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Sunstone Hotel (SHO) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript

Sunstone Hotel (SHO) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript

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Management emphasized a multi-pronged capital allocation strategy, noting ongoing efforts to recycle assets, invest in property upgrades, and return capital to shareholders. The company highlighted increased transactional activity in the hotel real estate market, suggesting potential for future dispositions but maintained strict discipline on capital redeployment based on market conditions. Board and management indicated openness to alternative strategies that could maximize shareholder value, including continued buybacks, asset sales, or acquisitions consistent with historical practice. The company reported $200 million in cash and over $700 million total liquidity, providing flexibility to execute capital strategies and manage near-term obligations. Early 2026 operating trends at recently renovated properties, including Andaz Miami Beach and Wailea Beach Resort, signaled momentum for above-average portfolio performance, although management tempered expectations with caution stemming from recent years’ unpredictable market conditions.

Bryan Giglia: Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. Despite the various headwinds that impacted our industry in 2025, our portfolio finished the year on a high note with fourth quarter operating results that exceeded our expectations, driven by broad-based strength across the portfolio. The fourth quarter capped off a productive year at Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc., where we made further progress on our three strategic objectives, which include recycling capital, investing in our portfolio, and returning capital to our shareholders.

Earlier in the year, we completed the sale of the Hilton New Orleans at a mid-6% cap rate inclusive of required near-term capital, and fully recycled the proceeds into the repurchase of our stock at a compelling discount and a higher implied yield. In addition, we completed several capital projects, including the debut of the Andaz Miami Beach, which, despite its later opening, had a solid festive period and good momentum heading into this year. Lastly, we returned more than $170 million of capital to our shareholders through a well-covered dividend and accretive share repurchases. These strategic accomplishments will drive growth in per-share earnings and NAV in the years to come.

We will share additional details on our outlook and our expectations for 2026 shortly, but I will start with a quick recap on the fourth quarter results. As I noted at the top of the call, our results came in better than expected with total RevPAR growth of 7.4% in the quarter, or 12.5% including the contribution from Andaz. Our resorts led the portfolio, driven by solid performance at the Wailea Beach Resort. As we shared with you on our recent calls, our results in Maui were hampered through much of last year as market demand normalized.

We were pleased to see the green shoots we witnessed at the resort in the fall continue into year-end, leading to 19% RevPAR growth in the quarter. On the opposite side of the country, Andaz Miami Beach delivered year-end results that were ahead of expectations, and the outperformance has carried into the early parts of this year, positioning the resort well to deliver on our expectations for 2026. We are pleased with the demand our renovated resort is attracting, including high-profile business around some key events in the market that should help the resort further build awareness.

Performance at our wine country resorts was also stronger than expected, with Montage Healdsburg capping off a better year with 15% total RevPAR growth in the quarter and just over 9% for the year. Overall, our resorts were our strongest performing segment in Q4, and we expect that to continue into 2026, but now with the added benefit of a full-year contribution from Andaz Miami Beach. At our urban hotels, we were pleased with our quarterly performance at Marriott Long Beach Downtown, which continued to benefit from its brand conversion in 2024 and generated total RevPAR growth of 12%. Similarly, the Portland market continues to recover, with The Bidwell Marriott turning in nearly 13% growth.

This strength was partially offset by a softer market and tougher comps in Boston and New Orleans. While top-line growth was less robust at our urban hotels, we continue to work with our operators to control costs and manage to grow margins during the quarter. Our convention hotels turned in better than expected performance with RevPAR growth of 2.8%, even with some headwinds from the meeting space renovations that we had underway in San Antonio and San Diego. Excluding these two hotels, our convention hotel RevPAR growth was 5.3% during the quarter.

San Francisco was once again a standout performer, which added to solid top-line results in the first months of the year to generate more than 12% total RevPAR growth for the year. We continue to be encouraged by how the market and our hotel are setting up for additional growth this year, with group pace up in the low-double-digit range and a strong start with good group activity in January and the Super Bowl in February. The Renaissance Orlando SeaWorld also had a solid quarter with total RevPAR growth of more than 10% on a better mix of business.

Group revenue production for the current and future periods in Orlando increased over 10% last year, and the hotel is pacing for better performance in 2026. Operating results in San Antonio were softer in 2025 on a lighter group event calendar and some displacement from our completed meeting space renovation, but 2026 should benefit from increased production and the renovation. As we shared with you on prior calls, performance last year in Washington, DC was less robust than initially anticipated and was impacted by government spending cuts, changes in policies, and the government shutdown. Similarly, our results in San Diego were hampered by softer transient demand and a less constructive backdrop for international travel.