Welcome to the RLJ Lodging Trust Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, I would now like to turn the call over to John Paul Austin, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to RLJ Lodging Trust 2025 fourth quarter and full year earnings call. On today's call, Leslie D. Hale, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will discuss key highlights for the quarter. Nikhil Bhalla, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss the company's financial results. Thomas J. Bardenett, our Chief Operating Officer, will also be available for Q&A. Forward-looking statements made on this call are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may lead the company's actual results to differ materially from what has been communicated. Factors that may impact the results of the company can be found in the company's 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements. Also, as we discuss certain non-GAAP measures, it may be helpful to review the reconciliations to GAAP located in our press release. Finally, please refer to the schedule of supplemental information which includes pro forma operating results for our current hotel portfolio for 2025. I will now turn the call over to Leslie.

Thanks, John Paul. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We were pleased with our solid fourth quarter results which came in ahead of our expectations. Despite a choppy operating environment that was further constrained by the protracted government shutdown, our operating results benefited from the continued outperformance of the ramp of our completed high-occupancy renovations, as well as our robust growth in non-rooms revenue. These factors combined with disciplined cost management contributed to our better-than-expected bottom line results. The fourth quarter capped a highly productive year for us during which we delivered our Nashville conversion and continued ramping our completed conversions, which on average achieved RevPAR growth that was nearly 700 basis points ahead of our broader portfolio. We advanced the next phase of our pipeline, including the selection of the brand for our Boston conversion. We completed transformative renovations of several hotels in high-demand markets. We achieved robust non-room revenues well in excess of our RevPAR performance, validating investments in our ROI initiatives. We strengthened our balance sheet by addressing all of our near-term debt. We executed on opportunistic asset sales at accretive multiples and returned significant capital to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. The execution of these initiatives has strengthened our long-term growth profile and further bolstered confidence in our ability to deliver on our value creation initiatives even in an uncertain environment. With respect to our operating performance, our fourth quarter RevPAR decline of 1.5% came in better than what we had anticipated in the midst of the government shutdown. These improved top line results were driven by the relative outperformance of our urban markets, a stronger-than-expected acceleration of the ramp at our major renovations as the shutdown ended, as well as an overall stronger December which benefited from…

To start, our comparable numbers include our 92 hotels owned at the end of the fourth quarter. Our reported corporate adjusted EBITDA and AFFO include operating results from all sold hotels during RLJ Lodging Trust’s ownership period. As Leslie noted, our fourth quarter results came in ahead of our expectations. Fourth quarter occupancy was 68.7%, average daily rate was $199, and RevPAR was $137, which translated to a 1.5% RevPAR contraction versus the prior year comprised of a 0.9% decline in occupancy and a 0.7% decline in ADR. The government shutdown weighed on our results in both October and November, which are seasonally the highest contributors during the fourth quarter, and December faced a uniquely difficult comparison from the prior year. Our urban markets outperformed our portfolio by approximately half a point, benefiting from robust growth in markets such as Northern California, Denver CBD, and New York City, achieving 18.5%, 10.1%, and 4.7% RevPAR growth, respectively. We were especially pleased with our non-room revenues growing by 7.2% over the fourth quarter of last year, which led our total revenues to grow by 0.2%, driven by solid growth in F&B, parking, and other revenues. With respect to expenses, total operating costs were up only 0.8% during the quarter and up 1.6% for the full year. Our fixed expenses during the quarter benefited from a favorable insurance renewal as well as $4.7 million in real estate tax benefits as a result of our successful appeals, which were not contemplated in our outlook. Excluding these tax benefits, our total expenses increased only 2.1% for the full year, reflecting the benefits of our lean operating model as well as relentless focus on enhancing productivity and managing expenses. Our ability to manage costs in a soft RevPAR environment allowed us to achieve fourth quarter comparable…

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star then 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning. It is Josh Friedland on for Austin. How much benefit are you guys assuming from the World Cup and then separately from easier comps due to the government shutdown? And how much of the RevPAR growth this year are you expecting to come from rate growth versus occupancy?

