Q1 2025 Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc Earnings Call

Speaker Change: Or have her loathers interlized as a stranger in my house Somebody here that I can't see a stranger in my house Somebody here trying to take a stranger in my house [inaudible]

Speaker Change: This kid's team, a stranger in my house Somebody here trying to take her away from me, yeah Somebody trying to take her away from me, yeah

Speaker Change: Please stand by, your program is about to begin. If you need assistance on today's call, please press star zero.

Speaker Change: Welcome to Ryman Hospitality Properties' 1st quarter, 2025 Earnings Conference Call.

Speaker Change: Mr. Patrick Chaffin, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Patrick Moore, Chief Executive Officer, Operate Entertainment Group.

Speaker Change: This call will be available for digital replay. The number is 800-934-3032 with no conference ID required.

Speaker Change: At this time all participants have been placed on listen only mode.

Speaker Change: It is not my pleasure to turn the floor over to Ms. Jennifer Hutcheson. Ma'am, you may begin.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. This call may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Security's Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the company's expected financial performance.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Any statements we make today that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as believes or expects are intended to identify these statements, which may be affected by many factors, including those listed in the company's SEC filings and in today's release.

Jennifer Hutcheson: The company's actual results may differ materially from the results we discussed or project today.

Jennifer Hutcheson: We will not update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or any other reason.

We will also discuss non-GAF financial measures today.

Jennifer Hutcheson: We reconcile each non-GAT measure to the most comparable GAT measure in exhibits to today's release. I'll now turn it over to Colin. Thanks, Chen. Good day, everyone, and thanks for joining us.

Colin: We reported a very strong first quarter, including new first quarter records on top and bottom line, and we continue to grow the number of group roommates on the books for all future years relative to the same time last year.

Colin: Gross Group Room Nights booked in the first quarter of 26 and beyond up double digits year over year at a record ADR book during any first quarter. In addition, our recent investments that have come back online delivered strong growth.

Colin: while the investments currently underway in our hospitality segment remain on time and on budget.

Colin: I suppose our first quarter results could have warranted an increase in our outlook for the rest of the year but at last we are living in an operating in very strange times.

Colin: A federal government's objective of rebalancing US trade with the rest of the world is to say the least, creating uncertainty and stress in not just our economy, but most major countries throughout the world.

Colin: Businesses both big and small are trying to work out what it means to them and we are no different.

Colin: For our meeting planners, this uncertainty has caused a new layer of complexity in their decision-making as regards to near-term meetings.

Colin: As we sit here today, we started to see an uptick in attrition for meetings expected to travel over the next few quarters as well as a modest fallback in demand for the in the year for the year bookings [inaudible]

Speaker Change: Let me go off script a second here. Now, earlier today, we received our April production numbers which were somewhat encouraging and I think Patrick will give you some color on this data at the Q&A time.

Speaker Change: But it is that judgment that it is more likely than not that this caution will continue until some of these clouds of uncertainty disappear, which they will, but at this stage we just don't know when.

Speaker Change: Primarily, that is what has caused us to slightly modify some aspects of our guidance that I'll touch on in a minute. The second objective of federal government is to materially lower the cost of government after years of unprecedented cost increases.

Speaker Change: and here we're dealing with what we now know, what we have now come to know as Doge.

Speaker Change: When this U-Department was announced, our expectations were that we could see some poor barking government-related business.

Speaker Change: which was captured in the low end of our prior guidance range.

and so far, that is what it's transpired.

Speaker Change: The good news for us is that we made a decision.

Speaker Change: at the very starts of the year to get ahead of any potential pullback.

Speaker Change: and together with our operator Marriott, we took an aggressive approach to margin management. In addition, our hotel leisure business returned to growth in the first quarter, reversing the trends we saw late in the holiday period of last year.

Speaker Change: So how do we interpret all of this as we look to the rest of the year?

Speaker Change: First of all, we think it's prudent to modify our four-year outlook for Hospitality Redpar and Total Redpar to reflect the likelihood that in the year for the year group business will be somewhat weaker than our assumptions several months ago, and also to reflect the potential for incremental attrition and cancellation activity beyond what we have seen so far this year.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Jennifer will take you through the detail of these changes in a minute.

Jennifer Hutcheson: You'll know we're not lowering our outlook for Adjusted EBITDAF's RE or Adjusted Funds from Operation.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Our strong first quarter results together with our unique business model and the proactive efforts we have taken since the beginning of the year to manage our operating model and extend structure allow us to maintain these rate ranges

Jennifer Hutcheson: Our business model is particularly important during times like this. The diversification of our customer base specifically our exposure to association group business mitigate short-term fluctuations during periods of uncertainty

Jennifer Hutcheson: Associations are in the business to meet and generally those meetings occur regardless of economic conditions as a global pandemic I suppose notwithstanding.

Jennifer Hutcheson: In 2025, we happen to have more association business on the books than we did in 2024 In addition, the contractual nature of group workings provides a measure of downside protection through attrition and cancellation fees [inaudible]

Jennifer Hutcheson: Taking the Great Financial Crisis as an example, our profitability decline in 2009 was approximately half that of the broader lodging reach sector.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Allow us to identify and affect changes to the operating model quickly, efficiently, and on a broad scale across the portfolio.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Importantly, our focus on the customer means these efficiencies aren't coming at the expense of the customer value proposition.

Jennifer Hutcheson: As regards entertainment business, things are in good shape all around.

Good first quarter performance

Jennifer Hutcheson: and newly renovated projects back in service, new growth projects identified, and a few new projects that we have identified that we haven't discussed publicly as of yet are being worked on.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Taken together, this means we can continue to focus on the long term view while remaining nimble and responsive to the short-term market dynamics. And for our investors, this means we couldn't be better positioned for the current environment.

