Apple Hospitality REIT (APLE) Q2 2026 earnings call transcript

Good morning and welcome to Apple Hospitality Reads 2nd Quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's call is based on the earnings release in Form 10Q, which we distributed and filed yesterday afternoon. Before we begin, please note that today's call may include four looking statements as defined by federal securities laws. These four looking statements are based on current views and assumptions and as a result are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and the outcome of future events that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to materially differ from those expressed, projected or implied.

Any such four looking statements are qualified by the risk factors described in our filings with the SEC, including in our 2025 annual report on Form 10K and speak only as of today. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any four looking statements except as required by law. In addition, non-GAT measures of performance will be discussed during this call.

Reconciliations of those measures to GAT measures and definitions of certain items referred to in our remarks are included in yesterday's earnings release and other filings with the subsidy. For a copy of the earnings release or additional information about the company, please visit applehospitalityreach. com.

This morning, Justin Knight, our Chief Executive Officer and Liz Perkins, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide an overview of our results for the second quarter, 2026, and an operational outlook for the remainder of the year. Unless otherwise stated, all changes in performance metrics refer to year-over-year changes for the comparable period. All references to year-to-date performance refer to the six-month period ending June 30th, 2026.

Following the overview, we will open the call for Q&A.

At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Justin. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for our second quarter, 2026 earnings call. We are pleased to report comparable hotels' rep-part growth of more than 5% for the second quarter, driven by broad-based improvements in both business and leisure travel demand.

Approximately three-quarters of our hotels delivered rep-part growth up from two-thirds in the first quarter. The efficient operating model of our hotels combined with prudent management of expenses enabled us to convert approximately $0.58 of each incremental revenue dollar into comparable hotels adjusted to the EBITDA. That flow-through produced 120 basis points of margin expansion and MSFO of $0.52 per share, an increase of more than 8%.

Demand momentum has continued into the third quarter with preliminary reports for the month of July indicating comparable hotels' rep-part growth of more than 5.5%. Week day occupancy improvement outpaced weekend occupancy improvement during the quarter, indicative of strengthening business travel across our portfolio.

While the 2026 FIFA World Cup drove significant pricing power in our host markets, rep-part excluding those markets grew nearly 5%, demonstrating that the improvement we are seeing is broad-based and not tied to a temporary catalyst.

Reflecting our year-to-date outperformance and continued strength in forward bookings, we are raising our full-year rep-part growth guidance 225 basis points to 3.25% at the end of the year, and raising our full-year, comparable hotels adjusted hotel EBITDA margin guidance 75 basis points at the midpoint to an increase of 25 basis points year-over-year. Even at the revised midpoint, our outlook implies more modest growth in the second half than we delivered in the first, and we believe it could continue to prove conservative.

Transient demand has been stronger than anticipated, and our group business continues to build, providing strong-based business at attractive rates. We also left periods adversely affected by reduced government travel and last year's government shutdown, which represents potential upside, not fully reflected at the midpoint of our outlook. To date, we have not experienced any adverse impact from the escalation of energy costs attributable to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. However, should this begin to impact consumer spending, our hotels offer a value proposition that has historically held up well during periods of economic uncertainty.

In July, we completed a series of refinancing transactions that extended our maturities, improved our pricing, and increased the capacity of our revolving credit facility, which this will address in more detail.

Taken together, they leave us with meaningful liquidity, no near-term maturities of consequence, and the flexibility to grow when the opportunity is right.

Our approach to capital allocation is comparative in nature, with each potential use of capital measured against the alternatives available to us to maximize value for shareholders.

In April, we completed the sale of our Hampton Indian Suites in Rochester, Minnesota for approximately nine million dollars. The sale price represents a 5% cap rate, or 14.5 times EBITDA, before capital expenditures, and a 4% cap rate, or 19.6 times EBITDA, after taking into consideration, an estimated $3 million in anticipated capital improvements.

Buyers for these types of assets remain active, though pricing varies meaningfully by hotel and by market. We continue to evaluate select assets where we believe a sale together with the redeployment of proceeds creates more value than continued ownership.

The modern Nashville Downtown, which recently received Hilton's New Build of the Year award for the brand, achieved $80 of approximately $243 during the second quarter, a meaningful premium to the Nashville market, with occupancy continuing to build as the hotel ramps. At the home with Suites Tampa branded, acquired last year, we recently began a comprehensive renovation that once complete will further strengthen the hotel's competitive position in its market.