So, hey, good morning. Let me unpack all of our building blocks for what is embedded at the midpoint of our guidance based on your question. I would say, from a balance perspective, we are balancing rate and occupancy. We see it equally weighted at the midpoint. When we think about segmentation, we are assuming that BT is going to continue to improve on the strength of national accounts that continue to come back in terms of frequency and length of stay. We are also assuming that because our highest-rated customer is coming back that we are going to see rate growth on the BT side and that BT is going to benefit from the holiday calendar shift, which is having seen a lot of holidays on the weekends. Additionally, we are assuming that leisure demand is expected to increase in 2026 on the strength of the unique events. We think urban leisure is going to continue to outperform. We think that rate is going to be a key driver of growth in 2026 for leisure, which was not in 2025, and that our leisure is going to benefit from the ramp of our high-occupancy renovations that we did last year, which were in leisure markets. And group is going to see a pace ahead of 2025 in the second, third, and fourth quarter. And all of those things are going to benefit urban, which is going to continue to outperform the industry, particularly on the strength of San Francisco. And then if I drill down on the special events, for World Cup, we have got nine markets that are benefiting from World Cup with 63 games, and we have prominent games in Miami, New York, and LA, and that is translating into about 45 basis points of pickup for us. I would say additionally, as we mentioned last year, we were impacted by our high-occupancy renovations, and so this year, we are getting the benefit of that. In Waikiki, Deerfield, and Key West, that is going to translate into an incremental 40 basis points for us. And that is on top of the benefits from the special events; the 250th anniversary in DC, Boston, New York, and Philly; as well as more regional games that we are getting from March Madness. We also have the Final Four in our footprint this year as well. That is incremental to the Super Bowl that benefited San Francisco. In aggregate, those things are reflected in the midpoint of our range.

Okay. Thank you for that. It is really helpful. And my second question, how are you prioritizing capital allocation today—asset sales and possible share repurchases—given where your stock is trading and what would need to change either in valuation or transaction markets for external growth to become more attractive?

Yes. I think clearly, we were active this year. We recycled some capital from asset sales, we bought back shares, we executed on our conversions with our most recent conversions generating 15% RevPAR growth this year. We also took some actions to strengthen our balance sheet in the back half of the year as the environment softened. Clearly, the balance sheet is what gives us optionality. We want to be thoughtful about balancing between near-term opportunities and long-term resiliency. We are constructive on asset sales. We will look to recycle more proceeds in 2026 and take advantage of the arbitrage in valuation while also maintaining our balance sheet. And we are going to look to use all the tools that are available to us. These are not mutually exclusive. They have relative benefits based on the market conditions, and we want to drive value for our shareholders and grow earnings, and we think that buybacks are an important tool in our toolkit.

Great. Thanks for the color.

Our next question is from Tyler Batory with Oppenheimer and Company. Please proceed.

First one for me just on the EBITDA side of things and EBITDA margin. 1% growth year over year at the midpoint when you make some adjustments. Just talk a little bit more what you are seeing on the operating cost side of things and your expectations for 2026?

Yes. I think in aggregate, our assumption is that expenses are going to grow about 3%. We think variable expenses are going to be about 2% and the fixed expenses are going to be about 4% excluding the tax benefit that we have. And I think from a wage perspective, we are assuming kind of 3% to 4% on wage and benefits growth.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that. And then I wanted to double click on conversions and renovations. Just remind us what plans for 2026. I know there were some renovation disruptions that impacted 2025, and so I am not sure if there is anything that is going to be happening that we should be aware about in terms of 2026. And then talk a little bit about just conversions. I think you mentioned I think it was 15% RevPAR growth at your recent conversions. Just talk a little bit more about the ramp-up and just some of the performance at the hotels that you have converted recently.

