Earnings Labs

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 6, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Hilton’s Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jill Slattery, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jill Slattery

Analyst

Thank you, Chad. Welcome to Hilton’s second quarter 2020 earnings call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that our discussions this morning will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements. For a discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see the Risk Factors section of our most recently filed Form 10-K supplemented by our 10-Q filed on May 7, 2020. In addition, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures discussed in today’s call, in our earnings press release and on our website at ir.hilton.com. This morning, Chris Nassetta, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an overview of the current operating environment; Kevin Jacobs, Chief Financial Officer and President, Global Development, will then review our second quarter results. Following their remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. With that, I am pleased to turn the call over to Chris.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Thank you, Jill. Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us today. Before we get started, I would like to offer our sympathies to all those affected by the recent explosion in Beirut, our thoughts are with our team members and everybody impacted by this tragic event. It goes without saying that these past several months have been challenging. While we have continued to navigate the global coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our business and the communities we serve globally. Here in the U.S., we have also witnessed tragic acts of social injustice leading to difficult, but necessary discussions regarding systemic inequalities. For more than a century, our hotels have been a welcoming place for all, a place where we bring together people of all backgrounds and connect them to the light and warmth of our hospitality. Now more than ever, Hilton remains committed to fostering an inclusive culture and driving positive change in our communities and society more broadly. Building on the work we have been doing, we have set even more aggressive leadership diversity targets across our corporate and hotel teams. As we announced yesterday, we are happy to welcome Chris Carr to our board of directors. Chris brings several decades of executive leadership across global consumer companies and we look forward to his insights and diversity of thoughts as we focus on our near-term recovery and long-term growth opportunities. Unfortunately, the new reality of our business required us to adapt our organizational structure moving forward. During the quarter, we took additional measures to further reduce costs, including the reduction of approximately 2,100 corporate roles globally and the extension of previously announced furloughs. These were very difficult decisions as our company’s culture has always been centered on supporting our team members who deliver hospitality for our guests.…

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst

Thanks, Chris and good morning everyone. In the quarter, as Chris mentioned, system-wide RevPAR declined 81% versus the prior year on a comparable and currency neutral basis with decreases across all chain scales and regions. Decreases were largely driven by occupancy declines with rate pressure from increased competition for lower rated business further impacting results. We did however see sequential improvement throughout the quarter, particularly in China and the U.S. Adjusted EBITDA was $51 million in the second quarter, declining 92% year-over-year. Results reflect the significant reduction in global travel demand due to COVID-19 and the subsequent temporary suspension of operations at more than 1,000 hotels at some point in the quarter. Revenue declines were mitigated by greater cost control at the corporate and property levels. Management franchise fees decreased 77% to $135 million driven by RevPAR declines and unfavorable timing of license fees. Our ownership portfolio posted a loss for the quarter due to significant closures, fixed operating cost and fixed rent payments at some of our leased properties. Results were mitigated by cost control tactics across the portfolio. Diluted loss per share adjusted for special items was $0.61. Turning to liquidity, we ended the quarter with total cash and equivalents of nearly $3.6 billion following a number of actions taken early in the quarter to enhance our position and increase our financial flexibility. Additionally, our cash burn during the second quarter was lower than expected partially due to the timing of certain payments. As we look at the balance of the year, we remain confident that we have ample liquidity to continue to navigate the current environment and prepare for recovery. Further details on our second quarter can be found in the earnings release we issued earlier this morning. This completes our prepared remarks. We would now like to open the line for any questions you may have. We would like to speak with all of you this morning. So we ask that you limit yourself to one question. Chad, can we have our first question please?

Operator

Operator

Certainly. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Carlo Santarelli with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

Hey, Chris. Kevin. Thank you for your comments.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Hey, good morning, Carlo.

