RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 7, 2024 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Nikhil Bhalla - Senior Vice President Finance and Treasurer
Leslie Hale - President and CEO
Sean Mahoney - Executive Vice President and CFO
Tom Bardenett - Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Austin Wurschmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Michael Bellisario - Baird
Jonathan Jenkins - Oppenheimer & Company
Dori Kesten - Wells Fargo
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
Gregory Miller - Truist Securities
Floris van Dijkum - Compass Point

Operator

Welcome to the RLJ Lodging Trust Third Quarter 2024 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. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Nikhil Bhalla, RLJ Senior Vice President Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Nikhil Bhalla

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon. And welcome to RLJ Lodging Trust 2024 third quarter earnings call. On today’s call, Leslie Hale, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will discuss key highlights for the quarter. Sean Mahoney, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will discuss the company’s financial results. Tom Bardenett, our Chief Operating Officer, will 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 had been communicated. Factors that may impact the results of the company can be found in the company’s 10-Q 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.

I will now turn the call over to Leslie.

Leslie Hale

Thanks, Nikhil. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We were pleased with our third quarter results, which came in ahead of our expectations, despite the impact of the storms late in the quarter.

Our third quarter RevPAR growth once again exceeded the industry, demonstrating the resiliency of our urban-centric portfolio, which is allowing us to outperform. Additionally, our effective expense management enabled us to drive EBITDA growth that exceeded our year-over-year RevPAR growth.

Along with achieving solid operating results, we made meaningful progress on our key initiatives during the quarter, including executing on several objectives which will position us well going into 2025, including successfully refinancing all of our near-term debt maturities and executing attractive interest rate hedges, completing two conversions, accretively recycling proceeds from non-core asset sales into share repurchases and increasing our quarterly dividend by 50%. Achievement of these objectives demonstrate our commitment to unlocking value in our portfolio while recycling capital to enhance total shareholder returns.