Image source: The Motley Fool.
Braemar Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (BHR -1.43%)
Q2Â 2020 Earnings Call
Jul 31, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Hello and welcome to the Braemar Hotels & Resorts Second Quarter 2020 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Jordan Jennings, Investor Relations for Braemar Hotels & Resorts. Please go ahead.
Jordan Jennings -- Investor Relations
Good morning and welcome to today's call to review results for Braemar Hotels & Resorts for the second quarter of 2020 and to update you on recent developments.
On the call today will be Richard Stockton, President and Chief Executive Officer; Deric Eubanks, Chief Financial Officer; and Jeremy Welter, Chief Operating Officer. The results as well as notice of the accessibility of this conference call on a listen-only basis over the Internet were distributed yesterday in a press release.
At this time, let me remind you that certain statements and assumptions in this conference call contain or are based upon forward-looking information and are being made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the federal securities regulations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, uncertainties and known or unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These factors are more fully discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call and the Company is not obligated to publicly update or revise them. Statements made during this call do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Securities will be offered only by means of a registration statement and prospectus, which can be found at www.sec.gov.
In addition, certain terms used in this call are non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations of which are provided in the Company's earnings release and accompanying tables or schedules, which have been filed on Form 8-K with the SEC on July 30, 2020 and may also be accessed through the Company's website at www.bhrreit.com. Each listener is encouraged to review those reconciliations provided in the earnings release together with all other information provided in the release.
I will now turn the call over to Richard Stockton. Please go ahead, Richard.
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Good morning. Welcome to our second quarter 2020 earnings conference call.
I will begin by providing an overview of our business and an update on our portfolio, including the reopening of almost all of our hotels. After that, Deric will provide a review of our financial results and then Jeremy will provide an update on our asset management activity. Afterward, we will open the call for Q&A.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has created both social and economic disruption on an unprecedented level and has created a volatile landscape throughout the hospitality industry. As I have said previously, this has been an extraordinary period for all of us and our entire leadership team has been steadfast in our commitment to protect all of our stakeholders during this unprecedented time. A few objectives have continued to guide us: the health and well-being of the employees at our hotels, our hotel guests and the communities in which we operate have been a top priority, and we've taken a number of preventative measures to keep them safe.
As stay at home orders were implemented, we quickly adapted to the restrictions and challenges affecting our properties and adjusted the staffing model at our hotels while reducing other operating expenses in an effort to preserve cash and minimize near-term losses. The vast majority of our portfolio had suspended operations for a significant portion of the second quarter.
As we discussed on our last call, we believe that our portfolio is well positioned to benefit as our hotels resumed operations, given that eight of our 13 hotels generate a significant amount of leisure demand. These include the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota; Bardessono; Hotel Yorkville; Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe; Pier House Resort; Park Hyatt Beaver Creek; Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines; and Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas. We are pleased to report that this thesis has played out just as we expected. We are seeing good results across our reopened hotels and it's clear from the feedback we're hearing that guests are excited to be traveling again. It's still early in the reopening process and the impact of the virus is still unpredictable, but we are encouraged so far.
As far as operating results, the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, Pier House Resort and Bardessono all had positive hotel EBITDA for the month of June. The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, despite RevPAR being down over 60% during the quarter, had positive hotel EBITDA for the entire second quarter. This was a fantastic result given the disruption to our business during this quarter and is a testament not only to the team at the hotel but also to the fact that a significant amount of the revenue at that property is recurring membership revenue which is less volatile and more predictable than rooms and F&B revenue. In fact, the property was also able to increase its EBITDA margin by 74 basis points during the second quarter, a truly impressive result.
With nearly all of our hotels reopened to the public, we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our guests and staff, and we are being thoughtful, deliberate and flexible as our hotels resume operations. To ensure our guests' safety, our properties have instituted stringent safety measures and protocols, consistent with the evolving best practice recommendations regarding COVID-19, ranging from enhanced hygiene standards to keyless check-in and electrostatic sprayers to protect guests.
Additionally, in the near term, we have specific plans to contain expenses as the portfolio continues the reopening process. We are offering optional housekeeping service at some properties for stayovers. We are also eliminating van transportation, airport shuttle service, valet parking services, turn-down service and all the amenities that exceed brand standards. We are also suspending some services like concierge lounges, M clubs and all spas and kids clubs. Our asset management efforts have been relentless and have positioned us well for the impending ramp-up in our properties that we now anticipate.