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

Good morning. Chris, you talked a little bit about obviously we have seen demand come off the low as we see that in this data and that you expect kind of a modest type of business transient demand somewhat offset a waning leisure as we move out of the summer vacation month. Bigger picture, as you think about the second half of this year, could you talk a little bit about how you foresee kind of the shape of the recovery in aggregate?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes, I’d be happy to. Obviously that is the big question. And I certainly have a view, although I think there is obviously still enough uncertainty out there, where we – it’s hard to be confident in the view, but my view really hasn’t changed, Carlo, a whole lot from the last call. And if I think about the shape of the recovery so far, which has gone from a low of basically a little over 10% and now running 45% and moving our way up to 50%. That’s – while those are still terrible numbers, that is a lot of improvement over a relatively short period of time. And if you go back to what I said on the last call, that’s sort of what we had expected. I mean, things are sort of moving fairly close to what we would have expected. I said on the last call and I’d sort of say the same thing, I think we are going – you are going to see a step change from very, very low levels as you start to reopen the world, where you are going to get to 40% to 50% occupancy levels by the end of the summer, early fall and then it’s going to be a grind up, because as you get through the health elements of this crisis, you are going to be dealing with an economic crisis or a recessionary environment and businesses and individuals have been impacted. And so, you are going to be on a grind up from there. And that’s sort of what I think is happening. I think as you go into the fall, what I would hope is that we are going to be in that 45% to 50% range. You are going to see leisure trail off…

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

Very helpful, Chris. Thank you very much for that. And then just if I could one follow-up the net unit growth obviously the 3.5% to 4%, down from what you said before, but in the current environment, certainly not bad. Could you talk a little bit about kind of what the components of that look like, what you are seeing in terms of conversion activity, how aggressive you have been able to be etcetera on that front?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes. I mean, it’s obviously Carlo lower than what we thought of pre-COVID, it’s higher than what we thought last quarter. It’s moved up a tick. I think we said last quarter about midpoint of our guidance, which would be in the low-3s and now we are midpoint of our current guidance is in the high 3s. And I would probably, with what I see today, I would probably bet based on what we are seeing, it would be towards the higher end of that, if all goes well. I think conversions are going to play a role in it. They certainly will be. We have a lot of momentum there. In terms of the deals that we are signing and that are in active discussions, I think those are up circa 50%, from where they were last year in conversions. Some of that will translate into this year and a lot of it – a lot more of it will translate into next year. So, I think a larger component of the dug will be conversions. But it’s – the latest data that I am seeing is probably 5 points, 4, 5, 6 points, I think it will be significantly more than that next year, just because the world sort of while conversions are obviously sort of in keeping with what’s going on in the broader environment. We went through a period of time of 3 or 4 months where sort of nothing was getting done. Now, we are in lots of active discussions. Those deals need to be negotiated. In some cases, you need to do CapEx work, property improvement programs and get it into the system. And so some of that – a bunch of that’s going to happen this year. As I said, we will have…

Carlo Santarelli

Analyst

Great, Chris. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Shaun Kelley with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my question.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, Shaun.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, Chris. So, just wanted to maybe follow-up, I mean obviously some very difficult decisions were made in the quarter as it relates to kind of the broader corporate cost structure and operating structure for Hilton here. How can you help us think about, what happens as trend lines continue to improve and what parts of this – are these reductions need to come back, because these were really volume driven pieces of business versus how much of this kind of go forward you can’t actually rethink or possibly be a little bit more efficient going forward. Just any thoughts or color on that?

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hey, Shaun, it’s Kevin, I will take this one. I’d say look, obviously it’s going to be a combination of both of those things, right. We do have – we do have parts of our business. That’s obviously a very complicated business. There are parts that are sort of purely volume and there are parts where it’s not as much volume and we can be more efficient. I’d say the way to think about it is for our corporate costs, for our corporate G&A, we gave you guidance last time that will be down around 25% to 30%. We are coming in right along those lines, most of the moves that we ended up making were largely thought through when we gave that guidance if not final decisions had been made, but it was certainly factored into our guidance. I’d say, in that part of the business, the way to think about it is most of the cost will be sustained – cost savings will be sustainable. There will be some elements of furloughs and salary reductions that obviously won’t repeat themselves and created touch of a headwind. And then of course that’s offset by the fact that the reductions in force then get annualized going forward, which will be largely permanent savings. And so as the business comes back, some level of inflationary type expense growth, you should expect to come back, but I would say for some period of time, it should be quite sustainable.

Shaun Kelley

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much.

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Sure.

Operator

Operator

And the next question will be from Joe Greff with JPMorgan.

