Inspirato - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 was the most profitable quarter since going public, with Adjusted EBITDA of $5.60M (8.5% margin) on revenue of $65.9M; gross margin reached 39% as portfolio optimization and cost discipline offset planned subscription declines.
• Year-over-year revenue fell 17.9% and subscription revenue declined 25.6% due to the intentional shift away from Pass, but ADR rose 16% to $1,915 and occupancy held at 73%, underpinning margin improvement.
• Management reiterated FY25 guidance: revenue $235–$255M, Adjusted EBITDA $0–$5M, and cash OpEx $80–$90M, targeting ~300 bps gross margin expansion; guidance was maintained vs. February levels.
• Stock reaction catalysts: sustained margin expansion, cost optimization, and CEO-led transformation into a property technology platform; watch for Pass product enhancements and tech rollout in 2025 that could reaccelerate member growth and revenue mix.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Record Adjusted EBITDA ($5.60M) and margin (8.5%) despite lower revenue, driven by cost of revenue optimization and lower operating expenses.
• ADR increased 16% to $1,915 with strong occupancy (73%), supporting gross margin improvement to 39%.
• CEO emphasized a disciplined transformation and brand elevation: “We are transforming Inspirato into a leading property technology company in the luxury travel space… building a world-class platform”.

What Went Wrong

• Revenue declined 17.9% YoY to $65.9M; subscription revenue fell 25.6% YoY as Pass volume was intentionally reduced, creating near-term topline headwinds.
• Free cash flow was negative ($7.54M), including ~$2.6M one-time cash outflows tied to underperforming lease terminations; underlying burn was ~($4.5M).
• Active memberships decreased vs. prior year (11,600 vs. 13,000), with Club at 10,200 and Pass at 1,300; management expects stabilization in 2H25 into 2026.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Welcome to Inspirato's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow management's prepared remarks. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Bita Milanian, Senior Vice President of Marketing. Bita, you may begin.

Bita Milanian (SVP of Marketing)

Thank you, Operator, and hello everyone. Welcome to Inspirato's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Bita Milanian, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Inspirato. Joining me today are Payam Zamani, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Arthur, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note that today's call is being webcast live and will also be archived on the Investor Relations section of our website at inspirato.com. You can also find our earnings press release and the supplemental materials currently available there for your reference. As a reminder, some of today's comments are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions, and actual results could differ materially. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent first quarter report on Form 10-Q.

In addition, during the call, management will discuss non-GAAP measures, which are useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Inspirato's Chairman and CEO, Payam Zamani. Payam?

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Bita, and hello everyone. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our financial and operational results for the first quarter. I encourage all listeners to review the press release, which has been posted to our Investor Relations website, as it contains information relevant to today's call. Before I give a recap of the quarter, I would like to briefly introduce Inspirato to those who may be new to our story. Inspirato is a premier luxury vacation club and property technology company, offering access to a curated portfolio of high-end homes, hotels, and exclusive experiences around the world. With over 340 luxury homes and many high-end hotel partnerships in over 170 destinations, our mission is to deliver unmatched service, seamless travel planning, and one-of-a-kind luxury travel that creates lasting memories. We serve over 11,000 members in delivering that mission every day.

Today, we're doing that while continuing to transform the business by fine-tuning our cost base and investing in a robust digital marketing and technology platform to build a more scalable, durable, and efficient growth model for the future. Now, let's get into the updates. Q1 was a foundational quarter for Inspirato, one that reflects the impact of our ongoing strategic focus and positions us for profitable growth as a leader in luxury travel. This is an exciting moment for Inspirato. In my view, the first quarter marks the most important period for our business since becoming a public company. While the numbers matter, it is the transformation behind those numbers that will truly set the stage for what's ahead. In Q1, we delivered the strongest adjusted EBITDA performance in our history, which we believe signals that our strategic shift toward operational discipline is working.

We've laid the groundwork for sustainable profitability by focusing on what we can control, while also strategically investing in the key areas that will define our future growth. This isn't about short-term wins. It's about building a smarter, more focused, and more powerful Inspirato, one that's ready to scale with efficiency, served with unmatched quality, and over the years to come, expanding to a much larger opportunity. On our last call, I discussed several key pillars that will provide the foundation for our future business and why I believe they position us to define and lead the future of luxury travel and experiences. As a reminder, these pillars are: 1, operational efficiency; 2, brand elevation; 3, member experience; and four, a robust technology and digital marketing platform. First, we're focused on driving operational efficiency to strengthen our financial infrastructure and drive operating leverage as we grow.

