Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Patrick Chaffin: Yes, absolutely. So we think that Rockies is going to continue to mature into its stabilized level. I would expect that we will see occupancies at that hotel in the mid-70s, which is consistent with what we would expect at Gaylord Opryland, Gaylord Palms and Gaylord Texan. So I would say 2023 is a great indication of what that hotel should be looking like from a stabilized performance level. And then from a margin perspective, we continue to — it is a newer hotel that really kind of cut its teeth in the midst of the pandemic. So we’ve identified additional opportunities to continue strengthening its margin performance. And then Colin and Mark both have alluded to some of the investments that are going in there. So while I think it will truly be at a stabilized level consistent with what Palms, Texan and Opryland perform at in 2023, there’s still additional upside given the investments we’re making into the property.

Colin Reed: And as we went into this year, Patrick, room nights on the books, we will — we were pretty happy with where we sit for the Rockies. And that should manifest itself into the — translate into the performance for 2023.

Patrick Chaffin: Yes, that’s correct. To Colin’s point, 2023 had more room nights on the books than we did at this time in 2019. So the hotel is built very well for a solid performance in 2023.

Jay Kornreich: Okay. Thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.

Colin Reed: Okay. We do one more call and, Chelsea, so if we have another question, we’ll take it.

Operator: Okay. Our last question will come from Dany Asad with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Dany Asad: Hi, guys. Sorry about that. And good morning, and thank you for sneaking me in. So just a two-parter, my first question is, in your RevPAR outlook of 9% to 12%. Can you help us parse out how much of it is occupancy growth and how much you’re underwriting for — to come from rate? And then just at a higher level, how do you guys feel about your ability to push rate on group not just for this upcoming year, but if we kind of look out further out to ’24 and ’25 and beyond. Thank you.

Colin Reed: Well, as Mark pointed out in his remarks, that so much of the rate for this year was predetermined last year, the year before and the year before that. But one thing that we have been able to do over last year and the year before, is for the business that we booked last year, we saw really good rate growth. And that should translate into the — that should translate into positive rate growth this year, and we’re actually very excited about what happens in ’24, ’25, ’26. But we have been really pushing rate like no tomorrow with our friends at Marriott through the sales organization — and Pat, do you want to give a little bit more color on that?

Patrick Chaffin: Sure. I mean just at a very simple level, most of our RevPAR growth in 2023 is based off of occupancy growth versus 2022. To Colin’s point, the great growth that we’ve seen and what we’ve been able to book on the group side will really start to materialize and manifest for us in larger quantities as you get into ’24, ’25 and ’26. So we’ve built in some continued transient rate growth. Honestly, every time we build that in, it comes back and surprises us in terms of what we’re able to actually achieve. And I would expect the same on the end of year for the year on the group side. But at a very basic level, the majority of our RevPAR growth in 2023 is based off of occupancy recovery.

Mark Fioravanti: And Dany, as we mentioned earlier, a lot of that is going to happen in the first quarter off of that Omicron comp because we were only about 47 points in the first quarter last year.