Turning to out-year commitments, we continue to have forward contracts for two projects under development, an AC hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, which we expect to be delivered in late 2027, and a dual-branded AC and residence in adjacent to our existing Spring Hill suites in Las Vegas, which we expect to be delivered in the second quarter of 2028. Construction is underway on both, and in each case, the developer carries the project under a fixed price forward purchase contract.

Our cash outlays occur only at completion, allowing us to secure newly built, well-located assets at a known cost without deploying capital until delivery.

Both are markets we know well. Our two hotels in Anchorage grew red-part nearly 17% during the second quarter, operating at approximately 95% occupancy at an average daily rate of $346. And our Spring Hill suites in Las Vegas has grown red-part nearly 5% year to date. Development has been a consistent part of how we grow. The most market's construction costs continue to rise faster than hotel fundamentals, living new projects, and keeping industry supply growth near historic lows to the benefit of the hotels we already own.

At quarter end, 55% of our hotels had no new upper upscale, upscale, upper mid-scale product under construction within a five-mile radius, which limits potential downside and enhances potential upside.

There continues to be a product in the market that would be attractive to us. The primary constraint remains the gap between seller expectations and what we are willing to pay. The gap is narrowed, but the current transaction environment does not yet support the creative opportunities relative to our cost of capital. And we do not currently have any agreements for acquisitions in 2026.

We remain actively engaged in the flexibility of our balance sheet and our reputation for execution position us to act quickly as conditions change.

We also continue to strategically reinvest in our portfolio, ensuring that our hotels remain competitive within the respective markets and maintain a strong value proposition for our guests.

For the six months and a June 30th, capital expenditures totaled approximately $40 million. For the full year, we expect to reinvest between $85 and $95 million, a $5 million increase to our earlier range with comprehensive renovations now planned at 18 hotels. As we refine our plan, we prioritize two larger projects, the renovation of our embassy suites in Anchorage, one of our strongest performing hotels in a market where demand has been exceptional, and the rebranding of our Seattle residents in, which we expect to meaningfully improve its competitive position in that market.

We continue to invest across the portfolio at levels that keep our hotels competitive while weighing our larger investments towards the highest returning assets. At the midpoint of our revised range, we investment represents approximately 6% of revenues consistent with our historical average and supported by the stronger operating performance we have seen this year.

The scale of the efficient design of our rooms-focused hotels and our experience in-house project management team allow us to renovate and maintain our hotels for meaningfully less than full-service portfolios. Combined with stronger operating margins, this efficiency translates into exceptional free cash flow from operations, which we use to fund shareholder distributions and strategic investments.

During the second quarter, we paid distributions totaling approximately $57 million or $0.24 per common share. Based on Monday's closing stock price, our annualized regular monthly cash distribution of $0.96 per share represents an annual yield of approximately 5.8%. Together with our board of directors, we will continue to evaluate these distributions in the context of portfolio performance, capital needs, and other creative opportunities to create long-term shareholder values.

Throughout our 26-year history in the lodging industry, we have refined our strategy with intention. We invest in high-quality hotels that appeal to a broad set of business and leisure customers. We diversify our portfolio across markets, industries, and demand generators. We maintain a strong and flexible balance sheet with low leverage. We reinvest strategically in our portfolio, and we work closely with the experience management teams who operate our hotels.

Together, those principles differentiate our portfolio from our peers. Efficient rooms-focused hotels produce strong operating margins and require less capital to maintain, and our lower leverage leaves more of the resulting cash flow available to fund distributions, reinvest in our hotels, and pursue growth. Through the first six months of the year, NFSO per share grew more than 7% to 86 cents, reflecting both the strength of our model and the execution of our teams.

While we cannot control the broader economic environment, we can control how well our hotels are operated, how prudently we allocate capital, and the integrity with which we conduct our business. Those remain our priorities, and we believe that they are what will create lasting value for our shareholders over time. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Liz for additional details on our balance sheet financial performance during the quarter and outlook for the remainder of the year.