The most immediate proof point has been in our bottom line. Delivering record-adjusted EBITDA in Q1 provides a good early indication that the steps we've taken to streamline operations, reduce fixed commitments, and improve cost discipline are working. We've done all that while we have also invested in elevating the quality of our services for our travelers. We're far from done. We see a clear path to drive gross margin expansion, particularly by optimizing our non-lease cost of revenue expense line items. This is where discipline meets opportunity, and we're approaching it with a long-term mindset. Every process, every cost center, every touchpoint is under review to make sure it supports our long-term goals and contributes the value we deliver our travelers. Operational excellence is not a one-time project. It's a core competency we're building into the DNA of the company.

Second, we're evolving Inspirato into a truly aspirational luxury brand, one that not only delivers exceptional experiences but inspires a level of desire, loyalty, and pride. In Q1, we laid the groundwork for a more elevated brand ethos, one rooted in luxury consistency and frequency of presence. We're reintroducing ourselves to the world with more dynamic and consistent marketing campaigns that tell the Inspirato story with clarity and confidence. It's not just about being known. It's about being synonymous with luxury travel and experiences, the kind of brand that turns heads, builds trust, and stays top of mind when travelers are ready to explore. Third, we're doubling down on member experience. We're focused on elevating our service and experiences to be more consistent, curated, and unique, all through the lens of providing truly one-of-a-kind luxury experiences.

Everything we do starts with our members, how we surprise and delight, how we earn loyalty, and how we become indispensable to the most important moments. We're working to ensure every interaction feels intentional, elevated, and deeply personal, from pre-trip planning to a dedicated care team who understands each family's unique preferences and up to the moment that a member walks into one of our homes. We're building on an industry leading net promoter score of over 70 in 2024, a testament to the trust and satisfaction we've already earned. We're not stopping there. We've launched new initiatives to standardize service quality across all member touchpoints, including enhanced concierge training and a fresh set of service standards rolling out later this year.

We're also curating our property and experiences portfolio with more rigor, ensuring that every home destination offering meets the elevated standards of quality, style, and ambiance our members expect. At the same time, we're enhancing the unique value proposition of being a member, not just through aspirational travel, but with exclusive perks and benefits that deepen loyalty and reward long-term engagement with our brand. For instance, a recent partnership with Sixt Car Rental Company provides members with more than just premium car rentals. It offers elevated membership status while receiving preferred pricing, ensuring seamless luxury from arrival to departure. Additionally, we've renewed strategic partnerships with renowned hotels like Andaz and Fairmont, granting our members exclusive access to select accommodations at these esteemed resorts.

While we do not expect these partnerships to have a material impact on revenue or profitability in the near term, these collaborations underscore our commitment to delivering unparalleled service and exclusive benefits that resonate with our members and their discerning taste. Lastly, we're building a robust technology and digital marketing platform that will unlock massive new potential for Inspirato. We started in Q1 with foundational tech investments, and before the end of the year, we'll begin to roll out what will ultimately become a world-class platform, one that allows us to reach, target, and convert high-value travelers at scale. This is where my background and passion comes into play. Over the course of my career, I've built multiple marketplaces that connect people through trust, value, and technology, all at the intersection of brand building, digital performance-based marketing, and platform design.

I've seen firsthand how powerful a well-crafted digital engine can be when it connects supply and demand at scale, and it's fueled by a compelling brand. By combining the strength of our luxury brand with a data-driven digital platform, we're not just going to market more efficiently. We're going to expand our total addressable market, reaching qualified audiences that previously hadn't encountered Inspirato. This isn't just a growth tactic. It's a top-line energizer and a profitability driver that positions us to scale intelligently and sustainably for years to come. In closing, Q1 marks the beginning of the next chapter for Inspirato. We're not just improving. We're transforming. The discipline is in place. Our vision is clear, and the energy across the team is evident.