Sure, Tyler. Catch me if I missed part of your question. But I think in terms of, on a relative basis, recall that last year we mentioned that the types of renovations we did last year were high-occupancy renovations, and so by nature of the occupancy and how they performed throughout the year, you were going to have some level of disruption. That is not the case for this year, and you see we have lower CapEx for this year. That is also a function that these are smaller assets relative to what we did last year. The largest asset that we have on this year is really going to be Boston, which is going to be in the latter part of the year after all of the special events. And so we do not expect to indicate disruption as a headwind for us this year. I think as it relates to the conversions, we have completed seven conversions to date. We have two more that are underway. Obviously, Boston, which I just mentioned, will start later this year, and then our Pittsburgh—Renaissance Pittsburgh—which is going to be converted to an Autograph Collection, we will deliver that later this year. All of our conversions were up on average about 5% last year, with our four most recent ones being up 15%. And so they continue to ramp very well. We are very pleased in terms of the returns that we are generating and the overall production from our conversions. We remain on pace to continue to deliver two conversions per year. We look forward to announcing our second one at the latter part of this year.

Okay. Great. That is all for me. Thank you for the detail.

Our next question is from Michael Bellisario with Baird. Please proceed.

Just a few transaction questions. Good morning. Just transaction questions for you. Just first, what was the motivation and process like to sell Dallas and Houston? And was it more market or asset driven to sell those hotels?

Yes, Mike. Those two assets—one was a function of where we saw the demand drivers going in that particular market coupled with the capital needs of the assets, and the other one was opportunistic; an alternative-use buyer was looking at that asset. What we have found in today’s market is that inbound calls are more credible today, and so we took advantage of some opportunistic opportunities.

Got it. That is helpful. And then just looking at Northern California, and sort of how do you balance some of the expected improvement in that market that sort of you and everyone expect with potentially selling some of the kind of non-CBD hotels? Yep. Is your fundamental view of San Francisco is going to benefit San Francisco, and is the improving demand profile going to make its way out to the outer rings?

Yes. I think we were able to balance it by the breadth of our footprint, Michael. And so I think that there is opportunity for us to continue to benefit from the relative strength that San Francisco is seeing while, at the same token, being opportunistic on asset sales and just being thoughtful about how we prioritize which submarkets we would look to prune our portfolio in.

Helpful. Thank you.

Our next question is from Gregory Miller with Truist Securities. Please proceed.

Thank you. Good morning. I would like to start off on the AI front. A number of your franchisor brand partners have spoken about their consumer-facing AI efforts including towards the LLMs. Do you expect any material change in how your bookings from the brands will be sourced this year?

Thanks. That is a good question, Greg. We are actively working with the brands to pass through when we think about how they are interacting with the consumer, and specifically on the front end when they are shopping, researching, and looking to book a business. The great thing we are continuing to see is brand.com continues to be the source of business that is the highest return, where people are booking through the brand, which the cost is less there than, let us say, the OTA channels. And so we are very supportive of all the initiatives around centralized services in regards to how they are thinking about rolling out to the consumer to be able to make it easier to get to brand.com, number one. The other thing that I would say is, when I think about what the brands are doing, there is an opportunity also to have savings through economies of scale, and whether that is through their AI tools, they are evolving meaningfully over the next few years, and they are doing a tremendous amount of beta testing. We sit on, as you know, owner advisory councils and have a voice as well as our peers. And so we are excited about the opportunity to enhance productivity not only through the cost side and labor and scheduling initiatives—everything related to how we can make sure that we are maximizing the opportunities that are ahead of us. And I think when we go down the road of our own work and what we are doing, we are really taking a look at data insights in regards to making our decisions from an asset management standpoint with our management companies and enhancing the tools there as well. So we are supportive and excited about the future and look forward to having the brands really lead the way when it comes to our industry.