Thank you, Justin, and good morning. Last quarter, we noted that as we moved into seasonally higher occupancy months and saw greater contribution from rate growth, we would expect stronger flow through to the bottom line. That is what the second quarter delivered. Comparable hotels ADR grew three and a half percent, driving rev-par growth that combined with the discipline expense management, we converted into 120 basis points of adjusted hotel e-bit of margin expansion, and MSFO of 52 cents per share.

For the quarter, comparable hotels rev-par was $136, up 5.3%, with ADR of $170, up 3.5%, and occupancy of 80.1%, up 130 basis points. For the six months ended June 30th, comparable hotels rev-par was $125, up 3.8%, with ADR of $164, up 1.9%, and occupancy of 76.5%, up 140 basis points.

Comparable hotels rev-par through 4.8% in April, 4% in May, and 7% in June, with results for the quarter well ahead of our expectations.

World Cup events in our host market contributed approximately 150 basis points to June rev-par growth, and approximately 50 basis points to the quarter.

Preliminary results for July of more than 5.5% rev-par growth reflect continued momentum across the portfolio. July also included the balance of World Cup activity, but unlike June, saw minimal contribution from World Cup matches, with our non-World Cup markets performing similarly to our host market.

With the tournament concluding mid-month, we do not expect any continuing impact for the balance of the quarter. Comparable hotels total revenue was $402 million for the quarter and $739 million year-to-date, up 6.2% and 5.3% respectively, supported by continued strength and other revenues, which were up 8% for the quarter and 9% year-to-date. For the quarter, comparable hotels adjusted hotel EBITDA with $153 million, up 9.7%, with an adjusted hotel EBITDA margin of 38.1% up 120 basis points. Year-to-date, comparable hotels adjusted hotel EBITDA with $262 million, up 7.1%, with margin of 35.4%, up 60 basis points.

In January, we completed the transition of our 13 Marriott managed hotels to franchise, consolidating management with third-party operators, who in most cases were already running hotels for us in those markets. Second quarter results for this group were encouraging, with Rev. Park growth of over 7% and adjusted hotel EBITDA margin expansion of over 300 basis points, well ahead of the portfolio overall.

These hotels represent approximately 8% of our adjusted hotel EBITDA. That performance reflects significant effort by our asset management team and our new operators, who manage the transition and move quickly to integrate these hotels into their existing platforms and market clusters.

Performance was broad-based across the portfolio, with our top 30 markets growing Rev. Park 5%, and all other markets growing 5.9%. Several markets stood out. In our World Cup host markets, Rev. Park growth came almost entirely from rate. For example, Kansas City Rev. Park grew 17% on ADR growth of 16%, and Fort Worth, Arlington Rev. Park grew 16% on ADR growth of 14%. Elsewhere, we continue to see healthy demand fundamentals, with occupancy leading Rev. Park growth in a number of markets.

South Bend Rev. Park grew 24% on midweek group demand, tighter Notre Dame. Anchorage Rev. Park grew 17% on strong leisure demands supplemented by military and airline crew business. Washington, TC grew Rev. Park nearly 8% as National Guard deployment compressed the market. St. Louis grew Rev. Park 13%, recovering from a softer period last year, and aided by group business.

And Chicago grew Rev. Park 13% on strong leisure trends and continued recovery in midweek demand. Not every market shared in this growth. Phoenix all Rev. Park decreased 5%, with a decline in both occupancy and rate. Driven in part by a pullback and semiconductor related business. That said, we're encouraged by announcements of continued investment in the market and believe this segment's long-term fundamentals remain strong.

Looking at the portfolio more broadly, same-store weekday occupancy improved 240 basis points during the quarter, outpacing weekend improvement of 120 basis points, consistent with the highlighted strength and business demand. That strength was consistent throughout the quarter, with weekday occupancy of 280 basis points in April, 310 basis points in May, and up 130 basis points in June. Week day and weekend ADR each grew approximately 350 basis points in the second quarter, punctuated by 6% growth in June with the start of FIFA World Cup.

Shifting to same-store booking channel trends, Brand. com remained our largest channel at 40% of room nights, up 80 basis points year over year, while GDS Bookings grew 100 basis points to 18%. OTA Bookings were flat at 13% of mixed and property direct declined to 140 basis points to 25%. Growth in our GDS Bookings reflects continued strength in business travel, while gains in Brand. com support both our lowest distribution costs and some of our highest-rated segments.