Having managed this business through 9-11, the Great Financial Crisis

Jennifer Hutcheson: I remain as confident as ever in our management's theme's ability to navigate this period of dislocation and emerge an even stronger company as we have demonstrated in prior periods of stress

Jennifer Hutcheson: Now, with that, let me turn over to Mark to discuss the quarter and our positioning in more detail, Mark. Thanks, Carl, good afternoon everyone.

Mark: Our hospitality segment delivered record first quarter revenue in adjusted EBITDA RE, driven by year-over-year rev power and total rev power growth of 10 and 9% respectively.

Mark: We estimate the timing of the Easter Huddleday contributed approximately 220 basis points to the Rev. Park Grove.

Mark: ADR of $264 was also a first quarter record, up nearly 6% compared to last year, with growth in both group and transient segments.

Mark: Our entertainment segment generated revenue growth of 34% compared to last year in the Justin Yvot.RE of $21 million, an increase of 35%. Both figures for revenue and adjusted Yvot to R.E. We're also first quarter records.

Mark: While there's been a considerable decline in consumer confidence through the first four months of the year, the consumer segments our businesses serve continue to demonstrate strength in the first quarter.

Mark: And our hospitality segment, outside the room spending from our group customers was slightly better than we had anticipated, with Bankwood and A.V. Revenue up nearly 7% doing park to higher catering contribution per group room night despite a mixed shift towards associations.

Mark: Associations comprised 28% of group roommates traveled in the first quarter, an increase of nearly 300 basis points from the first quarter of last year, and on average associations tend to spend less outside the room.

Mark: The increase in catering contribution for a group of room-nighters encouraging as a reduction in outside the room spending can be a leading indicator in a slowing business environment.

Mark: and capturing demand from premium groups regardless of their segment is a primary objective we're trying to achieve with the growth capital that we're deploying throughout the portfolio.

Mark: Consistent with our expectations, the capital projects that we have come back online are already driving early returns.

Mark: At Gaylord Rockies, the reconcept at an expanded food and beverage outlets in the newly repositioned Grand Lodge delivered 30% growth in outlet revenue per occupied room compared to last year.

Mark: and at Gaylord Palms with the extensive rooms and lobbying renovation complete.

Mark: The first quarter of 2025 marked the second highest adjusted EBITDA RE quarter of all time.

Mark: Our leisure transient customer is also performed well in the first quarter. Both demand an ADR increased 3% year over year.

Mark: This quarter marked the first with year-over-year growth in leisure room nights since the first quarter of 2022. Performance was a broad base across the portfolio, which would, except for Gaylord Ocarina, which was impacted by new hotel supply, that continues to be absorbed in the national market.

Mark: Overall, our hotel portfolio, meaningfully outperform the industry in the first quarter, achieving a rev power and total rev power index relative to our area at the fine competitive set of 110 and 155 percent of fair share.

Mark: and our entertainment business. We continue to see our brands resonate with country lifestyle consumers.

Mark: The first quarter benefited from our recent investments at Category 10 and the W. Austin Hotel coming back online. And overall, our venues saw higher attendance for show, particularly for the Grand Old Opera, as it celebrates its 100th birthday throughout 2025.

First Quarter Hotel Bookings production was strong.

Mark: Gross Group Room Nights book for all future years increased 10% year-a-year, with particular strength in bookings for 2026 and 2027, which were up 13 and 35% respectively, compared to the same time last year for 2025 and 2026.

Mark: As Colin mentioned, more recently we've seen some hesitancy among businesses and meeting planners to source near-term meetings.

Mark: which has had an impact on in the year for the year group demand, contributing to lower leave volumes and booking activities for 2025, relative to the same time last year for 2024.

Mark: Today, we've not seen a macro driven pullback from our leisure transient or entertainment customers.

Mark: While we have very limited visibility into how or when the current economic uncertainty will be resolved, we believe its impact on group business is a 2025 issue, and as the pandemic proved, the group meeting's business is resilient in here to stay.

Mark: As a result, we're maintaining our focus on long-term value creation while managing the short-term dynamics

Mark: Since the beginning of the year, our asset management team has been working closely with our operator Marriott to identify and implement operating model efficiencies and proactively communicate with our meeting planner customers that are focused on in the year for the year execution.

Mark: Our design and construction team has been sensitized in construction timelines to limit disruption as well as aggressively managing our sourcing and purchasing decisions to mitigate the potential impact of tariffs on our project budgets.

Mark: Specifically, we've been diversifying our sourcing away from China to other countries, where trade negotiations have been more productive, and we've been expediting procurement for projects currently underway to get our materials and case goods to US ports within the 90-day window.

Mark: Our entertainment business development team continues to drive profitable growth, recently winning a 10-year contract to manage the 6,800 C to send amphitheater located in downtown Nashville beginning in 2026.

Mark: We're thrilled to be able to take on the stewardship of this wonderful venue.

Mark: And finally, our finance team continues to manage our liquidity position and maturity schedule which Jennifer will discuss in more detail in a moment.

Mark: The priorities we laid out last year at our investor day have not changed, and we continue to operate our businesses to achieve the long-term financial objectives and capital returns we outlined.

Mark: As we shared at that time, our plans were based on a stable macro environment of low single-digit GDP growth.

If ultimately we face a more difficult environment.

Mark: We have unique high quality assets, we have a strong, good forward business, and we have the ability and option to adjust our posture to navigate any near-term challenges.

Mark: Given our strong first quarter results, our resilient business model and the proactive efforts we've been making since the beginning of the year to drive efficiencies, we couldn't be better positioned and with that I'll turn it over to Jennifer.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Thanks, Mark. Regarding our outlook for full year 2025, we now expect hospitality Refbar Growth in the range of 1.25 to 3.75% and Total Refbar Growth in the range of 0.75 to 3.25%

Jennifer Hutcheson: These revised guidance ranges for rep part and total rep part growth, reflect additional conservatism around government related group business, and in the year for the year group demand, as Colin and Mark discussed.