Joe Greff

Analyst

Good morning, Chris. Good morning, Kevin.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Good morning.

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst

Hey, Joe.

Joe Greff

Analyst

You mentioned and referred to the nice occupancy gains where the portfolio is in that 45% to 50% range, I think you referenced to 50% in one of the answers to the questions. I was hoping maybe you can frame it, maybe you said it and I missed it, but how – how are you doing or tracking from a rate perspective? Maybe you can kind of put it into perspective of 3Q to-date July RevPAR trends and kind of benchmark that against the industry data domestically and globally? And then I have a follow-up.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes. I would say, our performance weighted for the industry is maybe a touch better when you adjust for the difference in methodology, which is that we are keeping all of our hotels, even the hotels that closed temporarily or are still closed in our comp set. If you – and star is not if you adjust for that and we are on top of – or a little bit better. I would say on the rate side of things, we have seen improvement basically for the quarter, at the beginning of the quarter, rate was down, of that like, April was almost 90% down in RevPAR, about 35% down in rate. If you look at July, that’s 25% down. And if you look at where the trend line is going in August and beyond, it’s coming down. I mean, I think the rate thing is a really – we have had a lot of discussion about it here, because lots of questions on is the industry going to maintain rate integrity and all that. I think, what is really behind the rate issue as we dig into the data and it doesn’t take much digging, because there is not that much data these days or not as much as normal. It’s really a mix issue, which is we have – the traditional customer of ours particularly has been a higher rated leisure and a higher rated business traveler. There is just not as many of them at the moment traveling for all the reasons that you guys know. And so it’s a different sort of population, not entirely, but largely different than we are used to, which is much more not to be judgmental, but a much lower and lower price point customer and so the issue for all…

Joe Greff

Analyst

Great. And one of the answers is a nice segue to my follow up question. Based on what we were able to ascertain from the release, it doesn’t seem that any kind of third party collections issues with a significant working capital or free cash flow drag in the 2Q one is our premise. They are correct. And then two, has there been any trend change in the 3Q and would you anticipate them? Maybe first more broadly, that if there are issues, there would be some sort of lag or how do you view that? And that’s it for me. Thank you.

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst

Yes. Thanks. Joe. I would say look, what I would say generally on the collections and broadly working capital side is, obviously relative to the guidance we gave you last quarter things generally went better than we thought and I would say that is across the board on terms of in terms of the buckets of, in the managed portfolio and in terms of payment of fees and the like. We are we do in this in this environment. We have built some receivables we are sort of collecting at a slower pace than normal which is completely understandable given what is going on in the world and given what our owners are going through But I would say again, largely better than we thought, sort of obviously, everything that’s happened was captured in the numbers nothing is really changed so far in the third quarter, although we should point out that it’s still early in the third quarter, and there is a lot of year left, but so, so far, it’s, been going quite well.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Stephen Grambling with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks. I am going to follow-up on that last question on working capital and also tying in reimbursed costs how should investors think about how these will trend in a more sustained recovery? I mean, do you just get back to break even or could you actually get incremental revenue or income in from those relative to the expenses?

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Well, revenue doesn’t get re-collections doesn’t affect the way we recognize revenue. And so I think you could see in you could see on The P&L that, in the in the funded part of the business or the reimbursable part of the business, we did spend more than we then we earned in this quarter, which is completely normal. if you think about what is going on in the world, and how quickly revenues decline anything from a cash basis, we would expect to get the vast majority of it will be repaid. And so you should think about there will be a flip around on the cash side that did doesn’t necessarily correspond with what you’re seeing on the P&L on the revenue side.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Got it. And then you also referenced on the distribution side a little bit on the OTAs here. I guess prior to COVID. I think there was a heavy direct booking campaign and there was maybe some hope that consumer preferences may change, such that in a downturn, you might start to see less focus or less emphasis on the OTAs given the current environment, I guess in some ways you think would argue for more inventory going to the OTAs are you seeing that change in behavior or there is any other data points that you can provide that might glean some insight there?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yes, it’s a good question. And I think I sort of touched on it, indirectly. Yes, in this environment, you just heard what I said about the biggest bucket of demand, which is lower price leisure demand that would typically favor OTAs. That is typically what we have used over time, the OTAs for to supplement the other pools of our demand that we have very direct access to. And so you would think this would mean that our distribution channel mix would be shifting in that way, but reality is it has not. Our direct channels in part because of what we have been doing, because we do want to continue to build direct relationships with customers of all sorts, including these customers who we hope may not have been our typical customer before, but we hope we will adopt our system during COVID and post-COVID and we will add to the complement of customers that we have. And so, the OTA business from a distribution point of view has held relatively constant. Our direct channels are growing at a faster pace. And that is, as I said – that is because of our actions, not so much and what we are doing and with the SAs, but very much how we are spending our marketing dollars and how we are orienting our Honors programs to access that type of customer.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Make sense. Thank you so much. Best of luck in the back half from and to the west.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Thomas Allen with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thomas Allen