Thanks, Tom. So my second question, this is similar to Tyler’s question, but maybe a bit more granularity. As we think about modeling labor costs through the year, is there any change in the step-up we should assume in terms of cost growth in the third and the fourth quarters particularly given labor dynamics in New York City?

That is embedded in our overall blended expense growth. If you kind of look at the fourth quarter, we were up 0.8% in growth, and if you take out the tax benefit, we were up slightly over 2%. And so I think if we assume that trend line for the first two quarters and then, you know, the back half, you blend back to 3% for the full year.

And the thing too beyond what your question was around New York City, when you think about the bigger picture, Greg, contract labor continues to be reduced. Productivity continues to improve. When we think about our portfolio specifically, you dig into the synergies that we continue to make sure that we are maximizing because of our footprint—whether it is operations, sales, food and beverage, and repairs and maintenance—making sure that we are building a business model that is sustainable. And so we feel very good about our management companies and how they are interacting with us around scheduling, back to what we talked about in regards to yielding that just as important as we are yielding revenue to be able to maintain the levels that Leslie referred to.

I appreciate it. Thanks, Leslie. Thanks, Tom.

Our next question is from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask, if I could, a longer-term strategic question. You know, if we look at the portfolio today, 92 hotels, you probably skew a little bit more full service at this point, particularly from an EBITDA perspective. But is there any thought to, as we potentially get more traction in the transactional markets going forward, is there any thought to do anything more significant in terms of reshaping the portfolio to maybe continue to de-emphasize select service, which you have kind of been doing on a measured basis thus far? Thanks.

So, Chris, thanks for the question. I think in general, when it makes sense to be active externally, you are going to continue to see us lean towards lifestyle, thoughtful F&B-oriented assets which have a mix that are built right from a room count perspective. And you have seen our portfolio shift to the urban lifestyle as we made acquisitions and as we do our conversions. And so you will see our portfolio continue to move in that direction when it makes sense to execute on external growth. We do think that the transaction market will improve this year, particularly given the debt markets. There are a lot of players out there providing debt and expectations around rate cuts. We are constructive on more asset sales, and you will see us be active on that front more so this year.

The last thing I would add too, Chris, and I think you can see it in our non-room revenue spend, when you look at our ROI initiatives and you look at our conversions and our renovations, we are leaning in heavily to trying to grow food and beverage margin with beverage-centric renovations that are driving that. And we continue at our urban properties to be able to enhance the capital initiatives around parking, which is also driving profitability. And then the last thing, whether it is select service or full service, we are seeing the fact that our margins are growing because of market expansion. So when you are in our lobbies, we are really putting more minds and efforts against how do we make sure that we have the grab-and-gos, if you will, which is really a playbook from select service, but also expanding into our full service hotels where the need is that a consumer looks to buy things when they are individually in a hurry.

Okay. I appreciate all that color. Thanks, Leslie. Thanks, Tom. As a follow-up, I think we have heard from some of your peers, to varying degrees, that there is a little bit more and perhaps increased flexibility with the brands on things both related to CapEx and also sometimes operational efficiencies. Are you guys seeing that same trend? Are you more encouraged or less encouraged by what you see going forward in terms of, I do not know if pushback is the right word, but working with the brand collectively kind of give yourselves a little bit more margin and free cash flow conversion? Thanks.

Look, I think in general we have very strong relationships with our brand partners and that we have a very healthy relationship. I think the brands are being very thoughtful around their renovation requirements and trying to be market-specific as it relates to that. I think they are also looking for ways to be able to give benefits to owners who deploy capital within their portfolios, of which we are one of those. And they are also looking for ways to help some of the fee dollars. So I think in general, I think the brands are being good partners, and we have very strong relationships that we have been able to benefit from.

Okay. Very good. Thanks, Leslie.

Our next question is from Rich Hightower with Barclays. Please proceed.

