Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference Transcript

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

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Great. Okay. Thanks for those bullets. And let's maybe kind of talk through a few of those. Just give us a reminder of kind of the overview of the business as you're seeing it for '25, and you've given some commentary around kind of the rate growth you're seeing for '26 and '27. You want to just kind of level set for everyone who maybe doesn't follow it as closely, RevPAR, what you're looking for this year and kind of talk about the Group booking pace.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. So the reason for the acceleration, you think, in '26 and '27 reflects the $1 billion you're investing across the portfolio and you're able to already price up into that?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : And how much of the $1 billion that you're investing is. Would you consider kind of return on capital investing versus kind of maintenance and defense spending?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Well, maybe just -- because I mean, everyone wants to see growth and see -- I mean, you do have a good track record, I think, of seeing incremental returns on incremental investment, and you've kind of given a lot of evidence to show pretty sort of finite returns on the projects you've done, whether it's kind of like the sound waves or different things like that. Could you talk a little bit about the bridge to 2027, I think you said you should achieve $950 million of EBITDA. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 04, 2025 / 12:30PM, RHP.N - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference There's a range there, I think $1 billion on the high end. Just remind us all where you expect to be in '25 and then maybe just sort of how we should progress and think about getting to that goal you outlined at your Investor Day last year.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Would you look for similar levels of construction disruption next year in '26? I know you've isolated about $35 million this year, probably fair to assume a similar amount.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. Just in terms of customer mix, I mean, you mentioned you're over -- I think you're over 70% group. I don't think you'd really do any kind of business transient to speak of and the balance would be leisure. Leisure, it was definitely, I think, disappointing relative to expectations in the fourth quarter. Maybe just provide kind of what you're hearing and seeing on that front as we move a little bit further into the year.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : So spring break bookings are kind of in line or better than what you were expecting or.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. I wanted to switch just to kind of maybe thinking about labor costs. It's been a big topic of focus on the fourth quarter earnings and certainly has impacted the 2025 outlook for a lot of the hotel REITs. Could you talk about what labor costs -- labor and benefits were for you in '24, what you're incorporating into your guidance for '25 and maybe how you're thinking about the pace going forward over the next couple of years? Jennifer Hutcheson - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, Corporate Controller Sure. Well, just as a matter of context and what sets us another point of apart from the other lodging REITs, is that better, Smedes? Okay. Is that we don't have a high proportion of union labor within the hotels that we own. Really only the Gaylord National outside of Washington, D.C. has labor, union labor within our hotel portfolio. So that does allow us a little bit more relative certainty and ability to control or have Marriott as our operator control those operating costs for us on the labor front. And that CBA at that particular property was renegotiated at the end of 2024 and those wage increases have been set over the next four years at kind of just shy of 6% CAGR over four years. And the rest of our portfolio, we're expecting much more manageable labor costs in the kind of, call it, 4%-ish increase. And so those are the primary building blocks for our outlook for 2025 from a labor cost standpoint.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. And anything on the other -- on the cost side. Otherwise, it's worth calling out that you're seeing directionally, real estate, insurance, other things that come into play? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 04, 2025 / 12:30PM, RHP.N - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference Jennifer Hutcheson - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, Corporate Controller Right. So those are generally increasing, but again, a smaller proportion of our overall operating expenses. Insurance, for example, where you hear a lot of folks talking about with hotels is only 2% of our total operating costs. We're expecting high single digits in terms of insurance cost increases in '25 relative to 2024 and really flat on our entertainment portfolio. Property taxes, we continue to manage those and just see those kind of coming in line with kind of the ordinary course, not a meaningful call out there in terms of increases.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : I wanted to switch for a moment to -- so recently, I think it's opened now the Chula Vista Gaylord, which is south of San Diego. There's been questions that you've had over time about whether or not that property, which is not part of your system, but is part of the Gaylord system as operated by Marriott. Are they cannibalizing or growing the overall Group business? Maybe you could just provide any kind of commentary and updates there on what you're seeing?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : So Marriott shares with you where the groups are coming from and the kind of, I guess, you would obviously see the rates, but they don't share with you what's happening at a property that's under your same brand. I just it's not clear how the relationship works.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. But so far, it seems like it will benefit to you.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. So -- and one of the points you mentioned of reasons to buy the stock was high barriers to entry and not a lot of supply. So clearly, that's new supply that's just coming online, but I think it's been in the works for a very long time. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about other larger properties that you know of that are either under construction or under planning and the difficulties of bringing one to market. I think there's like tax incentive financing, it's hard to get now, but just interested in your thoughts around that.

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : I mean, do you feel like local governments are less likely to be willing to give tax incentives at this point? I mean is that more difficult to get than it was when you guys did it multiple years ago? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 04, 2025 / 12:30PM, RHP.N - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : So if you invest incremental capital at the JW Marriott, which is your newest property that's sort of rotating in the system, you've given guidance of where you think the returns would be. Would you look for local incentive tax financing in order to move forward with those investments? Or would that be the one property where you would not be able to get those advantages that you have with the rest of the portfolio?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. I want to move to the entertainment sector in a moment, but I do want to just ask you, obviously, we're seeing pretty steep tariffs go into place against Canada and Mexico, I think, as of today. Does this change your construction budget at all or how you're thinking about investing? Or does it have no impact at all for you or?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Yes. Why people don't take this man as a word. It's a mystery to me, but he's doing everything he said he would do. I wanted to ask you on the entertainment side, you have a minority partner who owns, I think, 30% of the business, Atairos. Can you talk about their options to continue to buy up into the business? I think they had some windows where they can put the business back to you or they have the option to up their purchase. Maybe just kind of set that up. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 04, 2025 / 12:30PM, RHP.N - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : What -- so you would have to buy it back from them?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : What multiple would you have to pay?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Okay. And how is it going with them? Do you think they're happy with the investment? What's sort of your thought?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : So for the ongoing kind of growth besides the kind of the one-off celebrating the 100th year of the Grand Ole Opry, is it more the food and beverage concepts? I know you have Ole Red, which has been very successful in Las Vegas. I think you recently opened Category 10, which is with Luke Combs, is there -- are there a lot of platforms or markets you think that you can roll those concepts into? Or what's the kind of primary growth strategy, I guess, going forward? Is it more music venues? What's the?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : And is that platform that you've -- so you haven't disclosed how much you invested, but you said it was non-material. But is that also purely country music? Or are you expanding the parameters of what kind of music you're including?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : All right. As we come down to the last 30 seconds or so, just two quick questions. The first is if you think about 2% RevPAR growth across the US in 2026, what do you think same-store EBITDA or contraction would be?

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : Right, just thinking about the industry. And do you think in a year from now, there will be more of the same or fewer hotel -- public hotel REITs? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 04, 2025 / 12:30PM, RHP.N - Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc at Citi Global Property CEO Conference

Question: Smedes Rose - Citigroup Inc - Analyst : We'll go with the same. All right. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.