Welcome to the Ryman Hospitality Properties' Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Ryman Hospitality Properties are Mr. Colin Reed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Mark Fioravanti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Patrick Chaffin, Senior Vice President of Asset Management; and Mr. Scott Lynn, Senior Vice President and General Counsel. This call will be available for digital replay. The number is (800) 585-8367, and the conference ID number is 73087325. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Scott Lynn. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. This call may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, including statements about the company's expected future financial performance. Any statements we make today that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as believes, expects or similar ones are intended to identify these statements, which may be affected by many factors, including those listed in SEC filings and in today's release. The company's actual results may differ materially from the results we discussed or project. We will not update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures today, which we reconcile to the most comparable GAAP financial measure in an exhibit to today's release. I will now turn the call over to Colin.

Thanks, Scott, and thanks for -- thanks to everyone for being on the call with us today. 2014 was, by many measurements, the very best year this company has had, and a strong fourth quarter capped the year off extremely well. I will walk you through the quarterly and full-year results as well as some of the driving factors behind their performance. Then I will close by touching on how we're thinking about our 2015 guidance and, more broadly, the future of and opportunities for this business moving forward. But first of all, I want to take a moment to remind you all how we got to this point where we are today. For those of you who have followed our company for some time, you will know the transition process from a C-Corp to a REIT was not without its challenges. In fact, there has been an exceptional amount of work from both our operator Marriott and our team over the past 2 years that has gone into ensuring that the right systems, strategies and personnel were put in place to allow our unique properties to perform as well as they are capable of. It's fair to say we are very pleased with the collaborative relationship that we have built with our operator and have reached the point where we are comfortable with the state of the key issues, such as sales processes and cost management at our properties. The synergies that we and Marriott discussed when we initially announced the transaction are also being realized more fully as you can see in the material improvements in our margin and revenue performance, both this last quarter and for 2014 as a whole. As with any good marriage, there'll always be things we have a healthy dialogue on and continually…

Thank you, Colin. Good morning, everyone. In the fourth quarter, the company generated total revenue of $291.6 million, up 9.6% from the prior year quarter. For the full year, total revenue increased 9.1% to $1,040,000,000. During the quarter, the company generated net income available to common shareholders of $62.2 million or $1.21 per fully diluted share. This includes an income tax benefit of $1.1 million, a gain of $1.8 million on warrant settlements and a gain of $26.1 million related to the previously announced sale of the company's rights to pursue a letter of intent with The Peterson Companies. For the full year, net income available to common shareholders was $121 million or $2.17 per fully diluted share. The company continued to grow profitability in the quarter. During the quarter, the company generated $77.7 million in adjusted EBITDA, improving EBITDA margin by 50 basis points. For the full year, the company's adjusted EBITDA margin increased 200 basis points, generating $291.1 million, a nearly $43 million increase versus 2013. For the quarter, the company generated $54.1 million in AFFO or $1.05 per fully diluted share. For the full year, the company generated $199.9 million in AFFO or $3.58 per fully diluted share. Now turning to the Hospitality segment. We finished the year strong with full-year RevPAR and total RevPAR above our guidance range, increasing 7.5% and 8.6%, respectively. While we saw modest increases in attrition and cancellations during the quarter, annual trends in 2014 continue to be favorable with attrition down to 50 basis points to 10.6%. And in the year, for-the-year cancellations declining 52.4% to 32,000 group room nights. Attrition and cancellation fees collected during the quarter totaled $2.3 million and full-year fees totaled $8.9 million. Compared to the prior year quarter, Hospitality segment adjusted EBITDA increased 15.4% to $77.9…

Thanks, Mark. No closing remarks other than we've been at this now for 30 minutes, and it's a little long. But it's the end of the year, and we wanted to be very transparent about what we -- how we are looking at '15 and '16 and how the group segment is appearing to us. So with that, let's, Laurie, open up the lines for questions, if there are any, and look forward to hearing from the investor group.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Chris Woronka of Deutsche Bank.

One of the things we've heard from some of the other REITs and even the hotel operators this earnings season is that they're looking to limit some of their group room nights in favor of some high-rated transient business. Are you guys seeing a -- I would think that might have some favorable effect on you guys. Are you seeing any benefit from that yet in your conversations with the meeting planners?

You want to take that, Patrick?

Sure. Chris, this is Patrick. It's a good question. And I will tell you that one of the things that we're focused on from an asset management perspective this year is working with the sales teams to make sure that we leave open weekend opportunities for transient business, which is when we see the transient strength coming to our hotels. We're not going to be limiting any group room nights during the week when those patterns typically perform, but we are making sure that we leave the weekends open and the holidays open so that we can bring in and really drive the rate on the transient business. So little bit different for us, but we are addressing that.

Okay. And then I guess, Colin, you've talked a lot about the growth that Nashville continues to see as a market. You've been, I think, spot on in your comments and your forecast. Is there anything -- I mean, you guys have a lot of expertise there in that market. Are there other hospitality, whether it's properties or ventures, that you think you guys might get into and be able to add value to?