Hi, good morning, guys. Leslie, if I go back, I think it was your answer to the first question. You know, it is sort of strength upon strength upon strength in terms of the building blocks for 2026. And I think just out of curiosity, when you add all of it up, and, you know, again, assuming that the world we think we know and understand today kind of plays out as expected, I mean, what is the likelihood of coming anywhere near the low end of guidance as we just think about the plausibility of the range?

Rich, I think that you have to remember that our portfolio is 80% transient. We have a short-term booking window. So when you think about our range, our range is really just a reflection of either the strength or weaker production and some combination of the factors that we laid out relative to our baseline. At the high end of the range, you could have stronger production in World Cup or stronger production of the special events or in-the-year-for-the-year pickup, or urban markets may outperform better, or the ramp may be stronger. We think that if those things happen, it is going to translate into rate growth primarily, but the flip side is opposite for the lower end of the range. If we have weaker production from World Cup or any of the other combination of things from urban markets or special events or in-the-year-for-the-year pickup or slower ramp on our conversions, those types of things would lead you to the bottom end of the range. That would take the form of demand. So I think it is about relative strength. What we built at the midpoint is based upon what we can see today, but we are in an 80% transient business with a short-term booking window.

That makes sense. That is helpful. My second question, I would like to dive a little bit deeper on the Wyndham Boston conversion to Tapestry in particular. So, you know, I know that asset reasonably well. You know, it really kind of is a demand category killer given location, you know, kind of on the campus of MGH and obviously in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. So I would assume it does pretty well on its own as a Wyndham. And so just help us understand the economics behind the Tapestry conversion, what that brand will do for the hotel, what the all-in basis per key, etcetera, might look like at the end of all that. Thanks.

I will talk about the decision to move into that arena a little bit, Rich, and some of the things that we are doing that we think are going to be transformative. But you hit the nail on the head. We love the location. And in real estate, it is all about location, location, location. So just to add to your color, with $1.8 billion going into Mass General with two buildings literally adjacent to the hotel, those are going to be future demand generators above and beyond the location, as you mentioned, Beacon Hill, which is high-end residential, great community where you have universities, health care, education, as well as the attractions and walking distance to the Garden and things that we benefit from. So what we feel is by going into the Hilton system, specifically on the lifestyle side, we can make it that community-centric feel when people are walking into the hotel. And what has happened in our other conversions, Rich, as you know because you visited some of them, the mix changes. When that happens, you get more corporate base. You also get more Hilton contribution because of the lack of supply that Hilton has in that marketplace. We feel we enter into a place where we can really compete on the lifestyle and upper-end threshold of that clientele that is looking for locations as well as accommodations. We also have some meeting space on the highest floor that really has beautiful views over Boston. And having that mix of business will help us on the group, corporate, and base of what we find in our other conversions like Mills House when we went to a Curio, or Nashville where we went to a Tapestry, where we automatically see that shift in business. So we are pretty excited about, yes, it is a great hotel today because Wyndham does a super job for us in that location with the value buy, but we are going to be playing at a different level when we move into the Tapestry Hilton collection. And then I will kick it over to Leslie for returns.

Yes. I think, Rich, we have been pretty clear on this asset. We believe that there is 40% upside in the EBITDA from converting it to a Tapestry for all the reasons that you articulated in the market demand there. This is an asset that is going to benefit from all of the demand drivers and segmentation, and we know that the rate is in the market because there are other assets already achieving the rate that we have underwritten for this asset and feel very good about what it can produce. And the overall renovation dollars are actually not that much more than what we would do in a normal renovation. And so the returns for the asset relative to the incremental capital are well north of 50%.

Okay. Great. Thanks for the color, guys.

As a reminder, press star then 1 on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our next question is from Jack Armstrong with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. How do you expect total revenue growth to outperform RevPAR in 2026? And how much of that is being driven by some of the F&B improvements you made across the portfolio?

