Q3 2024 Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp Earnings Call
Greetings and welcome to Marriott vacations worldwide third quarter 'twenty 'twenty four earnings conference call. At this time all participants are on a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.
Unknown Attendee: Greetings and welcome to Marriott Vacations Worldwide 3rd Quarter, 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.
Unknown Attendee: A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference has been recorded.
If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference. Please press star zero on your telephone keypad.
This conference is being recorded.
Neal Goldner: I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Neal Goldner, Vice President and Investor Relations.
Speaker Change: Now like to turn the call over to your host Mr. Neal Goldner, Vice President of Investor Relations.
Unknown Attendee: Thanks, Rob.
Neal Goldner: Thanks, Rob and welcome to Marriott Vacations worldwide third quarter earnings Conference call I am joined today by John <unk>, Our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Marino, Our executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer I.
Neal Goldner: Welcome to Marriott Vacations Worldwide 3rd Quarter Earnings Conference Call. I am joined today by John Geller, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Marino, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Neal Goldner: I need to remind everyone that many of our comments today are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause future results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. If I were to look at statements in the press release as well as comments on this call, they are effective only when made and will not be updated as actual events unfold.
Neal Goldner: Throughout the call, we will make references to non-GAAP financial information. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. The schedule is attached to our press release and on our website.
Neal Goldner: With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to John Geller.
John Geller: Thanks, Neal. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our 3rd quarter earnings call. Before we begin, our thoughts go out to all the people in North Carolina, Florida, and elsewhere who were impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton. Fortunately, all of our associates are safe, and none of our vacation ownership resorts had significant damage. Turning to our results for the quarter, as we've always said, people want to go on vacation regardless of the economic environment. And that was, again, evident this quarter, running nearly 90% resort occupancy in increasing contract sales year over year. Recognizing that while consumers continue to face economic pressures, they also place high value on experiences offered by our brands.
John Geller: That's why we took a series of targeted actions during the quarter focused on driving revenue, expanding our sales reach, and introducing compelling incentives for first-time buyers. For example, we adjusted our promotional strategy, resulting in an improvement in our first time buyer VPG trends starting in August. We continue to leverage virtual tours and non-traditional sales channels such as our road shows and owner cruises to reach more potential customers when they're not vacationing with us. We represented 10% of our tours this quarter, up more than 30% from a year ago, and we've had opportunities to expand this even further.
John Geller: And we launched a new first-time buyer financing promotion to make it more affordable to become an owner. These strategies, the continued recovery from last year's Maui wildfires, and the underlying stability in the business helped us grow contract sales 5% year over year. We grew first-time buyer tours, double digits compared to the prior year, while first-time buyer VPG increased 6% sequentially. First time buyer sales increased year over year, and first time buyer tours represented roughly 55% of our total tours, the highest level since 2019 as we continue to work to add new owners to the system.
John Geller: Owners' sales also increased compared to a year ago as tours grew and VPG improved. We ended the quarter with nearly 270,000 preview packages in our pipeline, up 3% from a year ago, which gives us a good start to next year. We advanced our strategy to expand our presence in key markets, opening our new 110-unit YTK Resort in early October. Our owners are continually asking for new experiences like YTK, and this market will appear to our Japanese customers as well as those from North America. We also expect the New Sales Center to generate $30 to $50 million in annual contract sales within a few years, and under our capital-efficient structure, will pay for the inventory over three years, which better matches the anticipated sales ramp.
John Geller: Enthusiasm among owners for this new resort has been very high, and we continue to see strong demand in 2025.
John Geller: I'm also very excited to announce that we intend to build a new Hyatt Vacation Club Resort in Orlando, the first organic addition to the Hyatt Vacation Ownership portfolio in more than a decade, and the first Hyatt Brand Advocation Ownership Resort in the Orlando area. Orlando is the largest time share market in the world, and this resort will be a great addition to our Hyatt portfolio when it opens in a few years. And the New Sales Center that will accompany it will be a nice contributor to contract sales. As with other large projects to efficiently manage our cash flow, our goal is to build this with a capital-efficient partner.
John Geller: In our Change and Third Party Management business, our Interval International team is already working hard to secure inventory for 2025 to drive transactions. And with the additions over the past few years, Interval is now affiliated with more than 160 all-inclusive resorts, providing even more usage options for our members. On the IT front, we've made good progress over the last few years updating our legacy systems. While we still have more to do, these are critical steps to enable us to evolve our product offerings. We've also been on a journey to digitize our consumer capabilities, enabling our owners to transact with us the way they want, and we've already made substantial improvements.