That's something that we think about every day. I have no doubt that this market -- providing the world stays sane and America, the United States of America, stay sane, I have no doubt that this market will continue to grow because the product that people are seeking out is unique to this market. And through things like that Nashville TV show and technology, it's literally being exported to people all across the planet. So this market demand is going to continue to grow for this market, and it's a very exciting thing to do. The answer to your question is I'm not sure at this stage whether we will put more hotel product downtown. I mean, remember, we own probably, I don't know, getting on just under 10% of the hotel supply in this market. Opryland is quite a special place and quite unlike anything else you see in the United -- Southern United States of America. But the entertainment side of the opportunity is something that really does intrigue us. And this is why we've invested $15 million in capital. And I suppose I can say this. We bought a building 9 months ago-ish downtown Nashville, one of the best located buildings on Broadway and 3rd Avenue. And what we're looking at is potentially converting that building into a high-quality entertainment venue. And I'm sure I'm going to read about this tomorrow morning in the local newspaper, but it's something that we are really are focused on, and we think that could be an exciting thing. We're also looking at revamping the Wild Horse that we own downtown as well on 2nd Avenue to take advantage of what is going on here. So yes, we will selectively deploy more capital to take advantage of this tremendous surging business that we're seeing here in Nashville.

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Scholes of SunTrust.

Just a quick question. Can you -- just a quick question here. Can you tell us what's your advanced group booking pace quarter date for your Dallas property is?

Patrick, have you got all the detail?

Yes. For which property are you saying?

For Dallas.

Just as far as what's on the books for that property?

What has been the pace so far in this quarter year-over-year?

Do you have another question? I can come back and answer that. Just give me a second to get to the data.

No, that's actually my only question. But if you want to come back later in the call, that's fine.

We will. And Patrick, just a FYI. That hotel, notwithstanding the fact that we had a Super Bowl there a couple of years back, but this hotel this year is going to have the best year it's ever had in '15.

Yes, just to give you a sense, Patrick, that property for all years currently has about 66,000 more room nights on the books for all years going forward. For '15, it was positioned with about 17,000 more on the books.

Than this time last year.

Than this time last year. And their production has been increasing in line with some of the pace improvements that we've seen across the brand from a 3% perspective. We do expect 2015 to be really strong year, given that the property is coming off of a renovation. And so put all this together, and it's very well positioned.

Yes. To the point that our operator and our company are looking at long term what we do here in this market because it's clear to us that this market will continue to grow. And the question is what do we do to take advantage of that and actually to stimulate more growth, and that's work that's under way right now.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question -- your next question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley of Bank of America.

I just needed a follow-up on that last question. If you -- could you gives a little bit more color on what you're seeing at your Orlando and D.C. properties in terms of sort of the group and citywide calendars for those places? Just generally what you're thinking about the outlook for this market in '15 specifically.

Sure. So Orlando and what was the other property you're asking about?

D.C.

D.C.

Yes. We had...

As we look at D.C. for 2015, I guess, I would start by saying that we're coming off of '14 with our property outperforming the general market as well as the comp set. We've seen our hotel continue to pace ahead even with the Marriott Marquis opening this past year. As we look to '15, we feel that the property will continue that momentum. It is well positioned, good room nights on the books going into the year and we don't see any of that steam slowing down, if you will. The National Harbor development continues to further develop along and the property itself with our sales teams sort of back where they need to be continues to move in the right direction.

Lead volume looks good. We had a very good fourth quarter, one of the best fourth quarters we've had in a long time in Washington.

That's right. And the location of the property allows us to really take advantage of the resurgence that we've seen in pharma businesses and some of the Northeast corridor-type corporate groups that function and are located in that area.

As you look at Orlando, we feel good about where the property is heading. The Orlando market continues to sort of just hum along, has fully absorb the supply that came into the market a few years ago. So as we look at that market and look at that property specifically, we do see some growth year-over-year, expecting that property to be a little bit more -- just more of a slight growth year-over-year.

Helpful. And then my other question is I think, Colin, in prepared remarks you mentioned a little bit about your view towards capital return and buying your own stock as sort of undervalued. But you have seen really significant improvement in your share price over the last year. And so as you look back -- or as you look out from today, does that kind of pecking order of thinking about capital return versus growth capital or acquisitions, does that change at all? And how are you thinking about the M&A landscape?

Well, the simple math is this, right, I mean, when we were -- my comments I think if you listened to them they were talking about our posture 2 years, 1 year ago was that our stock was materially undervalued, and that's why we've been undertaking what we've been undertaking. The math is that when -- as we were looking forward and doing our long-range plans that you guys you're not privy to, when we look at that and we look at our stock prices, we sort of said, "Hmm, we're trading at this multiple." And then the question becomes can you go out and buy assets, quality assets to increase distribution at the multiple that we believe we're trading at. And historically, the answer has been emphatically no. I mean, we can go buy assets, but they're poor assets, and we're not going to dilute the quality of the property portfolio that we have. And you're right, I mean, we've seen a material increase in our stock price here over the last few months. And so the question then becomes are there assets that you can purchase below where we are -- where we believe our equity is trading at on a long-range planning perspective. And obviously, as your equity goes up, it changes the answer to some extent. No, I'm not telling you that we're going to embark on a asset purchase strategy, and we still think there's a lot of runway in our equity price. The question becomes what multiple can you buy quality assets at and add them to your portfolio in a accretive manner. And so we look at this stuff. We look at it every month and -- because we get our doors not lock on asset A, asset B, and we look at assets, and we look at the multiples, compared to where we think we're trading at, and we make determinations based on that on that time. So this is something that we will look at going forward.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, there are no further questions. I'll now return the call to Colin Reed for any additional or closing remarks.

Laurie, thank you. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us today. And if you have any further questions, you know how to get hold of either Mark, Patrick or me, and look forward -- I know we're at the Citi conference next week and the JPMorgan conference next week. So hopefully, we have the opportunity of communicating with a number of you. And thanks very much indeed for your time this morning.

Thank you for participating in the Ryman Hospitality Properties' Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.