We're building a platform that is efficient at its core, aspirational in its brand, elevated in its service, and engineered to scale through digital reach and innovation. I want to thank our team for their relentless focus and our members for their trust and loyalty. I believe we're at the start of something extraordinary, and I can't wait to share more progress with you in the quarters ahead. With that, I'll turn it over to Michael to discuss our financial performance and outlook for the remainder of the year. Michael.

Michael Arthur (CFO)

Thank you, Payam. As Payam outlined, Q1 was a strong validation of the operational improvements we made and the strategic focus we've displayed over the past several quarters. We've delivered record-quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $5.6 million, a significant milestone that reflects our commitment to driving operational efficiency and cost disciplines across the business. This performance is particularly encouraging given the expected near-term soft revenue, and it demonstrates the strength of the changes we've made to build a more resilient, scalable model. EBITDA improvement was driven by continued optimization of cost of revenue and operating expenses. Cost of revenue declined by $8 million year over year, largely due to our ongoing portfolio optimization efforts and reduction in controlled accommodations. Operating expenses were also meaningfully lower, down approximately $8 million, benefiting from reduced overhead and continued focus on streamlining operations across the organization.

Total revenue for the quarter was approximately $66 million, down 18% year over year. Subscription revenue was $21 million, down 26%, primarily due to the expected and planned decline of Pass subscriptions. At the end of Q1, we had over 11,000 members with approximately 10,200 active Club members and 1,300 active Pass members, consistent with the strategic shift we outlined last year. While pass remains an important part of our offering, we intentionally shifted our emphasis towards club growth and overall profitability. With Pass now representing approximately 10-15% of our total membership base, we believe we've reached a healthier long-term mix. We do expect revenue headwinds to persist throughout the remainder of the year as we continue to compare results to prior year periods of higher pass volume. That said, we're excited about the future of pass.

In the coming months, we'll be announcing enhancements to the product that we believe will make it more compelling for our members and better align with our long-term financial objectives. Travel revenue came in at $42 million, down 16%, reflecting a lower member count year over year, as well as a $2 million timing impact related to curated experiences, which are occurring in Q2 this year compared to Q1 in the prior year. In our controlled residence accommodations, we maintained a strong occupancy rate of 74% while increasing ADR by 8% in the quarter to over $2,100, supporting the gross margin and profitability goals we set for the year. Q1 free cash flow was negative $8 million, including approximately $2.6 million of one-time cash outflows related to underperforming lease terminations. Excluding these non-recurring items, the underlying free cash flow burn was approximately $4.5 million.

Importantly, Q1 was not an isolated result. Over the last two quarters, we have generated nearly $8 million of adjusted EBITDA, reflecting sustained improvement and real momentum as we continue to strengthen the foundation of the business. Additionally, adjusted free cash flow, excluding the one-time lease-related items, totaled more than $8 million over the same period. As we emphasize, our near-term focus remains on driving operating leverage, improving gross margin, and reducing variability in our cost base. These efforts show clear results. Moving to our outlook, we are reiterating our full year 2025 guidance, which reflects continued progress we are making across the business. We expect adjusted EBITDA between break-even and $5 million, marking a significant improvement from 2024, along with full year revenue between $235 million-$255 million.

We also expect operating expenses of between $80 million and $90 million, reflecting a 15% year-over-year reduction as we continue to streamline the business and focus on efficiency. Overall, the strategic decisions made over the past year are clearly translating to stronger financial results. We're operating with greater discipline across the organization, focusing on our strategy and continuously improving how we serve our members. Constraints have fueled creativity, and we're executing with greater efficiency and impact. Looking ahead, our priorities for 2025 are clear: continue balancing investment for future profitable growth with operational efficiencies, elevating the Inspirato brand, and enhancing the experience for our members. We are encouraged by the momentum we have built and confident in the trajectory we are setting for sustainable profitable growth in the years ahead. I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Certainly, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Mike Grundahl with Northland Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Hey, this is Logan on for Mike. Thanks for taking our question. First, can you guys give us an update of what's being done on the marketing side to drive and retain members? Thank you.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Hi, Mike. This is Payam and I'll take this. Michael, please feel free to add. The way that we go about selling and adding to our member base is through our sales force. We have a sales force that we've been growing since the beginning of the year. The sales force basically reaches out to a target audience that we have built and curated over many years. They rely less on, in a sense, direct marketing and rather on direct connections with people or within that database. Having said that, as I have mentioned, we are building a robust technology platform that we think that once it's operational, it will scale our access to luxury travelers out there. As that happens, we do think that there will be a lot more incoming interest from those who would be interested in our offering.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Got it. Thank you. Right now, active Club memberships are down to 10.2 thousand from 10.9 thousand year over year. When and where do you see club memberships bottoming out? Thank you.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Okay. Michael, do you want to take that?