Jennifer Hutcheson: At the midpoint, our revised Rep. Barbara guidance reflects lower group business volumes compared to 2024 and leisure volumes that are essentially flat to last year when excluding Gaylord Palms, which was under renovation for much of 2024.

Jennifer Hutcheson: The revised midpoint of our Total Repar Growth Guidance reflects our lower expectations for Rooms Revenue and Associated outside the Rooms spending, as well as conservative assumptions for attrition and cancellation revenue, as attrition and cancellation fees are recognized as revenue only when collected.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Often, we see a lag between when the business cancels and when we collect and recognize the revenue.

Jennifer Hutcheson: More importantly, our proactive efforts to manage our cost structure allow us to reiterate our guidance ranges for segment and consolidate an adjusted evit.re, ASFO and ASFO,

Jennifer Hutcheson: For the full year, we still expect consolidated adjusted EBITDA RE in the range of $749 to $801 million.

Jennifer Hutcheson: AFFO in the range of $510 to $555 million and AFFO for fully diluted share in the range of $8.24 to $8.86.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Let me provide some additional color on the expectations for the rest of the year.

Jennifer Hutcheson: For our hospitality business, in the first half, we anticipate Red Park Growth in the low-to-mid-single-digit range and total Red Park Growth in the low-single-digit range. We expect segment adjusted even to Ari Margin to decline 50 to 130 basis points.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Given our actual performance in Q1, this implies that the midpoint of the range for the second quarter roughly flat year-over-year growth in Rev. par and a negative low single-digit total Rev. par decline.

Jennifer Hutcheson: These estimates reflect the impact of the Easter shift between 1st and 2nd quarter [inaudible]

Jennifer Hutcheson: meaningfully, higher association group mix in the second quarter, and the one-time benefit of Tennessee franchise tax refunds recognized in the second quarter of 2024, which will not repeat in 2025.

Jennifer Hutcheson: For the second half of the year, we anticipate Reff par and total Reff par growth in the range of negative 1% to up low single digits, and segmentedjustity.re margin expansion of flat to up 150 basis points.

Jennifer Hutcheson: where we ultimately end up within the guidance range will be largely dependent on second half performance.

Jennifer Hutcheson: The low end of the range allows for mid to high single-digit demand declines across both our group and transient segments in the second half of the year.

Jennifer Hutcheson: For our entertainment business, our full year expectations are unchanged. There are a couple of items to note for the second quarter in this segment. First, OED recognized a $3.4 million Tennessee franchise tax refund in the second quarter of 24 that will not repeat in 25.

Jennifer Hutcheson: In addition, the primary festival season for Southern Entertainment, our newest investment occurs during the second quarter And as such, we expect second quarter entertainment-adjusted Yvda Ari Margin to be more consistent with the first quarter of 2025 than to prior year

Now, turning to our balance sheet.

Jennifer Hutcheson: We ended the first quarter with $414 million of unrestricted cash on hand and our $700 million Revolving credit facility undrawn.

Jennifer Hutcheson: OEG's $80 million revolving credit facility had a balance of $70 million outstanding. Taking together, our total available liquidity was approximately $1.2 billion.

Jennifer Hutcheson: We retained an additional $47 million of restricted cash available for FF&E and other maintenance projects.

Jennifer Hutcheson: At the end of the quarter, our net leverage ratio, based on total consolidated net debt to adjusted EBITDA RE was 3.9 times.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Earlier this week, we closed on a $130 million add-on to OEG's Term 1B with the use of proceeds to refinance the approximately $128 million block 21 CNBS loan that was set to mature in January

Jennifer Hutcheson: We were able to complete this add-on at the same interest rate as OEG's existing terminal and B facility, despite some market choppiness, which speaks to the market's positive reception towards OEG's track record of growth and portfolio of iconic brands.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Proformer for this transaction, and as of it's closing on April 28th, our weighted average maturity is 4.8 years for our debt, and our next debt maturity is May 20th, 2077.

Jennifer Hutcheson: And finally, let me comment on our anticipated major cash outflows for the year.

Regarding our outlook for capital expenditures in 2025.

Jennifer Hutcheson: To $350 to $450 million for the year, based on the latest construction timelines for projects currently underway, and the planned rims renovation at Gayward Texan, which we now intend to start in July .

Jennifer Hutcheson: At this time, the scope of our multi-year capital deployment program remains unchanged as we continue to believe that these enhancements are critical to long-term value creation for our customers and our shareholders.

Jennifer Hutcheson: That said, the discreet nature of these projects gives us flexibility to adjust our plans with evolving macro conditions.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Regarding our dividend, it remains our intention to continue to pay 100% of our re-taxable income through dividends.

And with that Leo let's open it up for questions.

Jennifer Hutcheson: Certainly, at this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now in your telephone keypad. To withdraw yourself from the queue, you may press star two.

Speaker Change: We'll take our first question from Chris Woronka of Deutsche Bank. The line is open.

Chris Wawronka: I was hoping to kind of ask first, I understand maybe Patrick has some data points about April production but you're really just trying to kind of...

Chris Wawronka: I guess delineate what may be short-term, you know, how short-term [inaudible]

Chris Wawronka: in nature is the hesitant thing that you're seeing because it sounds like you're still seeing very good momentum for the out years. So, you know, what allows this to stay kind of a 2025 issue if that makes sense.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Let me just make one observation, Chris over the years, this team...

We dealt with these volatile moments multiple times.

Speaker Change: and this one we believe is no different but as we look forward

Speaker Change: Rest of this year, particularly next year in the year of the Abbusiness

Looks really, really good. [inaudible]

Sir Patrick Iwona,

Get Chris and whoever else is listening!