John Geller: For example, the majority of reservations are expected to be booked online this year, up substantially from only a few years ago. We've also expanded the use of low-cost virtual voice assistance throughout the company, and 85% of our users who interact with our chatbot are able to complete their transaction without talking to an agent. And our VO websites are transacting over a billion dollars in payments every year, making maintenance fee and loan payments seamless for our owners. In total, nearly 60% of booking and transaction capabilities are available digitally via self-service today, and we believe we still have substantial opportunities to increase this further, driving efficiencies across the organization.
John Geller: We also have opportunities to unlock the power of data through advanced analytics to improve efficiency and drive top-line growth, and we're making good progress. For example, we continue to improve our first-time buyer propensity models using advanced data and analytics across our marketing channels to improve response rates for our direct marketing offers. These models are helping enhance our first-time buyer sales by more efficiently targeting the right customer with the right offer in the right channel. Another example is the owner propensity model that the team recently expanded. This model drives sales by enhancing our targeting processes to onsite owners by identifying those owners with the highest likelihood of purchasing.
John Geller: We've also developed the robust model to better forecast and optimize available inventory at interval, implementing the use of this information as expected to reduce burn rates and drive incremental transactions. And we are now live on our new Salesforce-enabled enterprise platform for owner data and should incorporate the rest of our VO customer data by the middle of next year. This is an important step to enable us to better service our owners and other customers with personalized products and services. The common thread across all these initiatives is our focus on enhancing the customer experience and growing the top and bottom lines.
John Geller: Technology is a key enabler in the reality is that with most of our businesses 40 years old, we need to ensure that our infrastructure and digital tools keep pace and support our ability to capitalize on the appeal of our iconic brands. While we still have work to do, we've made good progress over the past five years. While the macroeconomic environment remains dynamic, we believe many of the major headwinds that have impacted our performance are behind us. 15 months after the devastating valley wild fires, all of our resorts are open, our sales team is appropriately staffed, occupancy is running above 90%, and I'm confident that our business there will fully recover within a few years, if not sooner.
John Geller: Similarly, we've had to navigate through the pressures of interest rates and higher inflation. Despite that, we are proud to have kept maintenance fee increases for our point-space products to the mid-single digits on average over the past five years, while maintaining the same high standards our owners expect from us. And more importantly, we only expect maintenance fees for these products to increase in the low single digits for 2025. These pressures came while we navigated the implementation of our bound-by-marry-out vacation program. As we've discussed in the past, the implementation is now behind us, and more importantly, our Marriott Weston and Sheraton Vacation Club owners can now use their points to easily move around our system of more than 90 resorts, providing ease of booking and expanded choice, which is critical for continued contract sales growth.
Speaker Change: Similarly, we've had to navigate through the pressures of interest excuse me rising interest rates and higher inflation. Despite that we are proud to have kept maintenance fee increases for our points based products to the mid single digits on average over the past five years, while maintaining the same high standards or <unk>.
Neal Goldner: <unk> expect from Us and more importantly, we only expect maintenance fees for these products to increase in the low single digits for 2025.
Neal Goldner: These pressures came while we navigated the implementation of our bound by Marriott vacation program.
Neal Goldner: As we've discussed in the past the implementation is now behind us and more importantly, our Marriott Westin and Sheraton vacation club owners can now use their points to easily move around our system of more than 90 resorts, providing ease of booking and expanded choice, which is critical for continued contract sales growth.
John Geller: As we've navigated these challenges, it's also important to remember that despite a couple of uneven years, we remain a profitable and resilient business with the solid foundation in a bright future. We have the best collection of brands in the vacation ownership business. Our products resonate with today's consumer, combining great accommodations at top tourist destinations with significant flexibility. We create our own demand in roughly 35% of our just city, but the contribution comes from high margin, recurring revenue streams. We have loyal and highly satisfied owners who rely on us to provide memorable vacations for their families, and we regularly survey our owners, and they tell us year in and year out how much they love their time shares.
John Geller: That's one of the reasons why nearly 70% of our sales year-to-date have come from existing owners, and why our guest satisfaction scores are higher today than they were last year and in 2022. We've had nearly 16,000 first-time buyers this year and over 80,000 since the start of 2020 despite the pandemic, and based on history, more than 40% of these new owners will buy additional points within. We're adding new resorts with properties coming in Orlando, Savannah, Charleston, Thailand, and Bali. And with the investments we're making in technology and talent to leverage consumer insights and personalize and simplify the guest experience, we're well positioned to realize the benefits in the years ahead.