Analyst

Hi, good morning. So you guys have obviously had a long experience operating hotels and so on some hotels in the past have a lot of hotels. Kevin, this big picture, how are you thinking of the overall hotel operating cost structure will change in the future versus pre-COVID levels? Thanks.

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst

Yes. Hi, Tom, it’s a really good question and I would say that deserves a good answer as always. I will give you an answer. I am not in a position at the moment yet to be highly specific, but I will certainly answer it directionally. And the fact of the matter is we are spending probably more time on that right now inside our organization than any other single thing that we are doing. For all the reasons you would guess, I mean, in the early stages of COVID and continuing our effort with our owners, because we need to help them bridge this very difficult time had been to provide a tremendous amount of flexibility against our standards of all sorts, in terms of food and beverage standards, operating of across the board and reality is doing a lot of work with our customer base. That’s what they expected. Everybody knows we are in a different world and the things are going to be different. We will get back to a more normalized world, but we want to use this opportunity to really dive very deeply into each and every brand which we are doing both the CapEx and OpEx standards to see if we can’t drive far greater efficiency. Now, the trick is and the needles that we are not just trying, but we will thread is we have the best brands in the business and those brands have the highest premiums in the industry. In COVID world, it’s like anarchy across the world, but we are going to get out of that in the not too distant future and these brands will continue to have the premiums, but the reality is, like any business over time in any industry, you add things, you add things you…

Thomas Allen

Analyst

Helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Robin Farley with UBS. Please go ahead.

Robin Farley

Analyst

Great. Thanks. I wonder if you could give us a little color on the conversations that you are having with your corporate customers. I don’t know if this is a little too early for when you would normally have corporate pre negotiated rates, discussions, but are our corporate buyers just sort of saying, Hey, we don’t even need have this conversation call me in six months I guess if you could give us a little insight into what your big buyers of business travel historically are saying?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes, I mean, it is a little early, Robin, but it’s a really good question. And I would ask it to, with I think next quarter, we will have a heck of a lot more to say, because we will have had a lot more conversation, I would say. And I am going to, I’m going to put it into the three big buckets, okay, I think a third, a third, a third. And this is I am being more scientific than reality but sort of in my own head, that’s how plays out a third of our, of our big corporate customers are super understanding of what’s going on. And they are of the belief that whatever deal we had to just continue on, and, and there’s want to be supportive in this environment. They probably, for a period of time, we are going to be traveling less, but they want to sort of continue on with the basic pricing parameters that they had, and they’ve signed up for that, I would say and again, I we are just more early in the season of this dialogue. So it could change, I would say a third of them don’t know, okay, there’s sort of like, gosh, I don’t know what to do. This is a crazy world, I sort of hear what you are saying, maybe we should just keep going. But there is sort of contemplative, and then a third are saying, it’s a really crazy world and, and we want we got to get a better deal. Okay, that’s, we are suffering. If we are going to travel and we are going to stay with you we got to get a better deal. And I would say that’s as much as I know, at the moment, I…