A little update on where we are.

Speaker Change: Yeah, absolutely. Good morning, Chris. Good to hear from you. To kind of answer your question, you know, obviously no one knows for sure how long this will last. There's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of groups are just...

Speaker Change: being hesitant and extending their booking window a little bit as a result, and we're seeing that. But I would tell you that we just got our April production numbers as Colin alluded to, and what I saw in there that was encouraging to me is that lead volumes at the end of March were in the year for the year, were down 50%.

Speaker Change: And then as far as bookings go, that was lead volumes, but as far as bookings go, we've been essentially flatish in what we're booking in terms of room nights year over year, both year to date and in the month of April . But our rate has been very solid.

Speaker Change: So we look at this and say, yes, there are some out there who are...

Panachean and maybe dropping rate, but from our perspective...

Speaker Change: We've seen flatish demand in terms of room nights, and we've been able to continue driving rate. So both of those are encouraging that we've seen a little bit of moderation in what had been a decline in lead volumes that were pretty marked in March that have kind of...

Speaker Change: Softened a bit and moving in the right direction now and then we continue to do a great job on the right side.

Speaker Change: and Jen talked about our capital deployment program is...

Speaker Change: You know, we're not modifying and changing, changing that because we feel very good about the long term and maybe one of you two, like Mark or Patrick, talk a little bit about revenue on the books, T plus 1, T plus 2, which, you know, again is extraordinarily encouraging.

Speaker Change: In terms of 26 and 27, they continue to be very strong and have gotten stronger, both rooms.

You know, revenue's up.

Howard position for 26 and 27.

Speaker Change: You know, this situation can end very, very quickly, you know, with, you know, a few trade deals or, you know, a few well-placed tweets, and, you know, I think that things change dramatically.

Speaker Change: Yeah, yeah, agreed. And appreciate all those data points. Sounds pretty encouraging. If I could speak in a quick follow-up, just go back to the comment about...

Speaker Change: about cost and, you know, you brought in with Rev Part Guidance by a point, and total Rev Part by a point, but the...

Speaker Change: Yvita remains unchanged. I mean, can you give us just, yeah, maybe an example or two of what actually, what are the costs that you can, you know, that there was just a conservatism, the initial guide or, you know, what allows you to kind of, you know, stick to that range with possibly lower, lower rep part?

Speaker Change: Hey Chris, this is Patrick again. I would tell you from the first week of January we started getting pretty aggressive from a cost perspective just because we knew that there was potential for some turbulence this year.

and, you know, we currently have...

Speaker Change: Roughly 28 to 30 million dollars of profit improvement plans already loaded into our forecast.

and have had the properties.

Speaker Change: The margin improvements that we've enacted are minimizing any impact to customers or to our employees And so we acted early, we acted quickly And as a result, we've safeguarded from what we can see right now We've done a pretty good job of safeguarding our bottom line and thus our guidance And so we've done a pretty good job of safeguarding our bottom line and thus our guidance

Speaker Change: Yeah, so I was just going to say, you know, Chris, if our wage, you know, while wage margins,

while wages were up in the first quarter.

Speaker Change: as you would expect, our wage margin improved 40 basis points. So, you know, the team, the operating teams and Patrick's team has done a very good job but just...

Speaker Change: finding ways to be more efficient in our hours for occupied room, improved 60 basis points. So, you know, they're undertaking some very specific activities that it relates to, you know, making changes made to the operating model, but it's also just...

Speaker Change: being very, very focused on the details and very disciplined in how we manage things like labor.

Speaker Change: Yeah, that's a good point Mark, but what I was going to say is sort of a variation on a theme and that is when you you sound you we talk about 20 to 30 million dollars it sounds like a hell of a lot of money and it is.

Speaker Change: in expenses of all kind. We're about two billion in revenue in our hotel business and...

Speaker Change: and, you know, we run a, you know, EBITDA margin. So, you know, our team is just doing a very good job as is to marry it on managing this cross side in this volatile time.

Okay, super helpful. I appreciate all the all the color guys. Thanks Thank you very much.

Jack Armstrong: Our next question is coming from Jack Armstrong, Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Jack Armstrong: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the strategy behind the acquisition of the majority interests and settlement attainment? And are there other similar types of opportunities to evaluate the market to grow over you?

Jack Armstrong: Yeah, thank you. This is Patrick Moore. No, no, no, you go, please. Yeah, so Southern Entertainment represents a really fascinating opportunity for us to increase the overall surface area of the opportunity set for live venues and live entertainment. The operators of Southern Entertainment operate some of the best.

and most successful long-standing country music festivals in the country.

Jack Armstrong: and as a consequence we're able to both increase and circulate our fans across all of our venues and secondarily there's a nice flywheel effect with artists. So many of the artists that play the opera or the rhyme in the Austin City limits also play those country music festivals.

and that sort of business segment, if you will.

Jack Armstrong: offers us the opportunity also to look at other venues in the festival space that are more the more fungible sort of sector of the live entertainment space than is sort of iconic venues like the Ryman or ACL.

Speaker Change: It's great, that's really helpful. And as you're kind of continuing to expand OEG, you know, pretty fantastic growth rate in Q1 with the addition of Southern entertainment, you know art.

Speaker Change: Are you starting to think more about the point where you're going to have to spin out at least a portion of OEG, given that probably approaching the bad income threshold to where you might lose your risk status? Or is that still a little bit further given macroeconomic uncertainty? [inaudible]

Speaker Change: Quite a big one word, right? No, we have a lot of runway. Is it related to the 75% income test or the asset test? Just given the scale of our hotel business, that, you know, we have...

Speaker Change: Plenty of runway. We will make the decision to separate this business when it makes the most sense for...