Turning to segmentation, bar grew 120 basis points to 33% of our occupancy mix, while negotiated declined 160 basis points to 15%. With midweek occupancy improvement outpacing weekend, that shift indicates the incremental business travel we captured came largely at retail rates rather than contracted rates, which supported our rate growth for the quarter. Group grew 60 basis points to 18% of mixed, providing a base of occupancy that supported our ability to drive rate and remains our second highest-rated segment.

Government grew 30 basis points to nearly 5.5%, and discount declined 50 basis points to 28%. Moving to expenses with same-store revenue growth of 4.7%, operating expenses grew 3.5%, while fixed expenses declined, bringing total same-store hotel expenses up 3.3% for the quarter and 3% year-to-date. Increases of 1.3% and 0.6% respectively on a per-occupied room basis. That discipline in the expense control delivered 80 basis points of adjusted hotel EBITDA margin expansion.

Wage growth continued to moderate, with rooms wages up less than 3%, or less than 1% per-occupied room. Utilities and repair maintenance were our primary headwinds growing 9% and 6% The decline of fixed expenses reflected the favorable property insurance renewal that took effect in April, as well as successful real estate tax appeals.

Adjusted EBITDA RE was approximately $145 million for the quarter, up 7.5%, and $245 million a year-to-date, up 5.3%. MSFO was $123 million for the quarter, or 52 cents per share, up 9% and 8.3% respectively. Year-to-date, MSFO was approximately $204 million, or 86 cents per share, up 6.1% or 7.5% respectively.

As a reminder, effective January 1, 2026, we began excluding share-based compensation expense from adjusted EBITDA RE and MSFO. Prior, your results have been updated to conform with the current presentation, so the growth rates I have referenced are on a consistent basis.

Turning to our balance sheet, as of June 30, 2026, we had approximately $1.5 billion of total debt outstanding. Approximately 3.2 times our trailing 12-month EBITDA, with a weighted average interest rate of 4.8% and a weighted average maturity of approximately two years. Nearly 60% of our total debt was fixed or hedged, and we had approximately $10 million of cash on hand and $602 million of availability under our revolving credit facility.

During the quarter, we repaid one secured mortgage loan for a total of approximately $19 million, bringing the number of unencumbered hotels in our portfolio to 207.

In July, subsequent to quarter end, we completed a series of refinancing transactions that further strengthen our balance sheet and position us well for the years ahead. We amended and restated our primary unsecured credit facilities, increasing total capacity from $1.2 billion to approximately $1.3 billion, extending maturities and generally improving the pricing grid. The facility now consists of a $700 million revolving credit facility maturing in 2030, a $275 million term loan maturing in 2031, and a $300 million term loan maturing in 2032. We also amended and restated our $130 million term loan, increasing it to $160 million, and extending the maturity by seven years.

We conformed the improved pricing on an additional $470 million of term loans, extending those benefits across our capital structure. Taken together, these transactions enhance our financial flexibility. Our weighted average debt maturity is nearly five years. We have no outstanding revolver balance, and our next significant unsecured maturity is in 2029. We are grateful for the continued support of our bank group throughout this process. The strength of these relationships and the confidence our lenders have shown in our strategy and in the underlying fundamentals of our business are a real testament to the quality of our portfolio and platform. As a result, our capital structure gives us considerable flexibility to be opportunistic as we look ahead.

Turning to guidance, for the full year, we now expect comparable hotels redpar change between 2.25% and 4.25%. Comparable hotels adjusted hotel EBITDA margins between 33.7% and 34.7%. Adjusted EBITDA RE between $453 million and $476 million and net income between $152 million and $180 million.

As a result of the improvement in redpar growth expectations, our guidance assumes total hotel expense growth of approximately 4% at the midpoint. On a peroccupied room basis, expense growth remains unchanged at approximately 2%. Continuing to reflect the favorable property insurance renewal that took effect in April along with continued moderation in wage growth.

The revised guidance range incorporates our stronger than anticipated second quarter performance and an increase in our outlook for the remainder of the year, driven by improved business and leisure travel demand. We are encouraged by the setup for the remainder of the year given the broad-based demand strength across our market and favorable comparisons to prior periods impacted by government-related disruptions.