John Geller: Looking forward, we believe we have significant opportunities to accelerate our growth and drive additional operating efficiencies by continuing to modernize and evolve our business.
John Geller: To accelerate these initiatives, I recently created the Strategic Business Operations Office, led by one of our senior leaders who reports directly to me. We believe we can drive an incremental $50 to $100 million of annual efficiencies over the next two years, which is in addition to existing cost savings we have already achieved. We expect to reinvest some of these savings in the business to further accelerate revenue growth by enhancing our customer platforms, products, and services. We also expect to generate additional savings that will benefit our owner's maintenance fees. This effort will touch all parts of the organization, and I look forward to sharing more details with you on our next earnings call.
Jason Marino: With that, I'll turn it over to Jason to discuss our results in more detail.
Jason Marino: Thanks, John.
Jason Marino: Today, I'm going to review our third quarter results, our balance sheet and liquidity position, and our outlook for the year. Starting with our vacation ownership segment, contract sales increased 5% in the quarter compared to last year and increased nearly 2% excluding Maui. While existing owners continued to buy additional points, we also grew first-time buyer sales in the quarter, reflecting our focus on adding new owners. Tours increased 10% year over year, while VPG was 4% lower. In Asia Pacific, sales grew more than 40% year over year. Importantly, owner VPG increased year over year, reflecting the value owners put on vacations.
Jason Marino: The linkancies appear to have stabilized and were roughly flat versus our second quarter, and our sales reserve was in line with our previous guidance. As a result, development profit increased year over year to $105 million. So occupancy increased 700 basis points year over year, helping us drive 9% revenue growth in our vacation ownership segment. Rental profit increased $14 million compared to the prior year, driven by higher revenue, and $8 million of additional costs allocated to marketing and sales expense to drive tours. Management profit increased year over year, while financing profit was down due to higher borrowing costs.
Jason Marino: As a result, we generated $231 million of adjusted evitarno vacation ownership segment in the quarter, with a 30% margin. Moving to our exchange and third party management segment, adjusted evitarno declined $7 million year over year, with roughly half of the decline related to lower profit at Aqua Eston due to the Maui wildfires, and the balance due to lower transactions at Interval. As a result, total company adjusted evitarno increase year over year to $198 million. Our balance sheet remains firm, ending the quarter with more than $900 million in liquidity, and no corporate debt maturities until 2026.
Jason Marino: We also ended the quarter with $1 billion of inventory, which we think is the appropriate level to run the business. Our leverage declined a half-a-terrain sequinsioid at 3.9 times, reflecting our higher LTM-adjusted EBITDA and lower debt balances. We completed our second securitization of the year, raising $445 million at a blended interest rate of 4.5% with a 98% advance rate. The interest rate on this transaction was nearly 200 basis points lower than our November 2023 securitization and roughly 100 basis points lower than our March deal.
Jason Marino: Looking forward, we increased our full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to reflect our strong third-quarter results. We still expect contract sales to grow 1-3% for the year to increase tours in lower VPG. We have a significant presence in Florida, and we lost a few selling days due to Hurricane Milton, which we estimate costs us around $8 million in contract sales and a few million of adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter. Our VO rental business had a strong third quarter, and we expect rental profit to increase in the $35 million range for the year. In our exchange and third-party management segment, we now expected just the EBITDA to decline approximately $30 million for the year, with roughly half of the decline related to our aqua-asset in business.
Jason Marino: Finally, GNA is expected to be down around $20 million for the year, driven by our cost-saving initiatives.
Jason Marino: Moving to cash flow. We expect our adjusted free cash flow will be in the $300 to $340 million range and remain focused on reducing leverage by the end of 2025 while store will turn and cash to shareholders. So to summarize, we had a solid third quarter, growing contract sales and adjusted EBITDA while reducing our leverage. While consumers are still facing economic pressures, they also continue to spend on experiences like travel. This puts us in a great position to continue to grow while supporting the balance sheet and returning cash to shareholders. It's also important to remember that our industry generates its own demand, which you can see in our 10% to our growth this quarter.