Jack Armstrong: for the business and for shareholders and when, you know, when the market's receptive to it. Yeah, and Jack on like others in the hotel business, we've got a hotel business that's growing like hell anyway. So, you know, the runway is naturally getting wider.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Speaker Change: We'll move next to Duane Pfennigwerth of Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Jack Armstrong: Hey, thanks. I wanted to ask you about the typical composition.

Jack Armstrong: of in-the-year for-the-year demand more broadly. I don't know if there's such a thing as a typical year anymore or a normal year anymore, but if you enter a year at 50% occupied in the end year at 70

Jack Armstrong: What is the composition of that 20 points of arc that you pick up in the year and how might the composition of that look different this year?

Jack Armstrong: Yeah, so that remaining business that we pick up in the year for the year is going to be a big chunk of that's going to be leisure Right, we're roughly 75% group, 25% leisure That's all going to book within a 30 to 90 day window and then on the group side it's typically on average is going to be corporate business [inaudible]

Jack Armstrong: Your associations are booking much further out, your Smurfy groups, you know, government type groups typically are booking further out so it's going to be corporate on the government or on the group side and then the leisure component.

Jack Armstrong: I appreciate that. And then one question we're getting from clients here is, can you speak to the implied attrition cancellation embedded in the guidance for the rest of the year?

Jack Armstrong: As far as the revenue recognition on the attrition and cancellation, I kind of had a note in my remarks about the fact that we recognize that when we collect it, so you're not going to naturally assume that's like in the quarter that you experience attrition and cancellation.

Jack Armstrong: We had comments about the expectations and the assumptions at the midpoint of our guidance in terms of year-over-year demand increases.

and specifically at the low end, it does.

Jack Armstrong: Factor in some fair amount of conservatism in terms of the overall room nights that could be absorbed in the form of nutrition and cancellation

Jack Armstrong: at the low end when you're looking at it, you're every year in normalizing for the fact that we had the Palm's Rooms out of service in 2024.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks Glenn

Speaker Change: Our next question is coming from Smedes Rose of City. Your line is open.

Smead Rose: Hi, thank you. I just wanted to ask a little bit more. You sort of talk a little bit in your opening remarks call about that. So the cancellations that you are seeing in the year for the year sounds like some of that is some government business, but that the association business is hanging in there. I guess you just talk a little bit more about.

Smead Rose: The composition of who's dropping out, and if you're seeing it in any one property, maybe even more than another, or is it sort of equal throughout the portfolio?

Thank you, Pat.

Patrick: Hey Smith, it's Patrick. Good to hear from you. Yeah, it's dominated by the government side. There's always cancellations.

Speaker Change: Right, every single year has cancellations, but if there's any kind of marked increase right now it's just on the government side. It is not relegated to one property in particular.

Speaker Change: to finalising our budgets with Married in January . We took into consideration [inaudible]

Speaker Change: This whole rhetoric about cutting government waste, fraud abuse, and we anticipated a little bit of a pullback here in our planning.

Yeah, that's what we-

Speaker Change: Again, that's part of the reason that we are able to maintain or adjusted the even range that we've provided on the guidance side.

Speaker Change: because we anticipated it, and then as we were talking about earlier, we immediately went into action on the proper improvement plan to provide ourselves a little bit of insulation should it happen. And as it started to happen, we feel that we've done the right...

Speaker Change: We're taking the right actions to mitigate that thus far. It's anybody's guess where it goes from here. But again, we did see some encouraging information in our April production both in terms of lead volume as well as in the year for the year bookings.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Thank you. And I just wanted to ask you, I mean, you guys have talked about this before, but it'd be interesting any sort of updates on

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Depositives, or potentially negative or neutral impact from the opening of, I think, Chula VISTA's scheduled to open later this month. I think before you've talked about...

Speaker Change: The overall sort of bleeds system broadening out and more people coming into the GALR system, is that sort of still the case or is there going to be changes I guess with the kind of change in the uncertainty around the macro environment?

Speaker Change: You want to take it? No, we've, as we've reported on before, we have seen business originating out of...

Speaker Change: out of the Pacific into the rest of the portfolio. It's hard for us to get into too much detail because we can't see into ultimately what their inventory looks like.

Speaker Change: But we've watched very carefully to see if we can identify any areas of our business where we're seeing a negative impact as it relates to forward bookings.

Speaker Change: Whether it's a slowdown or an erosion of bookings, we haven't seen that in the portfolio and the positive side of it is that the rooms that we've seen rotate into our part of the portfolio have been significantly higher rates.

Speaker Change: They're about 9% higher from a weight perspective than our other rotational business that doesn't originate out of California.

Speaker Change: The fly will affect of having a new property for the rest of the portfolio actually gains momentum as people experience new customers go into that new hotel and experience the gale or grand

Thank you.

Thanks, Sneads.

Speaker Change: Our next question is coming from Aryeh Klein, of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Ari Klein: Thank you. I was hoping maybe you could provide a little bit more color on the end of the year for the year expectations within the guidance and maybe how that change from what you thought would look like previously. It's a good way.

Ari Klein: and then maybe just from a renovation disruption standpoint, yeah I think they're expecting three inch bass points for the year. What was that in Q1 and what does that kind of look like the rest of the year? Thank you.

Speaker Change: You know, the math around that is really when you think about coming into the year with 50 points of occupancy Patrick was outlining earlier some of that the remainder coming from from leisure and in the year for the year corporate book [inaudible]

Speaker Change: You know, doing the math around that and reducing the assumption for that remaining piece that's not on the books at the beginning of the year.

Speaker Change: You know, that's really the map that factors around how you lower our outlook for the demand component for the rest of the year. Not really change our assumptions on the on the rate side.

