Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE:HT) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 3, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Andrew Tamaccio - Finance Associate

Neil Shah - President, CEO & Director

Ashish Parikh - CFO, EVP & Assistant Secretary

Conference Call Participants

Aryeh Klein - BMO Capital Markets

Tyler Batory - Oppenheimer

David Katz - Jefferies

Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank

Daniel Hogan - Robert W. Baird & Co.

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hersha Hospitality Trust Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Emily, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions].

I will now turn the call over to our host, Andrew Tamaccio with Hersha Hospitality Trust. Please go ahead, Andrew.

Andrew Tamaccio

Thank you, Emily, and good morning to everyone joining us today. Welcome to the Hersha Hospitality Trust Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Today's call will be based on the second quarter 2023 earnings release, which was distributed yesterday afternoon.

Before proceeding, I would like to remind everyone that today's conference call may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's actual results, performance or financial positions to be considerably different from any future results, performance or financial positions. These factors are detailed within the company's press release as well as within the company's filings with the SEC.

With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Neil Shah, Hersha Hospitality Trust's President and Chief Executive Officer. Neil, you may begin.

Neil Shah

Good morning, and thank you for being with us on today's call. Joining me this morning are Ashish Parikh, our Chief Financial Officer; and Jay Shah. I'll begin by covering this portfolio's performance in this quarter, including a deep dive on our New York portfolio before touching on our capital allocation and strategic outlook.

When we last spoke in late April, despite economic uncertainty and general market volatility, our positive outlook was driven by the accelerating performance at our hotels, especially in our core urban markets. While the macroeconomic picture for the back half of the year remains uncertain and forecast very significantly among economists, overall GDP forecasts have continued to improve, and we are seeing more confidence by both businesses and the consumer than at any time in the previous 12 months. In fact, in June, consumer spending adjusted for inflation increased the most since January, while annual U.S. inflation rose at its slowest pace in more than 2 years.