Hey, Jack. This is Nikhil. How are you? Just to give some frame of reference, there are a number of things that are going into our non-room revenues, and one of them is the markets that Tom described earlier. If you look at the fourth quarter, our revenues were actually up in the high single digits, and consistently we have had very strong growth in that. So we are continuing to see very, very strong growth across that and we expect that to continue. If you see our prepared remarks, we did say that our total revenues will outperform room revenues. We expect somewhere around 50 basis points.

And then on F&B, Jack, just to give you a little color there. We had about a 120 basis point improvement in margin in F&B full year and this year. And we continue to see the reason that is happening is because not only is group now having more corporate group, but they spend more money on banquets and beverage, and then many of our renovations as well as ROI initiatives have really been what I talked about earlier—more beverage-centric, having more seats at the bar, having our meeting space have reception areas where that is more an opportunity to have camaraderie in an outdoor area, whether it is an atrium or locations that are highly desirable to gather. And so we are seeing outlets grow. And lastly, on the community side, as Leslie stated earlier, trying to be attractive to folks not staying in the hotel. An example of that would be Mills House where we did the Black Door Cafe. We are getting 50% from our guests and 50% from the outside—just foot traffic—taking advantage of our locations. I think Boston is going to be a perfect example of that. Now people who are going to be in those locations are going to want a place to eat, and there is a significant crowd now literally next door who is going to be going back to office in those locations. So those are examples of that, and I will kick it to Leslie for one more.

Yes. And I would just bolt on to Tom’s comments in the sense that every time we do this, we get smarter. And so the last comment that Tom made about being able to attract not just hotel guests to our F&B outlets, we are seeing that in all of our conversions. He mentioned Mills House. We also have done it in Santa Monica. We also did it in New Orleans as well, and he mentioned that we are going to be doing it in Boston, but we are also doing that in the Renaissance Pittsburgh that we are converting to an Autograph. And then the other asset that we will announce later this year will have the same concept as well. So we are really leaning into this thoughtful F&B with the beverage-centric mindset, and that is going to help us sustain that 50 basis points that Nikhil mentioned.

Helpful color there. Thank you. And then can you remind us what portion of your business was government-related in 2025? And then maybe contrast that with a more stabilized year without the impact of Liberation Day and the shutdown and what that would look like in 2026.

Yes. I mean, what I would say is that in a normalized year, government was 3%, and when we think about how it performed last year, it was down about 20%. And we think that we saw a step down in Liberation Day. And as I mentioned previously, our range assumes no change in government demand.

Great. Very helpful. Thank you.

Our next question is from Chris Darling with Green Street. Please proceed.

Thanks. Good morning. Going back to the capital allocation discussion, Leslie, you mentioned inbound interest from potential buyers being more credible these days, just a more constructive transaction market in general. As you think through potential dispositions, what are some of the main factors you consider when making that decision? Is it market-driven, asset-level consideration, something else? Just sort of curious how you internally think about these things.

Yes. I mean, I think it is a combination of our view of a market and where the puck is going from a demand perspective. It is also whether or not we think we can get any return on the capital that we have to put in to sustain the asset. And then it is our perspective on any opportunistic calls that we get in to determine whether or not we think that that value is appropriate for relative assets. But I think that we are active portfolio managers and will consider looking at all aspects of our portfolio relative to a constructive disposition environment.

Okay. And, you know, related to this, in your mind, do you think there is appetite for larger-scale portfolio deals today? And if not, what do you think might change that story as we move through this year?

Yes. I mean, I think it is a great question. I think that as we look at the market today, the most active buyers are owner-operators because they are able to consistently underwrite growth. And so that leans itself to more single assets. Having said that, we do think that there has been an increase in volume for larger single assets, which could then translate into liquidity for smaller pools of assets. I think a key ingredient of that is for the interest rate cuts to actually materialize and for buyers to be able to underwrite bottom line growth with conviction.

Alright. I appreciate the time. That will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Leslie Hale for closing remarks.

Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us today. We look forward to meeting with many of you over the next couple of months. Have a good day.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.