Robin Farley

Analyst

That’s great. Thank you. And maybe just as my follow-up still thinking about sort of intentions of travelers, can you give color on for group bookings? Obviously, I am sure things like we hear from others are canceling through Q1, but our new group bookings coming in for next year are not really, is there a pause even people?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes, they are. Intentions keep picking up. I mean, you’re right, I think all of – like what we are seeing broadly is, you know, a lot of it, we are doing some group by the way, in the second quarter, we did like 10% of our volume was group. I think it will be higher in the third and fourth quarter for what it’s worth. So – but again, it’s not our typical groups, it’s like – it’s groups related to the crisis, it’s businesses in small group meetings where they just have to do it, but their offices aren’t really open yet. I mean, they are – and we are getting a lot of that kind of stuff. But I mean, it’s obviously a small fraction of what it typically would be. I do think it will keep picking up, because those sort of other types of groups are going to keep picking up as the year goes on, but the traditional bigger group meetings and all that, that are kind of a bread and butter in the fall, those are going to keep getting kicked out. A bunch of them are still on the books for the rest of year, but I think a lot of that will wash out. And as day by day you sort of see that washing out and people are kicking the can into next year with again the hopes that the health crisis be low will pass and/or through a vaccine, herd immunity, whatever is going to happen. And the further we go in the year the further they sort of kick it out, because there is a lot of noise in the system and it makes them nervous about wanting to spend a lot of time and money planning a…

Robin Farley

Analyst

Does that mean actually that what you have on the books for second half of next year is actually kind of ahead of what it would normally be, in other words versus the same time last year for?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

No, I don’t have the data in front of me, but no, I don’t think that’s the case. And it’s not yet. I think it could – it could eventually build to that. And if things go well, it will, I think, but not at the moment, no, we are not where we were.

Robin Farley

Analyst

Thank you. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

The next question will be from Richard Clarke with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Richard Clarke

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks very much. One of your competitors said a couple of days agothey are expecting business travel to be to see a behavioral change and about a 10% behavioral change. Am I right in thinking you don’t adhere to that? And I guess their point was they would have to make up for that with alternative revenue sources, whether that’s skewing more towards leisure or using the hotels in a slightly different way and is that something also you’re looking to contemplate going forward?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Well, I think that I didn’t mean to ply anything on that, as far as I was concerned. And so if I if I did, what I meant, but in answer to that question, I would say, I mean, there’s, that there is a raging debate about that, but I think will be ongoing over the next 3 years. My belief is from having done this for 37 years and while we have not had a pandemic like this, we have had lots of other things, lots of other similar things that have disrupted the environment that, in the short intermediate term, you are definitely going to have a substitution effect because people businesses have been damaged. And as a result, they are going to have to have find ways to cut costs and save money and so they are going to substitute zoom in for certain types of meetings, and it will they will have an impact in the short intermediate term. I think over the long term, there will be and by the way, as a result, we of course are looking as we are now at every opportunity of how we utilize our all of our rooms and all our public spaces and everything else in creative ways to be able to supplement and find different pockets of demand, whether that be leisure, whether that be using rooms as offices in an environment where people aren’t, opening offices because we have a safe environment where people can be socially distanced by definition, etcetera. We are doing all those things. I personally believe when you wake up in two or three years, and you can, you can, we will all mark this moment and let’s talk in three years, I think we will have a raging debate this…

Richard Clarke

Analyst

If I can just ask a quick follow up, obviously, on your franchise agreements the fee structure is heavily skewed towards room revenue. Is there a need to sort of reopen franchise agreement to make sure that you are aligned with the hotels to drive all these alternative sources of revenue as well?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Well, I don’t think so. I mean, the reality is in a big full service hotel, our revenue – our fees are generally based on both food and beverage and rooms and other revenues. So in the big complex hotels that already – we already do that in a limited service hotel, let’s be honest, there is pretty much only rooms. So we don’t have a lot of other infrastructure or capacity in the facility in most limited service, like a Hampton Inn, there isn’t a lot of meeting space. By the way, that’s part of room revenue in any event. There is a – it’s a small lobby. It’s a different animal. And so there really is rooms, it’s in those hotels if you are – if you don’t have your traditional customers it’s what other ways can you sell rooms. Like I said, you could sell them as office space, you can do, there are things that you sell them as dormitories, which we are doing like crazy, right. We have done dozens and dozens of deals across the country with universities. We are doing all those things, but that – but all that flows through room revenues and I think the incentives are properly aligned already generally.

Richard Clarke

Analyst

Great. Thanks very much.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Smedes Rose with Citi. Please go ahead.