Speaker Change: Thanks. And then you mentioned potentially pulling back on some projects that's depending on the macro. Is that something you're currently evaluating or that really would you really need to see them the macro materially materially weaken there? And then some of the plan projects are pretty significant. So is there any material impact on cloth you're anticipating from tariff? Thanks. And then you mentioned the macro materially materially materially materially materially materially materially materially

Thank you.

Colin: So, Aryeh, this is Colin, you know, there is no explicit formula here, this is a very dynamic

Moment in time as we think about bookings. [inaudible]

Colin: When we did our owning scripts, when we did our releases, it was based on everything that we had seen through to the end of March, and that was the hypothesis.

Colin: Now, the wrinkle is what we've just experienced in April that was literally hot off the press last night first thing this morning, and as Patrick articulated,

Colin: You know, we saw at the end of March lead volumes for in the year for the decline quite a bit.

Colin: But then things change, things have changed relatively positively in April . How this translates into May and June , you know, we will we will understand that when when we get there, but you know our assumptions are at this stage given given things that Mark talked about, you know, consumer

Consumers Pulling Back a Bit

Colin: We think it's prudent to, you know, shape this, shape this assumption for the, in the year for the year business. If we just seen, you know, 50% decline in Lee Volumes in April ,

Colin: and, you know, Room Night's book, Half of What We Booked, in April for, in the year for the year. I think we would be, we would be, you know, talking about this with a little bit more aggression, but that is not what we're seeing currently.

Colin: Pat, do you want to add to that? Yeah, I would say, on the tariff question, there's basically three really big projects that we've got going on right now. The Space Expansion at Opera Land.

Colin: The sports bar and events law and construction at Opera Land and then the Texan rooms renovation renovation.

Colin: The room's renovation kicks off here in a couple of months and from a tariff perspective we were able to get or will have gotten all the materials necessary for that renovation on the ground within the 90 day extension around tariffs [inaudible]

So we're feeling very, very good that...

Colin: Our design and construction team did an excellent job of sourcing to countries where we feel there will be trade deals but we should have the vast majority of materials on the ground prior to that 90 day window expiring

Colin: The only area we really have any exposure right now from a tariff perspective that we can see is on steel for the space expansion at Opera Land and the sports bar, but they're doing a great job of getting that on the ground quickly and also, you know, seeking alternatives to get those jobs, but...

Colin: Even then, it is a minimal impact to the overall project budget. So, very, very proud of how our design construction team has managed that. I think we all are, and we think we've minimized the impact. You know, they're the thing that you asked about as far as pullback on projects.

Colin: You know, we are continuing forward for like 2026 with designing everything that could potentially go into construction and we will watch the rest of this year very carefully and decide whether or not to shelf [inaudible]

those designs and pull back in some of those projects.

Colin: But right now, we're knee deep in some of the projects that are already underway and proceeding with them Smaller projects, we're definitely pulling back and saying are they a high priority and shelving them for a period of time until we get greater visibility Let's go over there. See?

Colin: The only thing I would add is that, you know, if we would see a material-

Colin: Declined in the year for the year and we see occupancy opening up.

Colin: You may very well see us accelerate things like rooms renovation, the ballrooms renovations, to do those things when we have the least amount of disruption, just like we didn't cope. Right, we have availability, so let's get it done.

Colin: So I think it really depends on the project and how demand influences how we think about it.

Great, thanks for all the power, appreciate it.

Sorry.

Speaker Change: Our next question is coming from Shaun Kelley, of Bank of America. Your line is open.

Speaker Change: sort of how you think that property, whether the efficiency drive in D.C., based on what you're seeing right now. Thanks.

Speaker Change: Yeah, so we looked across the entire remainder of the year and we do not have a significant amount of government business. We've had a few cancellations, but looking across the remainder of the year, we have...

Speaker Change: from an adjusted to EBITDA guidance perspective, and we feel very comfortable.

Speaker Change: that we can weather the storm pretty well because our government exposure is not massive.

Speaker Change: It is, typically it is higher at Gailer National, but it would tell you there were some groups that were moving through the tire portfolio, so it kind of evened it out. It's not just relegated to National, but again, from a stress-cessing perspective, it's not a massive amount, and if we were to lose all of that business, we feel pretty good that we're still within the adjusted even to range. [inaudible]

Perfect, and then...

Speaker Change: I'm sorry, Patrick, our room nights on the books are national of very healthy this year. They are, very, the good of a national has continued to be on an upward trajectory over the past three or four years since we re-opened it after COVID and it is a really strong position for this year.

Speaker Change: and a little bit more on the enforcement side of cancellation. How do you kind of strike the right balance? Because obviously, as we look back, I think your approach during COVID had a lot of merits to it. Thanks.

Speaker Change: You know, we, Mark and Patrick and I earlier this week met with the CEO of Marriott here in our offices here in Nashville.

Speaker Change: We had this very discussion about we need to be on the front foot here, we need to figure out as a business.

Speaker Change: How will we take advantage of this because when you get stressed? [inaudible]

and Distress

Speaker Change: You know, this is a period of opportunity and we talked about…

you know, potentially recruiting.

Speaker Change: You know, high quality sales people in this period of time and so it's something that is very much top of mind for our asset management team led by Patrick.

Speaker Change: and I know Mark and I feel very much the same way and it's something that we're going to continue to work on here but you know the difference between what we're experiencing today

Speaker Change: versus what we experienced in COVID. Mark touched on it a few minutes ago, which is...

This thing could change dramatically.

Speaker Change: You know, with a tweet or two, or a, you know, we have now secured a trade deal with China, or we're in discussions with China. So, we are really thinking about it as a company, how we take advantage of this stuff.

But how long it lasts? Who knows? [inaudible]

Speaker Change: You know, Shaun, every group is unique and every situation is unique, but to your point, this is much more more class than like a recession than COVID where there was a lot more, you know.