Jason Marino: We took a number of steps in a third quarter focused on driving contract sales growth, adjusting our promotional strategy, increasing our use of non-traditional sales channels, and launching new promotions geared to drive first-time buyer tours. We're also making good progress updating our legacy IT systems, enabling our customers to transact with us digitally more than ever, and unlocking the power of data and analytics to drive efficiencies and growth. As John mentioned, we believe we have substantial opportunities to modernize and evolve our business and have already started working to achieve this.
Unknown Attendee: Our initial analysis shows we can drive an incremental $50 to $100 million of annual run rate benefits over the next two years by improving our cost structure, streamlining our operations, and driving efficiencies across our company, providing opportunities to invest in attractive growth initiatives, expand margins, and enhance our IT platforms. With that, we'll be happy to answer your questions, Rob.
Unknown Attendee: At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We ask that you please limit to one question and one follow-up. A confirmation till I'm going to indicate your line is in the question Q. You may press start two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. One moment please while we poll for questions.
Brandt Montour: My first question comes from Brandt Montour with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
Jason Marino: Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. The first time by our financing strategy that you mentioned, John, it doesn't sound like anything that's not a sort of normal course of business or sort of minor strategic shift, but just curious if that's something that's going to meanfully alter the way that we think about loan loss revisions or the mix. That would influence that line or anything else that we should be thinking about in terms of you moving in the credit spectrum in new owner sales or in the like.
Jason Marino: Now the underwriting standards didn't change in terms of like go and all that, so there shouldn't be any impact to your question as it relates to loan loss.
Unknown Attendee: Okay, great.
Unknown Attendee: Thanks for that.
Unknown Attendee: And then on the full year guidance, which was raised modestly at the midpoint of EBITDA.
Jason Marino: I think you guys you guys kept contract sales unchanged or the way to and then free cash flow was also unchanged, but that was for sort of other reasons. Is the way to think about the revisions today that there's, you know, that that really sort of on the sales side things are progressing as expected, but you did get some of the efficiencies that you talked about in the in the third and fourth quarter, maybe the fourth quarter. And then I follow up to that question is maybe you could just talk about how much of the savings of the 50 to 100 million over the next two years, how much of that will be in GNA versus the rest of the business.
Jason Marino: Yeah, yeah. So the initiatives we're talking about are really for next year and 25, right where we're always, you know, coming into this year. We talked about some of the savings initiatives you see that in our full year GNA, but those are all things that we're in process. This is really building on those in our incremental, if you will, going forward. We'll have more on the February call around the timing, and we're working through all that. You know, the goal was to have the 50 to 100 million in place called by the end of 26.
Jason Marino: We're going to accelerate as many of those as we can, but some of them are going to take a little bit more time, and we can give you more color on that, like I said in February. And grant the guide up as you think about it, our third quarter was, you know, a little bit better than we originally contemplated. So not necessarily on the contract sales, but in some of the other parts of the business. And that's what you see, which is why you don't see the change to the contract sales guidance.
Ben Chalkin: Our next question comes from Ben Chalkin with Mizzouho. Please proceed with your question.
Ben Chalkin: Hey, how's it going?
Ben Chalkin: Can you hear me all right? Yeah, more than best. Thanks.
Jason Marino: Hey, good morning. So nice quarter, when we step back, your contract sales are now higher year-of-year as we lab Maui, applied for Q, you know, a little bit lower year-of-year. I know it sounds like there's some 4Q hurricane impact as well that you called out. Is there anything else we'll see that we need to consider here just in terms of moving parts as we lab year-of-year? Nothing that comes to mind.
Jason Marino: Okay, got it. And then, and I guess similarly, you got to get a nice 3Q contract; sales are ramping.
Jason Marino: As we just step back, your sales and marketing expense is higher year-of-year. Can you talk about some of the puts and takes here, and do you see this as an opportunity on a go forward to bring lower? Sure. And you're obviously talking based on reported revenues. So, some of it is the higher sales reserve, right? Which is a deduct from our contract sales, right? That's the revenues down. So, you know, with our reserves, which we've talked about, you know, we're providing at a higher level. That obviously impacts, you know, the marketing and sales costs on a percentage basis.
Jason Marino: You know, a lot of the initiatives that we're working on and are already in place, whether that's, you know, how we target and market and do that more efficiently. Those continue to be the opportunities to get the right customers on tour that are going to drive higher VPGs, which will help your marketing and sales costs. So, that continues to be the way to improve, right? More marketing and sales costs as a percentage of revenue.