Our outlook is based on our current view, which is limited and does not take into account any unanticipated developments in our business or changes in the operating environment. Nor does it take into account any unannounced hotel acquisitions or dispositions.

Growth in both occupancy and rate through the quarter along with continued strength and booking trends reflects the resilience of travel demand and the specific appeal of our hotels. Our strongest gains came midweek at a portfolio average daily rate of $170. Because rate growth carries higher flow through than occupancy, that mix contributed to margin expansion and cash flow growth we delivered for the quarter.

Our capital allocation decisions have strengthened the portfolio and our July refinancing extended our maturities and increased our capacity. Together with growing cash flow from operations after capital expenditures that leaves us with meaningful flexibility to pursue a creative opportunities as they arise. We believe that combination positions us well to navigate changing market conditions and to continue growing cash flow and creating long-term value for shareholders.

That concludes our prepared remarks and we'll now open the call for questions. Thank you.

Good morning, Ari. We have been very encouraged by the business transit trends that we've seen really since March. And while we began to see in queue 1, some ability to shift the mix of our business outside of negotiated corporate rates into retail, we really started to see that continue to amplify in Q2. So if you look at both brand. com and bar related business, you can see the improvement there as I mentioned in my prepared remarks.

And through GDS, a channel that's predominantly B. T driven, we saw an increase there, which is the first time we've seen meaningful change in many years. So both of those, I think, are clear indications that we're seeing both overall demand strength on peak nights where we can compress the hotel and drive business transient into our highest rated segments, but also that we're seeing the sheer improvement in demand overall.

And I'll add to that. One of the things that we're most excited about is as you look across our portfolio, the growth is widespread. And thinking about how we've assembled our portfolio, we've intentionally looked to create exposure to a variety of different industries. And I think to see multiple industries contributing to B. T. business across multiple geographies, I think indicates a trend that we feel good about and continue to feel good about moving into the back half of the year.

Sorry. What was the second part of your question?

Group. Similar to B. T. really strong trends, we were at 18% of our occupancy mix for the quarter, which is one of our strongest quarters. Historically, we've run more in the 15 to 16% range. It's our second highest rated segment. So again, not only are we seeing strength there, we see an ability to capture high rates in that segment, which is driving overall rev part growth.

It's a mix between corporate and leisure, depending on sort of day of week, stay pattern and market. So like Justin mentioned, when speaking about overall demand and how broad based it is and across segments. Group also is benefiting from seeing it both on the business transit or the business group side, remembering ours is more small group, but also on the leisure side.

You know, it's a little early to give definitive guidance on 27, but we have seen fairly consistent performance on the expense side. And feel really comfortable that barring any meaningful changes to the environment overall, and that would sort of impact things more broadly than just our portfolio. We'd expect similar trends to what we have seen both year to date, but really, you know, we've seen it, especially on the variable cost side. Really, really well controlled over the past couple years.

Is it more so with your higher end travelers or also with the lower end? And then are there any segments that aren't as strong?

So I'll take that. You know, I think looking across our portfolio, it's been broad-based. You know, I think an important point of clarification is we do not own economy or even mid-scale hotels. So, you know, I think can't speak based on our own experience to the performance. And here are some low-end travelers.

You know, average daily rate was nearly $200 for our portfolio, which I think speaks to the type of travelers staying at our hotels. You know, I think looking across markets, you know, that that seemed to be the more preeminent driver. Liz highlighted, Phoenix was down slightly. You know, in terms of industries driving that market, we continue to feel really good about what's happening in that market and feel that that will be a market that rebounds. And on the flip side, you have markets like Anchorage that have been strong for years. They continued to see outsize growth. I think, as I said earlier, what pleased us most about the quarter is we came into it thinking that World Cup would be the primary driver of growth during the quarter with it manifest, remembering that we had been conservative in our guide related to World Cup, potential World Cup business.

As we emerged from the quarter, we saw, you know, the majority of our markets experiencing rep-park growth. And given the diversity of our exposure, we see that as a broad-based positive indicator for the type of business that we attract to our hotels, both business, travel and leisure.