Speaker Change: Instead of collecting fees or having the inability to collect fees because of forced mishore to read booking rooms, I think you'll see us more aggressively collecting fees here, although we'll always work with our best customers.

to try to create a...

A business solution that works for everybody involved. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: Yeah, I would tell you, based on the cancellations we've incurred so far, I'm very encouraged by the collective team's ability to collect

Speaker Change: the outstanding collection fees that were due to us. And to Colin's point,

Speaker Change: You know, we look at every single crisis as an opportunity to exploit and create new opportunities.

Speaker Change: and we spent about five hours last week with the Marriott above property team specific to our portfolio.

Speaker Change: going through and looking at short-term strategies with a great focus on analytics of group behavior of what's been going on over the past couple of years and what's going on specifically right now. A really deep diving in and saying, okay, how do we target the sales team to really exploit some of these short-term opportunities. So,

Speaker Change: We always take every single crisis as an opportunity to create additional market, or to seal additional market share and this is no different.

Speaker Change: And I point out as well that just the fact that, you know, we're dealing with one operator in this case, you keep hearing us, you know, talk about the fact that we're working directly with Maryod, and we're able to be proactive.

Speaker Change: You know, I think the fact that we've got one manager to deal with allows us to be, you know, as nimble as anybody, maybe more so, to be able to be consistently and quickly applying the approach.

Speaker Change: The irony was, when Mark and I were doing roadshows back when we were converting this company from a sea to a reach...

Speaker Change: A negative that we should have broad distribution of managers. And I got to tell you, I think that is so crazy. We have such an advantage by dealing with one manager at this moment. How we deal with sales, how we deal with costs, there is such an advantage right now. [inaudible]

Thank you so much.

Speaker Change: Oh, next question. We do, we have a question from David Katz.

of Jeffries, Your Line is Open.

David Katz: I, afternoon, thanks for taking my question. So, number one, I wanted to just...

Speaker Change: to go a little farther with respect to the Productivity Plan, and if you could flesh that out a bit, is that...

Speaker Change: You know, yours, is it in conjunction with Marriott? You know, how is that working and what's that about? And then secondarily

Speaker Change: with respect to the entertainment side. What do we know about sort of behavior and economic cycles? Or are you seeing anything that's sort of interesting or noteworthy, not necessarily negative, but just trying to get a better sense of that customer base? Thank you.

For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov

Speaker Change: Well, I think as far as productivity, you know, Mark Patrick, I will tell you that it's been driven by our asset management team. And, you know, and the start of all of this is when we sat with them.

Speaker Change: Months ago, as we were planning for 25 and beyond, and, you know, Patrick led a conversation with Marriott about productivity, margin, cost savings in these volatile times, so you want to put more color on it.

Speaker Change: Yeah, I mean, it is, there's a lot of aspects to it. I would tell you, one of the things we've been doing post-COVID and put a lot of effort towards is moving away from contracted labor.

Speaker Change: There was a heavy reliance across the hospitality industry on contract labor and as we move away from that, that gives us additional flexibility in how we...

Speaker Change: Managed Labor on our side. The other thing that we really focused on post 2020 and 2021.

Speaker Change: especially on the management side is doing more with less hiring, spending a little bit more to hire the right people in two top positions.

Speaker Change: so that we have the best talent and don't necessarily throw bodies at issues but have really smart, capable folks solving problems through efficiencies as opposed to just adding bodies.

Speaker Change: So I would say, you know, that, as well as Marriott overall as an organization, continues to enhance and refine its analytics around labor, which just gives us greater data with which to go after opportunities. So that's kind of a joint effort summarized.

David being the, you know, the authors of this brand.

Speaker Change: being the authors of this brand. We know how to operate these businesses, and so this is a question that I think our asset management team have been on with Marriott since the day they started as our manager.

Speaker Change: and that's why I think we have really good margins in this business.

Yeah, the other thing, David.

Speaker Change: All of those things are up dramatically year over year because we're just delivering greater value to our customer.

Let's talk about that. I'm happy to talk about the customers for the...

Speaker Change: sort of live events in the entertainment business. I'd say two points first from a macro standpoint.

Speaker Change: Live experiences, live music are an incredibly resilient part of the economy, so in through cycle environments you see really strong performance relative to other sectors in live music.

Speaker Change: Secondarily, from a micro standpoint, if you look at the deployment as an example from, you know, for the first quarter, for the national airport, we're up 5% year to date. So when you think about tourism and travel, there are some local and domestic markets where gas prices and other things actually might...

Speaker Change: might actually induce an increase in sort of local travel and we get a lot of our business from local and regional drive to market so I think right now we're not seeing any real issues with

Speaker Change: with the economy, with respect to live music and live entertainment but of course like the hotel business we're going to be cautious and see kind of like what happens and if we get another good tweeter to conditions could change dramatically. And I think COVID changed the psychology of a lot of people, you know, being cocooned in their basement and they realized the value of being out and enjoying themselves.

And, you know, live entertainment is continuing to grow and grow. I'm having a live nation report today, too, I think, and they report a very strong consumer spending.

It was.

All right, thank you very much

Thank you, David.

Speaker Change: One more question. We've got how many more in the queue? Three? Okay.

Chris Darling: We'll take our next question from Chris Darling of Green Street. Your line is open.

Thank you [inaudible]

Chris Darling: Colin, in your prepared remarks you talked about Ryman's experience in the great financial crisis. I think you mentioned that the decline to profitability was about half that of the broader hotel industry, hoping you could elaborate on some of the driving factors there. And then...

Speaker Change: As I think about, you know, what might be different going forward, presumably Ryman's ADR is much higher today relative to the composite that it was at the time and I wonder if you think that might create incremental risk relative to past cycles.

Speaker Change: You know, I was a long time ago, but we remember it, we remember it like yesterday, we were down, and I may, I may reverse these, we were down like 10 or 9 or 9 and 10. It was either 9 in revenue and 10 in profitability or vice versa, it was one of those two. I mean, the reason was because we collected literally tens of millions of dollars in cancellation fees.

