Greetings, and welcome to the Braemar Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jordan Jennings, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to today's call to review results for Braemar Hotels & Resorts for the fourth quarter and full-year 2022 and to update you on recent development. On the call today will be Richard Stockton, President and Chief Executive Officer; Deric Eubanks, Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Nixon, Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Management. The results, as well as notice of the accessibility of this conference call is on a listen-only basis over the Internet were distributed yesterday in the press release. At this time, let me remind you that certain statements and assumptions in this conference call contain or are based upon forward-looking information and are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities regulations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, uncertainties and known or unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These factors are more fully discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call, and the company is not obligated to publicly update or revise them. Statements made during this call do not consent offers to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Securities will be offered only by means of a registration statement and prospectus, which can be found at www.sec.gov. In addition, certain terms used in this call are non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations of which are provided in the company's earnings release and accompanying tables or schedules, which have been filed on Form 8-K with the SEC on February 27, 2023, and may also be accessed through the company's website at www.bhrreit.com. Each listener is encouraged to review those reconciliations provided in the earnings release together with all other information provided in the release. Also, unless otherwise stated, all reported results discussed in this call compare to fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2022, with the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2021. I will now turn the call over to Richard Stockton. Please go ahead, Richard.

Good morning, and welcome to our 2022 fourth quarter earnings conference call. I will begin by providing an overview of our business and an update on our portfolio. After that, Deric will provide a review of our financial results, and then Chris will provide an update on our asset management activity. Afterwards, we will open the call for Q&A. We have a few key themes for today's call. First, as we've been anticipating, our urban hotels continue to ramp-up strongly, with comparable hotel EBITDA growth of 195% in the fourth quarter over the prior-year quarter. Second, we have now concluded capital raising for our non-traded preferred stock offering. The capital raised has allowed us to go on offense and grow our portfolio during an attractive time in the cycle, and we're excited about our recent acquisition of the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. And third, we are pleased to report that the operating performance at the three hotels we have acquired this cycle has exceeded our original underwriting, and we continue to be excited about the addition of these iconic properties to our portfolio. Moving on to our quarterly results. We're extremely pleased with our record fourth quarter results and continue to see outperformance compared to 2019. Our comparable hotel EBITDA of $52.2 million during the quarter was driven by strong results at our resort properties. Additionally, RevPAR for all hotels in the portfolio increased approximately 8% for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, which also represents an increase of approximately 20% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Many of our hotels are in attractive leisure markets, and have been well positioned to benefit from persistent leisure demand. In total, 10 of our 16 hotels are considered resort destinations. We…

Thanks, Richard. For the quarter, we reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $13.5 million or $0.19 per diluted share. For the full-year, we reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $10.7 million or $0.15 per diluted share. For the quarter, we reported AFFO per diluted share of $0.16. For the full-year, we reported AFFO per diluted share of $1.23, reflecting a growth rate of 45% over the prior-year. Adjusted EBITDAre for the quarter was $39.2 million, which reflected a growth rate of 33% over the prior-year quarter and which was 54% higher than what we reported in the fourth quarter of 2019. Adjusted EBITDAre for the full-year was $172.4 million, which reflected a growth rate of 97% over the prior-year. We are pleased to report the strong growth rates in our non-GAAP operating metrics. At quarter-end, we had total assets of $2.4 billion. We had $1.3 billion of loans, of which $49 million related to our joint venture partner share of the loan on the Capital Hilton and Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. Our total combined loans had a blended average interest rate of 6.4%, taking into account in the money interest rate caps. Based on the current levels of LIBOR and SOFR and our corresponding interest rate caps, approximately 82% of the company's debt is effectively fixed and approximately 18% is effectively floating. As of the end of the fourth quarter, we had approximately 40.4% net debt-to-gross assets. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $261.5 million and restricted cash of $54.2 million. The vast majority of that restricted cash is comprised of lender and manager-held reserve accounts. At the end of the quarter, we also had $26.6 million in due from third-party hotel managers. This primarily represents cash held by…

Thank you, Deric. Comparable RevPAR for our portfolio increased 8% during the fourth quarter relative to the prior-year quarter and 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. The outperformance of our portfolio versus 2019 during the fourth quarter compared to the overall market was significant. RevPAR for the luxury chain scale nationwide during the fourth quarter exceeded 2019 by 10%, while the upper upscale chain scale nationwide exceeded 2019 by only 2%. Our resorts are thriving with comparable hotel EBITDA up 69% during the fourth quarter relative to the fourth quarter of 2019. We are also pleased with the fourth quarter results for our group pace, shoulder night weekend occupancy and a number of record setting performances from our properties. Our team continues to find ways to create value within our portfolio of high performing assets. Group room revenue for the fourth quarter actualized ahead of 2019 by 7%. We are seeing a much shorter booking window relative to 2019, which bears with the ability for more nimble pricing strategies. Group rate actualized for the fourth quarter 18% above comparable 2019. We also saw excellent signs from our group booking volume in the fourth quarter, where December marked the highest month of the year in terms of total group bookings. This propelled our group booking volume for the full-year to 20% higher than what we achieved in 2019. This momentum is carried into 2023, where group revenue is already outpacing 2020 and 2022. Beyond group production, the strength of leisure and continued return of business travel are evident in this portfolio when we look at our results on weekends and shoulder nights. The portfolio's Friday and Saturday combined RevPAR during the fourth quarter was ahead of 2019 by about 28%. This strong performance is indicative of exceptionally healthy leisure…

