Mark Hoplamazian
Analyst · Citi. Your line is open
Yes, there's no question. This is a key part of the discussion. I would say there is another part of the discussion as well, which is how we preserve the unique qualities of the brands that they invested behind, and I'll now come to that second. But we've been very deliberate and very comprehensive in how we can provide the full complement of services, chain services to these hotels. One thing that we're doing concurrently with the integration, is working to simplify the model that we use going forward, with respect to chain services. When I say chain services, what I include there is technology distribution sales and marketing primarily. And because I think that providing better transparency and visibility to what services owners pay for and linking that to results is actually an opportunity for us that we're not going to squander. The reason why we have mapped this out over the course of an entire year, as opposed to doing it faster, is because we want to take the opportunity now to put our sales in a better situation. When I say us, I mean us and our owners, to better understand what they are paying for and how that relates to results. The top line results, of course, we have to demonstrate what they are, before people can understand them. The data that I shared with you relates to the Thompson Hotels that have been converted and simply put, they're really extremely strong. Well, in excess of what we expected to be able to see this quickly and we've obviously just begun. We're not even four weeks into the post integration period. And so, I think we will be able to continue to demonstrate what the top line opportunity is. And with respect to all of the other expenses that come with the integration, with the simplification, I think it's unambiguous in our mind that we're going to be able to drive better margins and better profitability for the hotels. I've mentioned earlier that we do expect a net reduction in the portfolio. We came into this transaction with very high visibility into the nature and profile of the ownership groups and also specific hotel dynamics -- specific property level dynamics that led us to expect and model attrition. And so, the figure that I cited, which is a reduction of 10% to 11% in net rooms over the course of the first year, is consistent with what we came into the deal expecting. The good news is, that I think we'll probably do better on the new signings over the course of the year than we might have expected. So I would say that all things considered, we're where we expected to be with a positive upside surprise on the revenue side, post-integration of the Thompson Hotels.