Speaker Change: and this fundamentally anesthetized our company. And if you look at the broad industry back there, the rate industry, the numbers were pretty dramatic in 2009.

Speaker Change: And of course we learned a lot of lessons from 09.

Speaker Change: And, you know, and that was one of the reasons Chris, why we, you know, took some of the decisions we took in the COVID period of time.

Speaker Change: So, I think if we hit a recession this year, if things...

You know, do go off the rails. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: I think we've really got our finger on the pulse here and I think that this whole contractual nature of our business will fundamentally anaesthetize how we perform. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: Chris, in addition to these, the other phenomenon that occurs is that as rates decline going into a recession, our rate actually declines at a much lower rate because we put...

business on the books in advance.

So, you know as

Speaker Change: Leisure transient hotels go into a recession first, and typically there's more variability.

Speaker Change: Not as high a quality as others. But one thing we saw in our own home was a dramatic discounting, particularly coming out of Las Vegas. I remember this...

Speaker Change: Again, Patrick, you may have some data on this, but we saw rates being slashed to book group business in 2009 by $1500. We haven't seen that here in the last month or two.

Speaker Change: Now, to your point, there's a few folks out there that are panicking, but for the most part, you've heard the comments from...

Speaker Change: Our peer set and most everyone is doing a pretty good job of managing rate right now so there's a few out there who are freaking out but like I mentioned we feel very very good at what the teams have been able to do to maintain rate in the year for the year both on the leisure side as well as on the group side.

Was that helpful, Chris Stank?

Chris: Yeah, I was going to say a helpful context all around, so thank you for the time.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Well, right at time, do you want to win? Yeah. Win-win-win-win-win. [inaudible]

Speaker Change: If we've got people with you, you want to try to get them in quick time? Sure. Yeah, I'm just going to get, uh, we'll talk about this. They understand we, we may have one or two more in the queue and if we have, let's just get it done.

Speaker Change: Certainly, we'll take our next question from Jay Kornreich of Wedbush Securities. Your line is open.

Jay Kornreich: Alright, thanks for fitting me in and I'll just do one question here. Just, you know, going back to the leisure transit customer, which you said saw a return of growth in the first quarter, just curious if you've seen, you know, any type of softness or changing habits in that customer base since April started.

Jay Kornreich: and if there's much concern for slowdown in that leisure travel, leisure training segment at the air progresses, or if you expect some of that first quarter strength, they continue.

Patrick: Hey Jay, this is Patrick, a great question. One of the things we watched real closely was spring break.

Patrick: that's always a great indicator of how leisure travelers are feeling for the summertime.

Patrick: We'll watch and see if that happens, given the volatility out there right now, but spring break was very encouraging.

We feel really good about how it performed. [inaudible]

Patrick: 23 across the market that continued through 24 and it appears that the opening of Epic Universe in the Orlando market is having a halo effect for the entire market.

Patrick: And so we are well positioned with Gaylord Palms out of its full renovation and are excited about some of the growth that we've seen there year over year coming out of that renovation.

Patrick: Spring Break performed well. We are watching closely. We're doing a great job of managing the rate side and not giving up on the rate side as we've been talking about. So thus far we think leisure travel is doing okay. And I would point out the other thing is our hotels become a investigation.

Patrick: opportunity for a lot of travelers who decided to maybe pull back on international travel. So we think we're well positioned with some of our unique pool assets to capitalize on any additional demand that may decide to stay home instead of going overseas this year.

Okay, I appreciate the contact, so I'll hold it there.

Speaker Change: And we'll take our next question from John DeCree of CBRE. Your line is open.

John Decree: Oh, thank you all. I think you answered my question on leisure there, but you brought up international travel. I'm not sure if inbound international travel is

and I gotta go.

John Decree: A very large piece of your business, and I'm sure it's not, but maybe on the small side. It's a team that we're hearing in the travel and leisure industry. So, Dori, if you have much exposure to an international travel, and if you've kind of seen any change in those patterns.

John Decree: Yeah, the only place we've seen an impact was on some of the Canadian travelers who are pulling back in their plans for traveling at Christmas time. We do benefit specifically Gailard Operlant here at Nashville around some of the Canadian travelers coming down through the tour and travel groups.

John Decree: But we've got plenty of time to, of course, correct for that and it's not a big part of our business. Yeah, the offset though to that Patrick is that this week, next week we have...

John Decree: Two new international flights coming into this town, one from Ireland and one from Iceland, which is that Northern European and Reykjavik, Hard, so, you know...

Speaker Change: As Patrick Moore said, just a second ago, inbound travel into Ehrlich, travel into national increase, 5% in the first quarter, and we suspect it will increase again in the second quarter, particularly with all this new international stuff that's coming in.

So, steady as she goes.

Fantastic, thank you all for taking our questions [inaudible]

Speaker Change: Thank you. Leo, I think that's it. We appreciate everybody being with us today. These are interesting times we're living in. I feel our team is relatively, however, on the pulse.

Speaker Change: And if you have any further questions, you don't have to get held again, and for IR team or all Mark So thank you everyone, and have a good day

Speaker Change: This does conclude today's Ryman Hospitality Properties First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect your aligns and everyone have a great day.

Speaker Change: You're listening to performances from the stage of the world-famous Grand

and Dolopri, a Ryman Hospitality Properties company.

Speaker Change: Next up, we have a Grammy and CMA Award winner. She's been a member of the Opera since 2021.

Carly Pearce: Here's Carly Pierce with what he didn't do. Live from the Grand Ola place.

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Speaker Change: And it wasn't what he did, no, it was what he did. Thank you. Trace Act can join the Grand O'Lopry