You know, I think we do expect that we would see, you know, an improvement in rep-par relative to the government shutdown in the fourth quarter in particular. Our third quarter comp relative to last year is not, you know, as significant in the third quarter, we had started to improve and not be down quite as much in government in Q3 as we were in Q2 and obviously Q4 of last year. So we have seen year to date improvement in the government segment, but with the, you know, demand across segments that we've seen, we've also been able to prioritize higher-rated business. So to quantify precisely what government would be if we did not have other, you know, other demand to supplement that or to take, you know, from a higher-rated segment, you know, I can't perfectly ascertain what I think.

It would have been just, you know, without that improvement and overall demand. But for Q4, you know, even at the midpoint, you know, we have some growth in the fourth quarter related to that. But really, you know, when you combine the current trends that we're seeing with the laps in government comps, you know, you see that more baked in at the high end of our range.

Yeah, good morning, guys. So, Justin, I know you talked about this a little bit in the prepared comments, but I'm wondering about the prospect to accelerate or kind of increase some of these, you know, development property, forward purchase deals, and then kind of as an offshoot to that question, when you think about the different, you know, the moving parts to getting a development deal done, whether it's, you know, the equity part of the capital stack, the debt part or just simply operating fundamentals, keeping up with construction costs, where do you see the biggest gap today, you know, and how long do you think it would take to sort of, you know, plug that gap to see you construction again broadly?

I appreciate the question. We are incredibly excited about the three hotels, the two development projects we currently have under contract, you know, especially in Anchorage, which will be the first of the projects to come online. The market has done incredibly well, and we feel exceptionally good about our underwriting there. We've seen increased strength in Vegas as well, which gives us, you know, incremental confidence.

The spring hill sweep that we purchased, you know, where we'll be building these additional hotels is yielding 11% right now on our acquisitions price, which all of that feels really good. The reality is that it's difficult to underwrite and to find deals that pencil like the deals we currently have under contract, and while we are given regular occasion to look at potential additional development deals, a variety of factors have made them more difficult to pencil, and you highlighted the primary factors there. Certainly, interest rates are elevated relative to where they once were, even if they're closer to historical averages when you zoom out and look at a more extended period of time. But really, the primary driver of the disconnect has been, you know, a really rapid increase in overall construction costs, some of which started before COVID, and certainly we saw an accelerated run-up afterwards.

The year-over-year growth rate seems to have slowed a little bit, but talk of tariffs, you know, increased shipping costs and challenges with freight and things that sort of continue to plague, you know, development deals from our cost standpoint. And then many markets really have been slower to rebound from an operating performance standpoint, you know, relative to the meaningful increases we've seen in overall construction costs. And so when we look across markets, and I highlighted in my prepared remarks as well, we continue to have very limited exposure to new construction, whether or not we're involved in it, you know, across the markets where we have ownership.

You know, I think that continues, and as we think about near-term acquisitions, we're much more likely, I think, over the next six to 12 months to be signing up existing deals than we are to be entering into new forward commitments, just given where we see values for, you know, the two different options. You know, I think the brands have spoken to things they're doing to try to re-accelerate or to sustain their development pipelines. And certainly we've experienced that in the form of key money and other incentives.

I think for the foreseeable future, you know, that's going to continue to exist. And thinking about our portfolio specifically, where we're heavily invested in upscale select service assets, you know, supply has historically impacted our sector specifically. The meaningful pullback, we think, and I've said this in prepared remarks for several earnings calls now, but we think meaningfully shifts the risk profile of our portfolio like ours, you know, decreasing the downside risk, and meaningfully increasing the upside potential.

I think this past quarter we began to see that with strong performance across markets and ability to flow that to the bottom line. And given what we're looking at today in terms of forward booking pace through the remainder of the year, you know, we think we continue to benefit.

Maybe help us understand how why does it, what looks more or less interesting today from an investment perspective, and then what do you think needs to happen for that spread to reach parity?

Yeah, sure. You know, it's interesting. I think my expectations were at this point, the cycle, especially given the strength we've seen recently, we would be experiencing or seeing more transactions happen in our space. I think we're more optimistic based on products that we're underwriting today.

And, you know, product coming to market that we're nearing a point where we could see meaningfully greater deal flow. But the reality is, for some period of time, and this varies pretty dramatically by market. For some period of time, there's been fairly wide bid-ask spread. You know, as much as two or 300 basis points from a cap rate standpoint, depending on market and product.

