’s exactly why the Board authorized another $200 million a couple of weeks ago when we announced it last night. And so that is particularly at today’s valuations, it makes sense. And I won’t repeat everything Bruce just said, but the bar is high for other projects and other uses of cash, and it also weighed into the decision on a part of the decision on why we want to sell the Jewels. And so no, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t. And then, as far as other projects and things like that, I alluded to spending a little bit above and beyond maintenance CapEx at a few other properties. It should be little to no disruption, and it’s included in the guidance. But it’s starting to spend money on areas that still drive the customer experience.

A little thing that Zilara, Cancun and Ziva Puerto Vallarta and Ziva Cabos that we’ve been meaning to do. Again, not full-scale renovations, but it’s starting to put some of our money to work that just helps us play a little more offense with rate in the guest experience, which as Bruce said very eloquently is the name of the game when it comes to our business and maintaining rate integrity. So, it’s still a consistent balance, but at multiples that we’re trading at, it still makes sense to buy back stock.

Chris Woronka: Okay. Very good. Thanks, Ryan. And then, when I look at you guys, I look at you more now actually on a TRevPAR basis because you’re getting like 15% of your total revenue from non-package. What’s the opportunity there? I mean, I know you’re by nature an all-inclusive company, but there’s still plenty of add-ons people can do. And can you maybe just give us a little bit of color like, you’ve grown that over time? How big can that get? And maybe just a little bit of detail on is that the Hyatt or in some cases, Hilton customer, do they have a significantly higher contribution to the non-package? Thanks.

Ryan Hymel: Yes. The higher-end properties and specifically during higher season is a disproportionate contributor to just the overall non-tax expense. Many, many years ago, we just proved the thesis that people paying a higher rate don’t want to spend as much on ancillary products, it’s in fact the opposite. So, as you can imagine, it’s more beginning of the year weighted. There are some things that we did throughout the pandemic and have layered on sequentially since then. You’ve heard me talk about it, adding private transfers from the resort, from the airport that we weren’t selling prior, actually charging for cabanas and things like that, that we’ve added and have been very successful. There are some things that you have a finite amount.

You have a finite amount of, what you call it, beds and treatment rooms at your spa and things like that, and you’ve heard me joke in the past, there are certain times a day, people want to go to the spas, and there’s other times a day, they’ll never want to go to the spa. So, there are some things that as far as the number of items that you can sell, you have a finite amount. The area we’re focusing on now is actually pricing optimization in that area. Our sales and marketing team and the digital teams have actually put together kind of apps in what they’re calling a digital concierge that guests can use and it actually will — actually do more dynamic pricing for cabanas intra-week rather than just quarter by quarter or month by one. Historically, we would sell for a cabana more expensively in high season than we would in October, for instance.