Looking ahead a few months, we continue to be excited about the Courtyard San Francisco Downtown and its upcoming conversion to the Autograph Collection under the name The Clancy. The renovation continued during the second quarter, with the completion of the lobby, meeting space, new cafe, market, facade, and new front entrance. We're currently working on the restaurant and bar and expect to have the renovation completed in September.
Given the current uncertainties, we've also taken proactive and aggressive actions to protect and enhance our corporate liquidity. This included cutting expenses at the corporate level and significantly reducing our planned capex spend for the year. We will continue to preserve cash until we have clarity on the recovery and direction of the economy. All in, we estimate that we have reduced our run rate corporate G&A and reimbursable expenses under our advisory agreement by approximately 25%. We also closed on an amendment to our corporate credit facility. With a paydown of $10 million, the amendment converted the $75 million corporate credit facility into a $65 million term loan with the same maturity date of October 25, 2022.
We've also made significant progress in our discussions with our property level lenders. Deric will discuss this in more detail.
We successfully navigated through a very challenging operating environment during the quarter, and I believe we are set up very well for the ultimate recovery. As I turn the call over to Deric to discuss our financial results, please keep in mind that almost all of our properties were closed during the second quarter. So while this quarter's financial metrics are interesting from a voyeuristic perspective, they provide little useful direction to inform investors on the state or potential of the business.
I will now turn the call over to Deric.
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Richard.
During the second quarter, we recognized $390,000 of BI income for the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, which is reflected in the other hotel revenue line of our income statement. These insurance recoveries related to the month of March through May 2020. As I mentioned last quarter, we expect these insurance recoveries will taper off going forward.
For the second quarter 2020, we reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $46.3 million or $1.41 per diluted share. For the quarter, we reported AFFO per diluted share of negative $0.58. Adjusted EBITDAre for the quarter was negative $18.5 million.
At quarter's end, we had total assets of $1.7 billion. We had $1.1 billion of mortgage loans, of which $49 million related to our joint venture partner's share of the loan on the Capital Hilton and Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. Our total combined loans had a blended average interest rate of 2.6%. Our loans are entirely floating rate and the vast majority have interest rate caps in place. As of the end of the second quarter, we had approximately 53% net debt to gross assets. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $103 million and restricted cash of $41 million. The vast majority of that restricted cash is comprised of lender and manager held reserve accounts. At the end of the quarter, we also had $9 million in due from third-party hotel managers. This represents cash held by one of our property managers, which is also available to fund hotel operating costs.
As Richard mentioned, we have been and continue to work with our property managers and lenders in order to utilize these lender and manage-held reserves to fund operating shortfalls at our hotels. To date, we have signed forbearance agreements on five loans, including the mortgage loans on the Hotel Yountville, Bardessono Hotel, Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Ritz-Carlton Sarasota and Pier House Resort. The agreements typically allow the Company to defer interest on the loans for a period of up to six months subject to certain conditions.
The forbearance agreements also allow us to utilize lender and manager held reserve accounts, which are included in restricted cash on our balance sheet, in order to fund operating shortfalls at the hotels. We have signed an FF&E use agreement on the four-hotel portfolio loan that includes the Sofitel Chicago, Marriott Seattle Waterfront, The Notary Hotel and the Courtyard San Francisco Downtown. This agreement allows us to use the lender and manager-held reserve accounts to fund operating shortfalls.
This agreement also provides for the exercise of the first of its five one-year extensions. We expect to have a forbearance agreement completed very soon on the loan secured by our Capital Hilton and Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines and anticipate keeping all of our loans current in accordance with the forbearance and other agreements we have in place.
In response to this pandemic, we have taken decisive measures to reduce our cash utilization. We have reduced corporate G&A and reimbursable expenses under our advisory agreement by approximately 25% on an annual basis. To further preserve our liquidity, our Board of Directors decided to suspend our common stock dividend, which will save approximately $6 million on a quarterly basis. We estimate that our current monthly cash utilization at our hotels, given their current state of operations, is approximately $5 million per month.
As I mentioned, all of our debt is property level non-recourse debt except for our corporate term loan and the monthly interest is currently approximately $2.5 million per month. Our run rate for corporate G&A and advisory fees is approximately $1.3 million per month. Based on the anticipated reopening dates for the remainder of our portfolio and realistic yet conservative assumptions for future hotel operations, we believe that we have sufficient liquidity.
