Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Dany Asad: When we look at your 2023 guidance, so if we just look at your unit growth expectations, your RevPAR growth expectations kind of if you combine them, you’re looking at like a 6% to 10% fee growth as a whole. But your EBITDA guidance, if we strip out marketing reservation is more like 5% to 6%. So can you maybe just help us understand what’s causing a drag on the algorithm for 2023? And how should we think about that dynamic longer term?

Michele Allen: Yes, Danny. Your math there is correct. And I think there’s two contributing factors: The first one is higher expenses, mostly due to inflation. Some of that we saw roll on in 2022, but we didn’t have a full 12 months of it, and we will have a full 12 months in 2023. And then the second impact really is the mix effect of higher RevPAR growth internationally versus RevPAR growth in the U.S., and that really is because the international regions are still in recovery mode in 2023, while the U.S. business had been fully recovered as of the second half of 2021. And how that plays into the long-term growth algorithm? I would say, typically, if all regions are growing at similar rate growth, the algorithm works, but we knew over the last 2 to 3 years with the COVID impact playing out, we knew that there was going to be some differences in the algorithm, which is why when we provide the sensitivities, we provide sensitivity per point of RevPAR for the U.S. business separate and apart from the international business?

Operator: Our next question comes from David Katz with Jefferies.

David Katz: Following through on some of that, one of the themes we’ve started to focus on largely one of your peers is revenue intensity. And as you build out internationally, I wonder if you can shed some light on the deals that you’re making or the signings that you’re making in China, where I think the intensity has historically been a bit lower, but in the other areas of the world, how those compare with the U.S.?

Geoffrey Ballotti: And it’s good to hear your moms doing better, God bless her. In China, certainly, yes. I mean, where we’re growing our rooms. The growth is coming in our direct franchising business, which, as you know, is 3x more revenue-intensive than our master license agreements, which have nowhere near the growth that we’re seeing with our direct franchising right now at double digit. And you’re correct. And on Slide 9 in the IP that Matt put out last night, you see that over 70% — 73% of our pipeline are in that higher revenue-generating segments in the midscale and above brands that are driving that. Over 60% of our domestic pipeline are in the midscale and above, and over 85% — or about 85% of our international pipeline.

So what that means for us is that our average deal values per room in the pipeline are increasing there. They’re up 800 basis points domestically, which is important and up 240 basis points internationally. And that represents over $100 million of royalty fees for us over the next 4 years. Domestically, as they’re more weighted to higher RevPAR, higher segments, upscale brands. And internationally, as they’re weighted in higher RevPAR markets, especially notably in Latin America and in Europe with some of our more upper mid-scale brands. Our upscale brands, our Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, full-service brand are Registry Collection, luxury brands. So we’re very excited about that.

David Katz: Understood. And if you could just talk a bit more. I think one of the issues we’re altering to process is how people are what people people being — you are factoring into your guidance with respect to the macro environment as the year progresses?