Thank you, Chris. In summary, we continue to be pleased with the trends we are seeing in our hotels driven by strong leisure demand in our luxury resort properties and the continued recovery of our urban properties. We see a clear path for continued strength in our future financial results. We are well positioned moving forward, with a solid balance sheet and the highest quality portfolio in the publicly-traded hotel REIT market. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now open the call up for Q&A.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Tyler Batory with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good morning. Thank you. First question for me, on the operating costs and margin. I think it's been a key topic of conversation so far during the earnings season. What are you budgeting for operating expense growth in 2023? What are your assumptions for wages and the operating cost environment? Is it much different in the resort markets versus some of your urban markets?

Hey, Tyler, thanks for the question. So from a margin standpoint, I mean, we're very happy with the EBITDA margins we've been able to drive versus 2019. I think we had an improvement of about 340 bps for the fourth quarter. Our rooms profit margin is improving. We're very happy with the staffing models that we've got at hotels. I think when we look at labor, which is a big part of that equation, we're at about 86% of pre-COVID levels, and that varies obviously very much by market. We're having some challenges in some of our ski and some of our resort destinations in staffing. We're using more contract labor as we get through next year, and we can incorporate more visa -- labor associated with visas and move some of that labor in-house. We think that that improves. We're not seeing a big difference in terms of our resorts versus urban hotels from a cost standpoint. I think typically, our resorts run much higher margins. And so we're really happy with the growth that we are anticipating from our urban hotels. Those hotels had a lot of runway left. But as those hotels grow in terms of the year-over-year comparables, it could create some noise from a margin standpoint. In terms of costs, we're expecting wage increases next year of 4% to 5%. That's kind of in line with what we're seeing. We think that hourly wages will probably grow a little bit more than management wages, but it should all blend up to around 4% or 5%.

Okay. Okay. That's very helpful. A couple of capital allocation questions. In terms of the share repurchase, can you just talk a little bit more about that decision to share repurchases, perhaps could that be a larger part of your capital allocation plan going forward here?

Yes. So the decision was taken by the Board in December of last year. Really, it's a reaction to what we saw as an unwarranted sell-off in the share price. We had underperformed our peers pretty significantly during the month of November, and saw that the price to be just really too attractive not to allocate capital to a buyback. So if you look at the share price performance since that decision, which was accompanied by the increase in dividends, we've -- the share price has significantly outperformed our peers now. So it was really based on the attractiveness of the share price. I can't say what might happen going forward. We have now completed that program. It was a resounding success, so the Board will take whatever actions are necessary going forward.

Okay. Great. And then just the last one for me on the acquisition side of things. Any high level thoughts on the pipeline opportunities out there, potentially what acquisition activity might look like this year?

Yes. Well, we continue to be active in assessing deals and underwriting opportunities. I'll say that the market continues to move in our favor. In other words, the availability of debt for highly leveraged buyers is still very challenging. And that's not us. So any of the REITs, frankly, we're able to buy unencumbered have a significant competitive advantage at this time in the market, and we don't see that really changing for the balance of the year. So we'll continue to look for opportunities. I think if you want to try to gauge the other pace of our acquisitions, just kind of look historically at what we've done, look at our balance sheet. We do have a significant amount of excess cash available to us. So I'm actually looking forward to this year and looking at some deals. I think, again, we'll be in the driver seat from a pricing perspective, kind of given the lack of competition that we see out there.

Okay. Great. That's all for me. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Michael Bellisario with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good morning everyone.

Hi, Michael.

Good morning.

Richard, Deric. Following up on that last question. Now that the preferred offering has been turned off, but you have ample cash on the balance sheet, what are plans for allocating that cash? Is it really focused on waiting for acquisitions and deploying that capital to grow the portfolio? Is there any reason to remain patient or focused on repaying some maturing debt?

Good question, Michael. Thanks. Yes, it will be a combination of things. Yes, I don't know for certain, as we have to see what opportunities arise. But like I said, we'll be looking at acquisition opportunities. But depending on where the benchmark rates head and where debt spreads head, we might find the best use of cash to repay some debt. So you might see that as well. But I think we're still really assessing what we want to do there, particularly in light of some of the re-financings we have coming up. We have ample cash to perhaps pursue lower leverage loans on refinancing, so we'll see. We haven't fully decided how we want to do it, but I think it will almost certainly be a combination of things.

Got it. And then as you look further out, I know it's probably been 12 months out, but what might be the next source or sources of capital for you, and what's the timing for a second preferred offering? Or does that really depend on Trust's offering and any success that they have there in raising capital?

Yes. We haven't really taken any decision to plan for a second preferred offering. We're going to let the market digest the preferred offering that's now closed. You're right that Ashford Hospitality Trust is raising money in the non-traded preferred space. That offering will be open for almost three years, so we're going to kind of sit tight and utilize the cash on hand to pursue growth opportunities at Braemar. That's the plan.

Got it. Thank you.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you all for joining us on the fourth quarter earnings call, and we look forward to speaking with you again on the next call.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.