Patrick Scholls: Our next question comes to Patrick Schulls with Truest Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Patrick Scholls: Thank you. Good morning, John and Jason. A couple of questions here.
Patrick Scholls: On the two queue earnings, you had really highlighted softening of VPG and first-time buyers and the lower end of the cycle band, really underperforming. Can you give us a little bit more color on what you've observed since two queue earnings and expectations for those going forward? Thank you. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. As we talked about in the second quarter, if you recall, you know, our overview of VPG to owners, I think, was flat in the second quarter. So owners still love the product; we weren't seeing the softening. Where we started to see some softening in like May in the second quarter was around first-time buyers.
Neal Goldner: First time buyers and.
Neal Goldner: The lower end of the FICO band.
Speaker Change: Really underperforming can you give us a little bit more color on what you've observed.
Speaker Change: Since two.
Neal Goldner: <unk> earnings and expectations for those going forward. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah sure Yeah, as we talked about all of the second quarter.
Neal Goldner: If you recall.
Neal Goldner: Our year over year V. P. G to owners I think was flat in the second quarter. So owners still loved the product we weren't seeing the softening where we start to see some softening in late may and the second quarter was around first time buyers and not.
John Geller: And, you know, not surprising given the broader macro. When we talked about on the second quarter call in early August, we rolled out. We changed our promotional grid that we talked about in terms of how, you know, the more you buy, obviously, you potentially get a higher first-day benefit in those types of things and move that around overall, as well as, you know, change the financing incentive for first-time buyers in that program a little bit. And what you saw as you went through sequentially in the quarter, because we had put the incentives in place in July, for example, VPGs were still down in double digits year over year.
Neal Goldner: Not surprising given the broader macro and when we talked about on the second quarter call in early August.
Neal Goldner: <unk> rolled out we changed our promotional grid that we talk about in terms of how the more you buy obviously you potentially get a higher first day benefit in those types of things and move that around overall as well as change the financing incentive for first time buyers as well.
Neal Goldner: And that program, a little bit and what you saw as you went through sequentially in the quarter, because we had put the incentives in place in July for example, <unk>, where we're still down double digits year over year. After those incentives went in place we saw the benefit in sequentially in August and September where all of a sudden V PGS.
John Geller: After those incentives went in place, we saw the benefit sequentially in August and September, where all of a sudden VPGs were down 3-4% year over year, right? So that's where you saw the traction on some of the adjustments we made on the sales side.
Neal Goldner: We're down three 4% year over year right. So that's where you saw the traction on some of the adjustments we made on the on the sales side and we didn't get a full quarter benefit of that but we expect to get.
John Geller: And, you know, we didn't get a full quarter benefit of that, but we expect to, you know, get that year over year and continue to improve here as we go to the fourth quarter.
Neal Goldner: Get that year over year and continued improvement here as we go through the fourth quarter.
Jason Marino: Thank you. One more question here, Dr. Jason, for your most recent securitization versus prior over the last 18 months: better terms and net spreads. It's only over the last two years we've seen those net spreads be a headwind to either that growth.
Speaker Change: Okay. Thank you.
Speaker Change: One more question here.
Neal Goldner: Jason.
Neal Goldner: Certainly on your most recent securitization versus prior.
Neal Goldner: Why are over the last 18 months.
Speaker Change: Our terms and net spreads.
Neal Goldner: And so over the last two years, we've seen those net spreads be a headwind to EBITDA growth.
Jason Marino: Assuming interest rate trends continue the way they've been going up late, when might you expect those net spread headwinds to possibly turn into a tailwind? Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Patrick. So, as we've talked about in the past, we expect to have higher financing interest expense here going forward for the next couple of years as the interest rates that we issued securitizations at over the last few years it, you know, called 2% thereabouts for a while, roll off and we put on the higher interest cost going forward. So, from a margin perspective, we're going to continue to see that impact over the next couple of years.
Neal Goldner: Assuming interest rate trends continue the way they have been going up late.
Jason Marino: But what we've said is that our revenue on the financing side should start to outpace that expense growth. So we do expect here in 2025 to have higher financing profit in the business. But those interest expenses are going to continue to increase here going forward for, you know, a little bit longer. Yeah.
Jason Marino: So in a net base, it should be a, we should see financing profit grow in 25 versus 24 where it has been a net headwind.
David Katz: Our next question is from David Katz with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
David Katz: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question, John. I wanted to go back to some of the prepared remarks about the strategic business operations office.