As of June 30, 2020, our portfolio consisted of 13 hotels with 3,487 net rooms. Our share count currently stands at 38 million fully diluted shares outstanding, which is comprised of 33.5 million shares of common stock and 4.5 million OP units. In our financial results, we also include approximately 6.7 million shares in our fully diluted share count associated with our Series B convertible preferred stock.
This concludes our financial review. I'd now like to turn it over to Jeremy to discuss our asset management activities for the quarter.
Jeremy J. Welter -- Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Deric.
Comparable RevPAR for our portfolio decreased 91.8% during the second quarter. Business in April was driven by COVID-19 responders and healthcare workers, with transient leisure travel especially on weekends returning later in the quarter. There was very little corporate business travel. Generally RevPAR bottomed out by mid-April and experienced steady week-over-week growth over the next few months.
When it became apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to severely impact our hotels' performance, we took swift action to put ourselves in position to weather this crisis. During the second quarter, we significantly reduced operating expenses by 71.8% or $52.1 million relative to the second quarter of 2019. These cuts resulted in hotel EBITDA flow-through of 49% which is a remarkable accomplishment by our asset managers and our property managers working together. We responded quickly and aggressively to reduce costs in response to the unprecedented decline in hotel revenues.
We also temporarily suspended services at 11 hotels. None of those hotels have reopened, for a total of 11 hotels operating for some period of time during the second quarter. We suspended services at these hotels in order to minimize costs where there was little business in the market.
These are unprecedented times. Asset management, property management and the brands are all working together. We want to bring back as many associates as soon as we can once performance justifies bringing them back. Our associates have been stretched to their limits working through a challenging situation. Folks have risen to the occasion. We're proud as a management team to see how everyone has contributed or being asked to do more for less. We're also seeing our property managers emphasize and focus on newly implemented cleanliness and safety standards.
Many of our hotels are in drive-to leisure markets, which we believe will continue to experience a quicker recovery. Since early May, our focus has shifted to ensure we have strategies in place to accommodate pent-up leisure demand. Specifically, I would like to comment on our July 4 results. With 11 of our 13 hotels open and operating for the week, leading up to and including July 4 weekend, we saw a strong performance. These hotels achieved a rate of $337 and occupancy of 41% for the week ending July 4. In most of our markets and sub-markets, we are estimating negligible new supply growth over the next couple of years as well.
I also want to highlight the performance of six of our drive-to leisure hotels. The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota has remained open throughout the pandemic and experienced a steady ramp starting in May when Florida beaches began to reopen. The hotel's beach club revenue increased relative to last year with strong membership club usage and performance, coupled with strong new membership sales. Comparable RevPAR during the second quarter decreased 62.3%. Impressively, hotel EBITDA flow-through was 82% and the EBITDA margin actually increased 4%.
Four of our California markets that are considered drive-to leisure hotels began to perform well once California allowed hotels to reopen for leisure travel on June 12. The Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines reopened on May 29 following its suspension of operations on April 20. The hotel ramped even quicker than expected.
At the Bardessono Hotel and Hotel Yountville, higher weekend occupancies in June led to some near sellouts. The hotels both suspended operations on March 22 and reopened June 8 due to Napa County allowing hotels to reopen June 5. The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe reopened June 19 following the suspension of services on March 21. Upon reopening, business was significantly stronger than originally expected, benefiting from a particularly strong drive-to market. Comparable RevPAR for the Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe for the second quarter decreased 86.9%. However, rate increased $40 or 11.2% and hotel EBITDA flow-through was 94%.
Returning to Florida, the island of Key West allowed hotels to reopen June 1 with an occupancy cap of 50%. 100% of inventory is now available for sale. Since reopening on June 1, the Pier House Resort averaged 54% occupancy in June despite the occupancy cap for the first two weeks of the month. Occupancy averaged 78% for the second half of June. The guestrooms and suite renovation was completed in May.
As we continue to look to our drive-to leisure hotels to outperform in the near term, we remain excited about the future prospects of our portfolio. Construction on the Courtyard San Francisco Downtown for its upcoming conversion to The Clancy and Marriott's Autograph Collection resumed in May. Construction has stopped in March due to the City of San Francisco's coronavirus related measures. The temporary walls have been removed, work on the restaurant and bar remains to be completed, while work on the exterior continues. Construction is scheduled to be completed in September.
