Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Ari Klein - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Good morning, can you talk a little bit about the renovations planned beyond the current one and what the timing of some of those could look like? And then maybe related to that, are the renovation headwinds that we're seeing in '25 likely to be the peak?

Question: Ari Klein - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : And just on the headwinds that we're seeing in '25? Is that -- is this kind of a peak level you think? Or just given some of the longer-term plans, maybe that increases?

Question: Ari Klein - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And then just on the higher mix of the associated business in '25 impacting out of room spend, curious what that mix looks like in the group bookings in '26 and 2027 and if maybe we see that trend kind of revert in those years?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc. - Analyst : I wanted to ask you a little bit about your labor and wage costs. Maybe how much did they increase in '24? And how much are you baking in for 2025?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc. - Analyst : And then I just wanted to ask you, I know you've talked about record bookings on all future room nights, et cetera. Just any sort of change in the profile of who's booking? Are you seeing pickups in associations or trade shows? Or is it sort of typical mix? Or any kind of color you can provide there?

Question: Duane Pfennigwerth - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Just wondering with respect to the ICE! results at Texan and Opryland, is that a typically a local market demand? Or is that drive to leisure? Do you think there was a trend change in those local markets? Or is this more about ICE! programming and do you think that could evolve next year?

Question: Duane Pfennigwerth - Evercore ISI - Analyst : That's helpful context. And then just with respect to the group bookings and your momentum with corporates, any particular industries that stick out?

Question: Dori Kesten - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : After the Opryland meeting space expansion announcement, are there more announcements like this in the background that you're considering? Or is the CapEx plan that you laid out at the Investor Day through '27 pretty baked in at this point?

Question: Dori Kesten - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : But it's fair to say, though, that with the Rockies expansion, that's relative -- it's relatively not disruptive, though? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 / 4:00PM, RHP.N - Q4 2024 Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc Earnings Call

Question: Chris Darling - Green Street - Analyst : A couple of questions for you on the Gaylord National. First, what's your expectation for performance in 2025? And then secondly, how reliant is that property on the local DC market in terms of demand generation. Just wondering if there's any risk maybe with some of the government efficiency initiatives and how that may or may not impact that property going forward?

Question: Chris Darling - Green Street - Analyst : Okay. That's all helpful thoughts. And then I have a bit of a nuanced question. There may not be a lot here, but I'll ask it anyway. You mentioned you come into this year expecting lower out-of-room spend or a little bit lower out of room spend because of the group mix shift. I wonder, with that dynamic in place, what's your ability to sort of manage your expense structure around that? Is there anything to read into about that?

Question: Chris Darling - Green Street - Analyst : Yeah, it was a very helpful comments. I appreciate all the color there. Thank you.

Question: Jay Kornreich - Wedbush Securities - Analyst : I wanted to ask about just the pace of group revenue on the books for 2026 being up 11%, which I believe you said reflects ADR growth of 4.5%. So I'm curious as we move closer to 2026 and you're able to book into many of the finished CapEx projects and you've outlined a rate-driven strategy, do you think there's an opportunity to push that 4.5% rate growth even higher?

Question: Jay Kornreich - Wedbush Securities - Analyst : Alright. I appreciate that. That's helpful. And then just one more on the entertainment segment. You made a number of significant strides over the past year, opening up the old Red Las Vegas, repositioning Category 10, a major renovation at Block 21. So just curious if you have any other material investment or expansion plans over the next year or two that you could highlight on the entertainment side?

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Thanks for squeezing me in on the questions. So I guess maybe we're beating a horse that we didn't expect to be beating, but if I can kind of go back to the corporate, you're making all these investments partly to attract a more premium corporate group customer, right? I guess, is there any way to frame up how that, I guess, ideal premium corporate customer looks like versus association or even kind of a non-premium corporate group, whether it's size or length of stay or rate or out of room spend. And if it's smaller, does that -- do we have to think about it being harder potentially to fill some of these leisure weekend spots or are there more shoulder periods? Any color you could add would be great.

Question: Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : No, I really appreciate all that color. Very helpful. Thanks, guys.

Question: John DeCree - CBRE Securities - Analyst : Maybe just one question, I think, in the prepared remarks. Jennifer you talked a little bit about some of the conservatism that's built into the low end of the guidance. Curious if you could talk to some of the variables that you think about that might get you to the high end of the guidance. Imagine some of that is just leisure and economic variation to expectations, but there's some ability to manage disruption. So yeah, that's my question. That's all.

Question: David Katz - Jefferies - Analyst : Made it in under the wire. I wanted to just get your perspective on -- Mark, you said earlier you were talking about some change on the margin. Whether they're -- and I think everybody is sort of trying to circle some of the drivers of what we're processing. Is there any competition in certain market, right? Any -- anything you could point to? And I asked the question in the context, I know your properties and that there really is nothing quite like them. But is there any marginal competition we might be able to point to that may be having some impact?