Michael Arthur (CFO)

Yeah. Thanks for the question. Look, Q1, I think we, as we I think mentioned back in the prior earnings call, we suspect that we'll continue to experience headwinds on member count through the first half of this year and expect a stabilization second half and going into 2026. Q1 of 2025 was a deceleration quarter over quarter relative to all of last year. We are seeing continued improvement in our member count from a quarter over quarter perspective in terms of growth or decrease. As I mentioned, I think as we approach into second half of 2025 and going into 2026, we expect a more stabilized member base that we will certainly be growing off of. As we mentioned, some of this is controlled, and we're being more measured about marketing spend and acquisition growth.

It's not just about growing members in absolute, but acquiring and engaging with the right members, ones that align with the brand and engage with us in a healthy manner.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Perfect. One more. In terms of cutting expenses, what inning is Inspirato in? Is there much left to do there? Just any color there would be great.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Yeah. Mike, can you please repeat that question?

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

In terms of cutting expenses, what inning is Inspirato in? Is there much left to do there with expenses?

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Got it. I use a bad example usually when I refer to this, but I say that when I arrived at Inspirato, cutting expenses was basically easy because it was a blunt instrument. There were significant areas that we could do, take immediate measures, and reduce expenses. Now it is a lot more about that visceral fact that we're dealing with. We are dealing with fine-tuning and at the same time, in many cases, improving the quality of the service as we are doing that. If you think about every touchpoint that we have, every property that we have, whether it is a property that we lease and it is, as a result, at risk, or it's a property that we have a relationship with and we do rev share. In all of those cases, there's a cost element and there's a margin element.

Both of those elements, which if you look at the cost element, there are many cost elements. If it is an at-risk property, you have got landscaping, you have got pool cleaning, you have got housekeeping, you have got laundry. Every one of those items are an opportunity for operational efficiency that we are seeking and we are after. On the revenue side of it, the margins that we have that are experienced as a result of the in-place relationships and contracts, they can also be negotiated to improve. As a result, that gap in between that represents our margin continues to widen. We are very focused on that. We actually recently just brought on board someone as our Chief Transformation Officer who will be very focused on ensuring that we are becoming highly efficient.

In fact, I would like to see that by the time we get together at the end of January, I would like to declare victory that operational efficiency is a core competency, is a differentiator in this company. I know we can get there. We've made massive progress, but there are really significant opportunities ahead of us as we continue this work.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Great.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

I hope that answers your question, Mike.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Yeah. Yeah. That helps a lot.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Okay.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

One last one from us. What are some of your goals or major milestones you're targeting for 2025?

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Great question. Of course, as someone who arrived here less than a year ago, the thing I'm very focused on is to make sure that as a company, we achieve sustained profitability. That is really key. As a company, I want to make sure that we're in charge of our own destiny for the long term. The second thing is, as I mentioned, I want to see operational efficiency as a core competency and as a differentiator in this company.

I would say that when I think about the long-term DNA of this company and the growth potential of this company, I think it is strategically imperative for us to build and launch and scale basically a digital marketing platform that transforms this company to a truly prop tech company with basically 21st-century levers for growth that I think that a company that solely relies on members as a way of growing potentially will not have access to. I'm really excited about that, and that's something that we're working on, and I hope we'll get to launch at least the initial phase of it before the end of the year.

Logan Hennen (Analyst)

Got it. Thank you, guys. Congrats on the quarter.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Mike. Really appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Zamani for his closing remarks.

Payam Zamani (Chairman and CEO)

All right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate everyone who has joined us today. I would like to thank all of our employees. They are really the foundation of this business, and they're the ones who have allowed us to transform this business. There's a lot more work ahead of us, but they've done an amazing job getting us to where we are now. Of course, I'd like to thank our partners and our shareholders, our members for all their support. Thank you so much, and looking forward to continuing this conversation as we close Q2.

Operator (participant)

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.