Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Sourav Ghosh: Sure. So in terms of group pace some of our larger markets, what’s trending really well. And I would say, like effectively what we have on the books for 2023, over 50% are from markets which are San Diego, Orlando, D.C., San Antonio and San Francisco. So whatever we have on the book for 2023, over 50% are from those markets. And when we’re looking at sort of citywide data, we are at about 80% of 2019 levels that it relates to citywide and the markets that are above that threshold are Boston, San Antonio, San Diego, Atlanta, Chicago and the ones which are sort of below that threshold are Philadelphia, Seattle and certainly San Francisco and I would say New Orleans.

Operator: Our next question is coming from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank.

Chris Woronka: Jim, it’s a bit of a hypothetical question, but obviously, there’s a lot of talk about getting back to prior or maybe not peak occupancy levels, but still having a lot of occupancy to recover with group and a little bit of corporate. But that with the mix effect that may come at the expensive rate. So the question would be, I know you don’t solve for any one metric is it reasonable to think that some of the more price-sensitive business and opaque business, things like that, you have your operators essentially intentionally keep that out of the business as we go forward and that we are structurally lower arc but higher rate. Is that a decent way to think about it?

Jim Risoleo: Chris, I’d say it a little differently. It’s easy to buy occupancy in certain markets at certain hotels. We don’t think that’s the right revenue management strategy. We believe that given the flow-through you get to EBITDA from rate increases relative to occupancy increases, which is about 80% — 60% for rate, 40% for occupancy that every dollar in rate is worth more money. We continue to see occupancy evolve, but we’re going to continue to hold rate at high levels and continue to increase rates. I think we’re encouraged, in particular, by group rate that we’ve been able to achieve that’s locked in with definites on the books, up sequentially quarter-over-quarter and for 2023 looking pretty positive for us as well as the growth in business transient rate as well.

So the total group revenue pace for 2023 is up 17% at the same time last year and down only 70 basis points to 2019. That’s very encouraging to us. So that’s the strategy that we intend to employ going forward. And we are in favor as a general statement of cutting rate to buy occupancy.

Operator: Our next question is coming from Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore ISI.

Duane Pfennigwerth: If we go back in time to the structural margin improvement commentary, your view of the world may be back in Q3 of last year, what has been the biggest change or biggest surprise since that time? Obviously, Naples has some lingering impact. But for example, has the fill rate on open position surprised you since the fall. And then maybe just as a follow-up, while I have you, has your forward visibility into 2Q changed year-over-year? Maybe you could contrast where you stand today on 2Q versus this time last year and what the rates on those forward bookings look like?