Park Hotels & Resorts provides update on operating trends and capital allocation

Park Hotels & Resorts provided an update on Q4 operating trends. “I am incredibly pleased with the strength of our portfolio as we end the year with preliminary November 2024 RevPAR pacing ahead of expectations and preliminary full-year 2024 RevPAR trending towards the upper end of our previously disclosed guidance range. Specifically, preliminary November 2024 RevPAR is expected to be just 3.9% lower over the prior year period, however, excluding the impact of recently resolved strike activity in Honolulu, Boston, and Seattle, November 2024 RevPAR growth would have improved by 510 basis points to 1.2%. Preliminary Q4 RevPAR is expected to be 2.7% lower, or up an impressive 2.3% when excluding the impact from recently resolved strike activity, translating to full-year 2024 RevPAR growth of approximately 2.5%, or 3.9% when excluding strike activity, as compared to the prior year periods…solid group and business transient demand drove double-digit RevPAR growth in November 2024 in Chicago and high-single-digit RevPAR growth in our suburban portfolio, compared to the prior year period. On the capital allocation front, we remain laser-focused on selling non-core hotels and allocating capital within the portfolio through accretive return on investment projects and leverage neutral stock repurchases, as exemplified by the recent sale of a consolidated joint venture asset for $35M and $26M of stock repurchases thus far during Q$,” said CEO Thomas Baltimore, Jr. During Q4, Park repurchased a total of 1.8 million shares of common stock for a total purchase price of $26M at an average purchase price of $14.43 per share, bringing its full-year stock repurchase total to 6.0 million shares for a total purchase price of over $85M at an average purchase price of $14.31 per share; and in 2024, Park has returned nearly $375M of capital to shareholders in the form of common stock dividends and stock repurchases.