Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:XHR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Marcel Verbaas: Yes. Sure. I mean as I mentioned, in terms of top line for RevPAR, back half we’re assuming is flat last year, and the reason is A, renovations and B, how tough the comps are. So that’s kind of how we’re thinking about the back half. And in sort of a similar level of, I guess, impact based on if you look at adjusted EBITDA or hotel EBITDA. So, that’s kind of how we’re thinking about back half of the year.

Barry Bloom: Which is also part of the reason, obviously, we have a little bit wider range of guidance. Historically, I think there clearly is a little bit more uncertainty about the second half of the year, particularly. And, again, with this, for comfortable with this range that we have provided this morning and certainly, Atish talked about, are really guiding our looking at the balance of the year.

David Katz: Yes. I mean, that was kind of the thrust of my question is the flat RevPAR assuming some kind of modest economic slowdown? Is that kind of where the base case hits? What is the underlying base case for that flat?

Barry Bloom: Well, it’s really sort of a similar level to where the economy is right now. we’ve not really modeled in the slowdown. It’s really a function of the comparison, and then the renovations, which do have a more significant impact in the second half of the year than the first.

David Katz: Got it. Okay, that’s exactly what I was after. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Bellisario with Robert. Please proceed.

Michael Bellisario: Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Just a couple more on Scottsdale, maybe tying together the renovation and potential acquisitions. Its has obviously a lot of dollars, a lot of disruption, and is maybe your decision there to pull the trigger now, indicative of it all, maybe the lack of product or acquisition opportunities you’re seeing at present?

Marcel Verbaas: Well, the one doesn’t roll off. I mean, we clearly have a good amount of dry powder still available, based on liquidity that Atish outlined. That if we see attractive opportunities on the acquisition side that we can absolutely still execute on those. And something like Scottsdale was really dumb with a really long-term view. And as I pointed out, it’s something that’s didn’t just come about over the last couple of months, obviously, I came to that some significant ROI projects were a few earnings calls, during the course of last year, and this was obviously a very significant one that we’ve been working on for a long time. So I wouldn’t necessarily again, like I said, one doesn’t preclude the other. But we certainly look at this as a very attractive use of our capital given alternative uses of our capital and especially in today’s environment, clearly, we are seeing a lot of really exciting and attractive acquisition opportunities.

So we’re happy being patient on that side, like I’ve indicated, really over the last couple earnings calls as well. I mean, that hasn’t changed much. We are seeing a great deep pool of potential attractive acquisition targets for us. We’re obviously continuing to look for those and are still optimistic that as we get deeper into the year that there might be some more opportunities on that side.

Michael Bellisario: Got it. And I don’t think you gave it, but what might have been the incremental, or I guess, maybe the base case, renovation cost for kind of typical cyclical renovation at that property, trying to think about what the incremental cost is for the renovation that you’re doing there?