I think what we've observed happening is product that has been on the market for an extended period of time is starting to look in some cases more reasonable, given the recent run-up in operating performance, which is making yields more attractive. And, you know, should current trends continue, which we feel reasonably confident they will. You know, I think that alone gets us to a point where more deals pencil and we are able to get more active on the acquisitions front. You know, aligned with that somewhat is the fact that we have seen improvement in our share price over the past several months. And, you know, as we think about uses of capital, our underwriting consistently weighs potential acquisitions against purchases of our shares.

And, you know, I think up until recently, the math clearly pointed towards the share of purchases. I'll tell you today, and I said in my prepared remarks, there's still a gap. And, you know, as we think about valuation, especially on days where share price pulls back, you know, I think we still feel that there's meaningful value in upside in our shares, but the gap's shrinking. And, you know, I could see us becoming more active on the acquisitions front end, and really, quite frankly, that market in total becoming more active as we move towards the end of the year, the positive indicators for how 2027 might shape up.

I think that a combination of, you know, the revenue management system and our revenue management teams, you know, have, you know, focused their efforts on maximizing, you know, total rev par through, you know, segmentation, really capitalizing on the pickup in near term demand, where we, you know, had some opportunity last year was where transient was not picking up last minute, the way it had historically. And, you know, we certainly attributed a good part of that to the overall uncertainty, the pullback in government and government adjacent business. And that really created a scenario where we needed to think through other forms of base business.

You know, base business is typically always a good idea, just depends on what rate you're putting it on the books for. And I'd say one of, you know, one of the strategies our teams have taken in markets where we're seeing strength, which is more than not right now, is putting on good group based business. You saw, or I've highlighted in my prepared remarks, we were up to 18% in a quarter, which is very high for us, you know, at really, really strong rates.

Further compressing the hotel, not taking it at rates that would, you know, diminish our overall ADR, you know, penetration from an index perspective and really capitalize on the pickup in that near term transient business. And we're, you know, seeing really good success that way. You know, part of our performance was based on world cup markets, but we saw that phenomenon outside of those markets too. And so we're really encouraged by that. And, and again, one of the things that gives us confidence to increase the back half of the year from a guidance perspective is the consistency, you know, across markets.

And, you know, consistency over time periods where we're seeing, you know, near term transient, you know, picking up in a positive way.

How much upside further upside is there ahead in your view? We're really pleased with the transitions and how quickly the teams have reacted to, you know, integrate them into, you know, the new management organizations, the market clusters that we have in many cases where we transition to managers that we. That have presence, you know, in those markets as well, leveraging that from, you know, an economy, the scale perspective from, you know, a market expertise perspective, both helping to drive the top line and also cost energies from managing multiple assets across the given market. So we're really pleased at how quickly they integrate it into the new management platforms and the near term margin expansion that we've seen.

You know, there was some transition related to moving those contracts to new managers meeting, you know, we had open positions and things of the sort. I think we will end up in a very favorable place from, you know, a margin gain perspective for those assets long term. We anticipated that when we made the transition and we, you know, we really think that between the cost energies and, you know, and the top line benefit that we'll continue to see margin and, you know, EBITDA contribution.

In excess of what we would if we had stayed and not, and not transition. If you think back to my prepared remarks in the quarter, those assets had 300 basis points of margin gain. That was about a 15 basis point impact on same store margin.

You know, hopefully we'll be able to continue to maintain some of that, but there were some transition related impacts that helped drive that. But overall, very, very pleased. And again, how quickly we were able to integrate and start driving the top line, especially puts us in a really good position as we continue to move through the year.

You talked a little bit of Justin about the disconnect still. Are there specific as you look at your portfolio? You know, what are the areas where you would like to have more exposure? If you could, if the markets continue to, you know, move in your favor and you continue to see opportunities and pricing disconnect between buyers and sellers.

What are the, what are the sort of things that we should expect you to allocate capital? Is it more urban markets or is it, you know, like the deals in, you know, sorry, Las Vegas and DC or is it more your traditional suburban market?

I think you'll continue to see us pursue assets that are in a mix of locations. You know, I think thinking about how our portfolio performed over the quarter, we saw strength in both our urban markets and our suburban markets. Recent acquisitions are indicative of the types of hotels and markets that we would love to be in. And they've been a combination of more urban locations and high density suburban markets.