I will now turn to capital investment. Last year, we invested heavily in our portfolio to enhance our competitive positioning. These investments include the conversion of the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown to The Notary in Marriott's Autograph Collection; the completion of the three-suite Presidential Villa at the Bardessono Hotel and value-add projects during the rebuild of the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas. These initiatives have allowed us to be more judicious with our spending on capital expenditures during the COVID-19 pandemic. We've completed the guestrooms renovation at the Pier House Resort in Key West and we anticipate the completion of the Courtyard San Francisco Downtown's conversion to The Clancy in Marriott's Autograph Collection. In total, we expect to spend approximately $15 million to $25 million on capital expenditures in 2020.
Before we go to Q&A, I would like to thank our brand partners, Marriott and Hilton and Hyatt for the remarkable efforts on our behalf and their continued partnership with us during these unprecedented times.
Now I'll turn the call back over to Richard for final remarks.
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Thank you, Jeremy.
In summary, our focus during the quarter was on quickly adapting to the unprecedented disruptions and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and wide-ranging public health efforts to control it. We have taken decisive actions to navigate the near-term challenges of this crisis. And while we cannot predict the trajectory of the pandemic, we are encouraged as we look ahead. I'm proud of our efforts to protect our assets and maintain financial flexibility to position us for future success. We look forward to updating you on our progress as we move through the balance of this year.
This concludes our prepared remarks and we will now open the call for Q&A.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is coming from Bryan Maher from B. Riley FBR. Your line is now live.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Good morning, everyone. A couple of questions, and I apologize if I missed it. I'm guessing that the Courtyard San Francisco is going to open when the construction is completed in September. Is that correct?
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
That's correct.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
And then the Capital Hilton. What were the thoughts there on getting that reopened?
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
We're going to try to have that opened by the end of August.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Okay. And then -- and maybe this is a question for Deric. You ran through the numbers, I guess on the monthly burn rate that were pretty helpful. But to just kind of clarify. It's roughly $5 million for the hotels, $2.5 million on interest expense. Was that all interest expense or was that just one component of it?
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, no, that includes all interest expense. Even though we do have some forbearance agreements in place where you're not currently paying interest, but it is assumed that we were paying the full loan.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
And what happens -- when is the interest that's being forborne, when is that paid back? At the end of the loan? At some point over the next year or two? How is that handled?
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, it really differs by agreement. But on the -- on the five that I mentioned that we have signed, that would be paid at the final maturity.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Okay. And then the last component was, I think you said $1.3 million of G&A-ish type expenses. So they get to about an $8.8 million a month burn rate is. Would that be roughly accurate?
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, that's right. And let me just clarify on the G&A. But that includes both our corporate G&A and the reimbursable expenses under our advisory agreement. You really have to kind of look at those together.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then can you talk briefly about -- you talked about 25% SG&A cost savings. How sustainable is that? I mean, as you look out six, 12, 18 months from now, clearly, there are some things you're probably putting in place that might carry over. How should we think about that down the road a little bit?
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think that's a sustainable run rate. I think if you look at our second quarter numbers, it won't fully reflect those cuts. There were some things in the second quarter that, just from a seasonal -- seasonality standpoint, we won't have going forward. But when you look at it on an ongoing annual run rate and excluding one-time items that we add back and when you combine G&A with the reimbursable expenses, we feel very comfortable with that run rate going forward.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Great. And then just last from me. On the Ritz-Carlton St. John, can you give us an update on what's going on there as it relates to customers actually getting to that property from an airlift standpoint?
Jeremy J. Welter -- Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. I'll take this and then Rich will jump in. So the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, it's phenomenal after we basically rebuilt hotel and it's just -- it's fantastic. And there's just a lot of pent-up demand for folks to get out and travel. There is a requirement coming from states that have a threshold of 10% positivity rate that you actually have to receive a negative COVID test before you travel to the -- to the US Virgin Islands. But that hasn't really hurt demand so much because what we're seeing is, is that a lot of folks that otherwise would want to go to a Ritz Carlton in locations that are other islands, other countries in the Caribbean or in places like Bali or wherever, they want to get out. And including Hawaii as well. They want to get out and travel.
And so what we're getting is -- we're getting a lot of first-time guests to our hotel, which I think is a great opportunity for us because a lot of folks who never really considered the US Virgin Islands are staying in the US Virgin Islands. And so our -- our goal is to recapture that business going forward as well. So it's just a change in mix of demand what we're getting, but given the fact that it's not a drive-to-market, we're seeing some pretty good numbers coming out of that hotel much more so than we would have ever anticipated if you asked us four weeks ago, six weeks ago or eight weeks ago. It's just been very positive.
Rich, you want to...