Smedes Rose

Analyst

Hey, thanks. I just wanted to ask you kind of going back to your pipeline, when you talk with your developers, what are they seeing or telling you in terms of how banks are thinking about financing new construction at this point? And maybe kind of if you could talk about it relative to kind of franchise limited service properties and then maybe anything you are seeing on the full service side?

Kevin Jacobs

Analyst

Yes, I think it’s a good question, Smedes. I think it’s a little early, I would say what people are saying everybody is being mean, look we are in the middle of a global pandemic, right. So I think everybody is being a touch more conservative about everything. I mean, that’s why you sort of see, you hear Chris talking about us pivoting, towards conversions and the like. I would say, generally speaking, though projects that make sense can still get financed, there is a ton of capital on the world. Rates are low, if people are willing to equitize, if they have the equity – if they are willing to equitize a little bit more, they can get deals done and they and their lenders can collectively – can collaboratively look towards the future and say hey, look, we are going to open this thing up into - -hopefully open this thing up into a new cycle. And so generally people are still working on that stuff. And then as it relates to the mix, what we were already seeing was much more demand in the smaller limited service type hotels, the bigger more complicated full service hotels largely didn’t get built a lot this cycle, because the recovery never justified them building costs kept going up, labor costs kept going up. And so they really weren’t all that active in terms of construction anyway. So that’s really not, that precise of an answer I think, because it is a little early, but you should assume a little bit more conservatism across the board.

Smedes Rose

Analyst

Thanks. And then Chris, can I just follow-up with you. You talked a little bit about the operating model, that question came up earlier. Just one thing that’s come up with owners is the idea of suspending housekeeping during a guest stay and making that just kind of a permanent part of the hotel operating business. Do you think that’s really on the table and does that meaningfully change the margin from an owner’s perspective kind of all else equal?

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Yes. I mean, we are right in the middle of that, Smedes. So, I don’t really have an answer. Everything is on the table, first of all. I mean, we are – it’s that along with literally hundreds of other things around the table. That’s probably one of the bigger things. We have agreed already with our owners in the short to intermediate term to do that as part of our launch of clean stay, because we think it is a better protocol for cleanliness to not have third-parties in the room. And so we clean the room. We seal – literally put a seal on the door. And only if a customer requests it, so it’s an opt in, do we have somebody come in and do a limited cleaning that obviously based on the fact that people have been not opting in at a high rate, that is helpful from a margin point of view. We also think it’s helpful from a cleanliness point of view, which is why it was part of clean stay. What we are doing is using this moment, which at a minimum that will go through this year to figure out with our customers what they really want. I mean, what we are trying to do is thread the needle with our customer and our owner community to make sure that, what I said in my earlier comment that we are ultimately giving our customers what they want, so they will pay a big premium for our product. And we are doing in a way that drives the best margins humanly possible for our owners. And we have to satisfy both constituencies. And so what we are doing between now and the end of the year is looking at a lot of data, we are doing it, so we now have a real test that is system-wide that is live, that is allowing us to look at data to see the behavior of the consumer to talk to consumers about their views on this. And so it’s definitely on the table, but we don’t yet have enough data to have an answer and I think the idea is that we will through the rest of this year, be studying it and figure out based on that data what the right answer is.

Smedes Rose

Analyst

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Chris Nassetta for any closing remarks.

Chris Nassetta

Analyst

Thanks everybody for the time. Obviously, Q2, not a shining moment in our 100-year history, but I guess this is what happens when you have a global pandemic we found out. I have lived through a lots of different things over the years and this is certainly – has stressed the limits of I think what all of us have seen. But I am really, as I said in my comments, I am very proud of how we have responded. I mean, we have taken a difficult situation I think and are managing our way through it quite well. Our team has been working tirelessly, fewer of them working even harder. And I feel as good as I did pre-COVID about the long-term prospects for this business, it may not feel that way to you all right now, but I do think when we wake up in 2 or 3 years, we will be back on track and this business will be performing as will the industry quite well. We look forward to talking to you after Q3. Every quarter, we learn a lot. So I suspect we will have a little bit better visibility into the trajectory of recovery, maybe even have some knowledge on vaccines as all of us etcetera. So we will look forward to catching you up after Q3. Take care and be well.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.