For us, the key is adequate density and demand on both the business and leisure side to enable us to achieve premium rates and drive efficiencies from an operating standpoint. And, you know, the reality is if I look at recent acquisitions like the South Jordan Embassy, which is in a suburban suburb, a suburb of Salt Lake City, we're yielding 11% on that asset. You know, and we've done incredibly well downtown Salt Lake where we're yielding just under 11% on the courtyard and the Hyatt House that we've bought most recently. So I think, you know, you should expect the makeup of our portfolio to be relatively similar to what we have now with continued investments looking much like the types of assets that we've required recently.

I'd say yes to all of that. I think I commented earlier. Our portfolio is intentionally diversified, not only across geographic areas, but but across exposure to different industries. And we've seen strength across a variety of different industries and, you know, business types. I think certainly encouraged with some improvement in consulting type business, which had been really slow to rebound and tech business, which had also been slow to rebound.

But looking outside of that, you know, we've benefited from a broad variety of different sectors. Certainly on the margin, whether directly or indirectly through compression, I believe that we are benefiting from incremental infrastructure spending, but not exclusively that. And, you know, looking across markets that performed really well for us. The drivers of those markets is very diverse.

I mean, that's a good question. They are larger assets and high even up producing assets. We've intentionally timed the renovations to minimize disruption and they will be spread over fourth quarter and first quarter of next year, such that the impact will be felt across. You know, both I think relative to past years, we work to manage renovations in a way that that minimizes overall disruption. And as a result, you don't hear us speak to it regularly.

We don't anticipate disruption to be outsized. I will make one comment, though, you know, the work that we're doing in Seattle Lake Union is different in that. But beyond the renovation disruption, we are rebranding that hotel. And so we do anticipate a ramp period for that hotel, which would be factored into next year's guidance.

You know, I on a cost per occupied room basis related to variable costs. It's very similar across, you know, the guidance range as well as relative to how we performed in the first half of the year. Really, it's a fixed cost phenomenon. You know, we had a favorable real estate tax appeal that hit in the fourth quarter of last year. It was our largest of last year. You know, we have them hit throughout the year, but, but the largest one was in the fourth quarter. So we have that hurdle baked in. And then we also had mentioned at the beginning of the year that we had assumed that we would have an increase beginning in November related to an insurance renewal.

You know, that may prove to be conservative, but, but that's baked in there too. So it's, it's an assumption across the guidance range that fixed costs will be driving the CPR differential and the better that we do on the top line, you know, the easier that that hurdle will be. But overall really pleased with, you know, where we've been trending from a total hotel perspective.

Both from a dollar standpoint and growth, but also on a CPR basis, really proud of the team and how they've been able to manage our variable costs and how, you know, our partners have been able to help us with appeals. We've been successful this year. We had a credit in the second quarter as well that was helpful, but impacted April flow through in a positive way. And, you know, we continue to work and we may see more of that. As we move through the year, but, but you have relative to last year, a little bit of a hurdle in Q four.

Details are still limited at this point. So we do not yet know where Marriott intends to set those thresholds. We have a high quality portfolio of hotels. And I think assuming reasonable thresholds, we would anticipate benefiting from it. I think more importantly, you know, I think what we've seen recently is increased effort on the part of the brands. To work with owners to find ways to drive incremental profitability. And I think Marriott's, you know, move to implement an incentive program designed to drive intended to recommend and to reward owners for investment to that end. And improved the consumer experience at Marriott hotels and, you know, provides owners with a pathway towards incremental profitability, which from our vantage point is a win-win.

I would like to turn the floor back over to Justin Knight for closing remarks. Thank you. I'm going to end today on a bit of a personal note. We recently lost our chief accounting officer, Rachel Lebrach, to cancer. Rachel was one of the most exceptional individuals I've ever known. And her loss has been felt across the entire company. I wanted specifically to express my appreciation to her team, who's really stepped up in amazing ways.

Ways that I'm confident would make Rachel incredibly proud. We are and own amazing real estate. But at the end of the day, it's our people who differentiate us. And Rachel was one of our best. She will be deeply missed.

I also want to thank you for joining us today. We're pleased with our strong results for the quarter and appreciate your continued interest. As always, I hope that as you travel, you'll take the opportunity to stay with us at one of our hotels. And we look forward to meeting with many of you over the coming month.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.