John Geller: Can you just elaborate a bit on sort of what that is, you know, what that is designed to do and sort of how it works and what we can expect to see end of year from it. It's quite interesting. Sure. Yeah.
John Geller: Now it's a great question, David. A lot of these initiatives and things, you know, aren't new, right? The things that we're working on, the idea with the strategic business operations is create not only new ideas, but at velocity to execution to accelerate these opportunities over the next couple of years. So I wanted to make sure we had called a hyper focus on, you know, growth opportunities, cost efficiencies with detailed plans on execution in a team to work with the broader business to deliver. And it's really about adding that velocity to what we're trying to accomplish.
Neal Goldner: We had call it a hyper focus on.
Neal Goldner: Growth opportunities.
Neal Goldner: Cost efficiencies with detailed plans on execution and a team to work with the broader business.
Neal Goldner: To deliver and it's really about adding that velocity to what we're trying to accomplish.
David Katz: So can I follow that up and just double-click on the growth opportunities part of the answer?
Speaker Change: So can I follow that up and just real quick on the growth opportunities.
Speaker Change: The answer what is the how would you define the boundaries on what that opportunity set is is that more internal tuck in acquisitions, what kinds of stuff.
John Geller: What is the, how would you define the boundaries on what that opportunity set is? Is that more internal, tough in acquisitions, you know, what kinds of stuff. Yeah, now it's going to be a lot on our internal. We've got great opportunities in our core vacation ownership as well as our exchange business to grow. So, it's really, you know, those initiatives and moving those longer, faster, and other, you know, new ideas and things that we want to get into place. So, but it's also, we're always going to continue to look at whether it's a tucked-in acquisition, potentially launching new products that are in the vacation ownership, right?
Neal Goldner: Yeah.
Speaker Change: It's going to be a lot of our internal we've got I think great opportunities in our core vacation ownership as well as our exchange business.
Speaker Change: To grow so it's really.
Neal Goldner: Those initiatives and moving those longer faster and other new ideas and things that we want to get into place. So.
Neal Goldner: But it's also we're always going to continue to look at whether.
Neal Goldner: Whether it's a tuck in acquisition.
Neal Goldner: Potentially launching new products that are in the vacation ownership right different products than we have today, we've got a lot of work going on on that front. So I suppose.
John Geller: Different products than we have today. We've got a lot of work going on on that front. So, it's both, you know, call it the organic products we have today and grow there, but we are looking at adjacent opportunities. We always are. We've got some good, you know, things that we're looking at.
and Neal Goldner on The Master Class.
Neal Goldner: Call it the organic products, we have today and growth there, but we are looking at adjacent opportunities. We always are and we've got we've got some good.
Neal Goldner: Things that we're looking at.
Unknown Attendee: Okay, thank you.
Speaker Change: Okay. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Neal Goldner: Uh huh.
Duh!
Patrick Scholes: Our next question comes from Patrick Scholes with Truly Security.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Patrick Scholes with true Security. Please proceed with your question.
Neal Goldner: Our next question comes from Patrick Schultz with Truist Security. Please proceed with your question.
John Geller: Please proceed with your question. Okay, thank you. I'll just a quick follow-up question regarding your cost saving initiatives. You know, Marriott Corporation, your former parent company, also just launched a large cost saving initiative. I'm just curious: is your initiative, is this anything in conjunction with them, or is this just purely coincidental? Thank you. I think you recall, you know, we spun out of Marriott back in 2011, Patrick. So, we, you know, yes, there are lights and so on and stuff. How they run their business and how we run our business, totally coincidental. I guess that they were looking at, obviously, probably different initiatives for their business, and we're doing for our business, but now totally unrelated.
Speaker Change: Great. Thank you just a quick follow up question.
Thank you. Just a quick follow-up question.
Neal Goldner: Regarding your cost saving initiatives.
regarding your cost-saving initiatives. Marriott Corporation, your former parent company.
Neal Goldner: Marriott <unk>.
Neal Goldner: <unk> former parent company.
Neal Goldner: Also.
Neal Goldner: also just launched a large cost-saving initiative. I'm just curious if
Neal Goldner: <unk> launched made large cost saving initiatives I'm just curious it.
Speaker Change: Your initiative is this anything in conjunction with them or is this just purely coincidental.
Speaker Change: your initiative. Is this anything in conjunction with them or is this just purely coincidence?