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Yeah. I'm going to be a little bit more specific with the numbers, because I think it's -- we're seeing that -- to give you a sense of how surprised we are, I mean, we're running at over 70% occupancy at the hotel at a rate that is exceeding our pre-Irma levels. So one of the things that the government of St. Thomas is doing is requiring testing for people entering the country and we were concerned that that would dissuade people from traveling. I think it's as much of an attractor in that people know if they go to St. Thomas they're relatively safe from contracting the virus. So it's just -- it's just going great. It's been a fantastic investment, and we're very happy with it.
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Great. Thanks. That's all for me.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our next question today is coming from Tyler Batory from Janney Capital Markets. Your line is now live.
Tyler Batory -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. A couple of questions for me. And the first one is just a follow-up on Bryan's question about the cash burn. And I just want to be very clear on this. I think last quarter you were talking about $14 million of cash burn per month. Now you're $5 million. So can you please elaborate on the delta between those two numbers?
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
I can, yeah. I think it's apples and oranges. The $14.3 million was the all-in number and $5 million is just the hotel level burn. So you want to compare the $14.3 million to the $8.8 million. the $8.8 million is the total number including G&A. And as Deric mentioned, that includes the interest expense. That's kind of the accounting interest expense, but some of that has been deferred due to the forbearance agreements, let's say, about half of it is deferred.
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. And the other factor there, Tyler, is last quarter, we had the vast majority of our portfolio closed. And so if you just look at the operating [Indecipherable] at the property level, obviously now open and -- the vast majority of the portfolio open and operating and generating revenues. That's what's brought the number down.
Tyler Batory -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst
Okay. Perfect. That's clear. Appreciate that. And, look, I know you guys can't give guidance here, but there are a lot of investors trying to sort through what's going on in July here. So any comments you can make on industry trends in July? And then, also wondering if you can discuss the [Indecipherable] specifically its performance thus far and any thoughts on what that [Indecipherable] the industry may look like in the next couple of months here.
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Sure. One thing that we've seen, Tyler, is that in the recovery and the ramp-up, it's not necessarily ramping up differently according to chain scale segment, but whether or not you're urban or you're resort. And there is a lot of enthusiasm about drive-to leisure demand, but as we've seen with the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, fly to leisure demand is equally strong. So it's really -- that's the tale of two cities, is it resort or urban.
And the resort -- our resort properties are -- we were opening many of them in June and now they've been fully opened for July. I'll give you a little insight. You were averaging at least 50% occupancy at those properties with an ADR that is approximately flat to 2019. But if you look at the urban properties, they're not performing very well at all. In fact, we have two and them that are closed, right. So the -- and the ones that are open were doing something like 10% occupancy at a rate that's 25% down. So, luckily for us, our portfolio is majority resort. And so we have eight properties out of 13 that are resort and we're really benefiting from that, and I think we'll continue to benefit from that as we go into the fourth quarter.
The forward bookings look relatively healthy, and it's really because they're being propped up by the continued resort demand and advanced bookings. So, as far as corporate transient is concerned and group business, I think we're really waiting on further medical advancements to give people confidence to make that sort of travel be a contributor, and my concern is that probably will continue to be weak in the fourth quarter. But hopefully, by the first quarter of next year, assuming there is a vaccine, that will begin to recover as well. And I think when it does recover, it will cover pretty quickly.
Jeremy J. Welter -- Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. But one of the things I want to add is that when you look at some of our resort locations like Bardessono or Yountville or Pier House, they're pretty efficient boxes. I mean, there's just not a lot of overhead or labor and they get -- generate pretty attractive ADRs. And so they can -- they can cash flow positively at a much lower occupancy level than a lot of other traditional resorts that you would think through. So, we've got that going for us.
And then as well as, there is one anomaly that I want to point out in urban location is that in Sofitel, we've actually had some demand for stationers, folks that are from the suburbs or from other parts of Illinois or Northern Wisconsin that are coming in and staying in Chicago for the -- for the week or weekend. And so that's been a little bit of a positive sign that we've seen as well.
Tyler Batory -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst
Okay. I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Well, thank you, everybody, for joining the call for our second quarter earnings and we look forward to speaking with you again on our next call.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 32 minutes
Call participants:
Jordan Jennings -- Investor Relations
Richard J. Stockton -- Chief Executive Officer and President
Deric S. Eubanks -- Chief Financial Officer
Jeremy J. Welter -- Chief Operating Officer
Bryan Maher -- B. Riley FBR -- Analyst
Tyler Batory -- Janney Montgomery Scott -- Analyst
