Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Charles Patrick Scholes - Truist Securities, Inc. - Analyst : Good morning, everyone. Thank you. A couple of questions here. It looks like in your full-year guidance, CapEx is going up. Can you talk a little bit what is driving that? And then I have one or two more questions. Thank you. Jennifer Hutcheson - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, Corporate Controller Sure. It is a modest increase in terms of the base of spending that we're estimating now a $400 million to $450 million range. And really, that's more a function of timing of the cash spend. We've not added any incremental projects or changed the scope of projects that's caused that to increase, nor have the budget estimates for our individual projects materially changed. Again, this is just largely a function of the timing of the cash payments, whether we're carrying into this year or carrying into next year.

Question: Charles Patrick Scholes - Truist Securities, Inc. - Analyst : Okay. So I mean are you talking ballpark 200 rooms, maybe 1,000 rooms? Or is it too early to give us?

Question: Charles Patrick Scholes - Truist Securities, Inc. - Analyst : Ok, thank you for the color.

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Good morning. So really, really impressive rate performance in the quarter and also on the forward. And my question is, we obviously lost a little bit of a occupancy in Q3, and I know that might be related to leisure. The question though is, are you at a point where you begin to consciously trade a little group occ in favor of rate? And I know there's another component to that, which is the out-of-room spend, but I'm just curious as to whether we should expect maybe slightly lower occ levels at the next peak, but with much better rate growth than we've seen in the past.

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Okay. Very good. I did have a quick follow-up, which is I think there's been a lot of -- so San Diego is getting closer to come across the finish line. And just curious as to whether there's any updated thoughts on whether that's something -- your messaging has been pretty clear in the past that it can only be on the table if certain conditions are there. I'm just curious as to whether any of the conditions you look at are more likely or less likely than our last update.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citi - Analyst : I just wanted to ask you a little bit more about some of the leisure trends you're seeing in the fourth quarter. I think on your last call, you talked about maybe some weakness in the lower end consumer, but the higher end consumer was maybe hanging in there. And I just kind of interested in any discussion around kind of any changes you've seen to that customer?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citi - Analyst : Thanks and then I just wanted to follow up, Mark, you mentioned, I just wanted to make sure I understood that right. Not only is Chula Vista not impacting any of your group bookings are cannibalizing, but you -- it sounds like you think it's in fact, benefiting your group bookings going forward?

Question: Dori Kesten - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Based on your expectations for Q4 group bookings, what group revenue pace would you expect to enter '25 with from the 2% today?

Question: Dori Kesten - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Okay. And then just on that, can you provide a little bit more context on renovation headwinds versus tailwinds that you would expect next year? And then I guess, I think there's been about maybe $10 million to $12 million of headwinds in entertainment. Would you expect those to fully reverse? And then I guess on top of that, it's the 100th anniversary that you'll receive more tailwinds for. So just provide some kind of context around the headwinds and tailwinds we should think of next year.

Question: Shaun Kelley - Bank of America - Analyst : I wanted to go back to Patrick's discussion, if we could, on just the leisure point and really just a clarification, but I'm still trying to get my arms around a little bit of what changed exactly on the leisure outlook. I mean as we go back to maybe April of this year, I think that's when you started to kind of comment that leisure was coming in a bit weaker. Was it really that we just didn't derisk in the fourth quarter and maybe there were higher expectations that ultimately actualize the things to rebound? Or was it something else that was kind of different than expected? Because again, you said, the behavior is not that different than what you've been experiencing, but clearly, that's a big enough change to impact the outlook here.

Question: Shaun Kelley - Bank of America - Analyst : And then just as a follow-up, and I know I think people have kind of hit on the bridge for next year a little bit in terms of a question earlier about sort of group -- the pace that you've got on the books. If we just think about the operating cost outlook, we're starting to kind of get into that season where people are formulating budgets. Just what are you seeing out there on the kind of labor side, in particular, for your model and for your markets? Kind of what do you think is the right general inflationary range to be thinking about operating expenses next year?

Question: Jay Kornreich - Wedbush Securities - Analyst : As you're getting those robust group bookings into future years that you outlined, can you just comment on kind of the demand segmentation you're experiencing and where you've been able to push rate the most from among corporate associations and SMERF customers?

Question: Jay Kornreich - Wedbush Securities - Analyst : Great. Appreciate all the color. And then just one follow-up going back to the entertainment side. It looks like there's some sequential softness in the third quarter on EBITDA and margins. And so just curious if you can expand on maybe what that was attributed to and did you expect a pickup in the fourth quarter. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 05, 2024 / 4:00PM, RHP.N - Q3 2024 Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc Earnings Call

Question: Jay Kornreich - Wedbush Securities - Analyst : Okay. So I guess it's fair to say that the third quarter came in with where you were expecting it to? And then just following up on that, do you expect fourth quarter to be a bit better, especially as the [Category 10] has now opened up?