Speaker Change: I think I think you recall, yeah, we spun out of Marriott back in 2011, Patrick. So we you know yes, there are licensed store and stuff how they run their business and how we run our business totally coincidental I guess that they were looking at obviously probably different initiatives for their business, we're doing for our.
that's all. Thank you.
Neal Goldner: I think you recall, you know, we spun out of Marriott back in 2011, Patrick, so we, you know, yes there are licensors and stuff, how they run their business and how we run our business, totally coincidental, I guess that they were looking at obviously probably different initiatives for their business than we're doing for our business, but no, totally unrelated.
Neal Goldner: Business, but.
Neal Goldner: No it's totally unrelated.
Unknown Attendee: Okay, I'm just curious.
Neal Goldner: Okay.
Okay, I'm just curious. Thank you. I'm all set.
Neal Goldner: Thank you I'm all set.
Unknown Attendee: Thank you, I'm all set. Okay, thank you. Thanks.
Neal Goldner: Okay. Thank you thanks.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks.
John Geller: We have reached the end of the question and answer session.
Speaker Change: We have reached the end of the question and answer session I would now like to turn the call back over to John Geller for closing comments.
Neal Goldner: We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to John Geller for closing comments.
John Geller: I now like to turn the call back over to John Geller for closing comments. Thanks, Rob. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. We had a solid third quarter, and reservations look strong for the balance of 24 and into next year. Our strategies are working, and we're driving first time buyer sales, which is good for the system. We also ended the quarter with nearly 270,000 preview packages in our pipeline, positioning us well going into next year. We kept maintenance fee increases for our points-based products to low single digits for next year, which we think will be well received by owners.
John Geller: Thanks, Rob.
and Neal Goldner. Thank you. Thank you.
John Geller: You everyone for joining our call today, we had a solid third quarter and reservations looks strong for the balance of 'twenty four and into next year. Our strategies are working and we're driving first time buyer sales, which is good for the system. We also ended the quarter with nearly 270000 preview packages in our pipeline.
Thanks, Rob.
Speaker Change: Thank you everyone for joining our call today. We had a solid third quarter and Reservations look strong for the balance of 24 and into next year
Speaker Change: Our strategies are working and we're driving first-time buyer sales, which is good for the system. We also ended the quarter with nearly 270,000 preview packages in our pipeline, positioning us well going into next year.
Speaker Change: Positioning us well going into next year.
Speaker Change: We kept maintenance fee increases for our points based products to low single digits for next year, which we think will be well received by owners delinquencies and defaults have stabilized we're updating our it platforms to support our growth and we're using advanced analytics to improve efficiency and drive top line growth we've navigated men.
John Geller: Delinquencies and defaults have stabilized. We're updating our IT platforms to support our growth, and we're using advanced data and analytics to improve efficiency and drive top line growth. We've navigated many headwinds over the past few years, from a mixed consumer environment to higher interest rates and inflation to the abound implementation, and came through it with a solid foundation for future growth. Through it all, we've remained a resilient, highly profitable, and cash-generative business. We also have a significant opportunity to continue to leverage our strategic and competitive advantages to drive substantial recurring benefits over the next two years.
Speaker Change: The headwinds over the past few years from a mixed consumer environment to higher interest rates and inflation to the abound implementation and came to us with a solid foundation for future growth through it all we remain a resilient and highly profitable and cash generative business.
Speaker Change: We've navigated many headwinds over the past few years from a mixed consumer environment to higher interest rates and inflation.
Speaker Change: to the abound implementation and came through it with a solid foundation for future growth.
Speaker Change: Through it all, we've remained a resilient, highly profitable, and cash-generative business.
Speaker Change: We also have a significant opportunity to continue to leverage our strategic and competitive advantages to drive substantial recurring benefits over the next two years.
Speaker Change: We also have a significant opportunity to continue to leverage our strategic and competitive advantages to drive substantial recurring benefits over the next two years.
Unknown Attendee: On behalf of all of our associates, owners, members, and customers around the world, I want to thank you for your continued interest in our company and hope to see you on vacations soon. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Behalf of all of our associates owners members and customers around the world I want to thank you for your continued interest in our company and hope to see you on vacation soon thank you.
Speaker Change: On behalf of all of our associates, owners, members, and customers around the world, I want to thank you for your continued interest in our company, and hope to see you on vacation soon. Thank you.
Unknown Attendee: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your
Speaker Change: This concludes today's conference you may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.
Speaker Change: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation