Ryman Hospitality Properties

Hotel industry experiences mixed stock market performance, with DJIA rising while NASDAQ and S&P 500 show declines. Renovations and upgrades abound, with notable projects including the multimillion-dollar renovations of Houston Marriott South and Homewood Suites by Hilton New Orleans. Exciting developments on the horizon, such as the opening of Raffles Boston and the planned multimillion-dollar mixed-use project by Beck Ventures in Midtown Dallas.

The hospitality industry is experiencing optimism and cautiousness, with hotels considering divesting assets and anticipating a potential distressed sale boom. Hoteliers are optimistic about increasing demand, but face challenges such as high-interest rates, labor shortages, and decreased construction activity. The U.S. hotel forecast shows improvements in occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR, while hotels are offering incentives to combat staffing shortages. International visitor arrivals to the U.S. continue to rise, with Mexico and Canada leading the way.

Market surge: DJIA and Nasdaq experience significant gains, with the DJIA surging 701 points and the stronger-than-expected jobs report contributing to the rise. Airbnb lawsuit: Airbnb files a lawsuit against New York City over a new law that the company claims will limit short-term rentals and make it more difficult for hosts to do business. Hotel openings and acquisitions: Several hotel brands announce new openings and acquisitions, including WoodSpring Suites, Sonesta, and Margaritaville, expanding their presence in different cities and states.

Stock market indices experienced gains, with DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 rising while the 10-year treasury yield decreased. Truist's RevPAR Monitor highlighted positive and negative trends in the hotel industry, including the recovery of group travel and sluggish corporate individual business/transient segment. Various hotel-related announcements were made, including the launch of IHG's Wi-Fi Auto Connect feature, expansion of Saks Fifth Avenue's personal shopping service to luxury resorts, and the opening of new hotels by Hyatt, IHG, Palisociety, and others.

Choice Hotels International reported solid 1Q results, better than expectations. In the good old days, when stocks actually moved up and down based on fundamentals. Deutsche Bank upped their target price on Ryman Hospitality to $128 from $126 and reiterated their Buy rating. The Four Seasons Hotel Boston has reopened following the completion of a dramatic design update of its arrival area, lobby and port cochere.

The earnings calendar accelerated in both the REIT and C-Corp section in the past 24 hours. Hyatt received the most attention with a clean beat but then some concerns creeping in. Host Hotels had a lousy two days to issue a great report with a clean and positive beat and raise. Summit Hotels came in just under consensus even with a strong top-line performance as higher hotel-level expenses hurt results.

Sotherly Hotels reported preliminary operating results for 1Q23 for their 10 wholly-owned properties. RevPAR was up 21.4% led by an 11.4% jump in occupancy. Tighter budgets, busy airports, and soaring prices are prompting a more frugal tourist to return . Even high-end travelers are pulling back on their vacation spending, Bloomberg reported. Lightstone announced the April 12 debut of the 37-story, 727-key Moxy & AC Hotels Downtown Los Angeles.

Truist lowered their price target on Park Hotels & Resorts to $19 from $20 while maintaining their Buy rating. BRE Hotels & Resorts and The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua are celebrating the recent success of the property following a $100 million transformation. The iconic Fairmont Hotel in downtown Vancouver, Canada, is looking to expand with an annex tower, but it will not provide any additional hotel rooms.

Yesterday, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust lowered guidance for 4Q results and shook up the industry a bit. Today, Ryman Hospitality did the opposite. Lodging stocks were mostly lower with a long list of new lows, many of them REITs. New lows were set by PEB, PK, AHT, SHO, XHR, ABNB and VCSA Marriott International announced that long-time executive Stephanie Linnartz is leaving the company, effective February 24, 2023.

On Friday lodging stocks ended higher: BHR rose 12% while AINC was up 7%. SOND fell -7% on the day. Raymond James downgraded Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and Xenia Hotels & Resorts to Market Perform from Outperform while cutting Sunstone Hotel Investors to Underperform from Market Perform. Ryman Hospitality also announced they were boosting their quarterly dividend, declaring the 4Q dividend of $0.25 per share.