Playa Hotels & Resorts - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 results exceeded internal guidance: Adjusted EBITDA was $55.8M vs prior guidance of $48–$53M, with tailwinds from MXN FX, $1.1M business interruption proceeds, and lower corporate expense; underlying owned resort EBITDA was still down y/y due to Pacific renovations, Jamaica travel advisory, and lingering Beryl effects.
• Mix by segment was bifurcated: Yucatán and Dominican Republic delivered resilient margin and profit performance, while Jamaica and the Pacific Coast remained pressured (renovation/ADR cuts in Jamaica), though trends improved sequentially vs Q3.
• Non-GAAP adjustments mattered: BI insurance added ~50 bps to Q4 resort margins and FX added ~200 bps; excluding FX/BI, resort and adjusted EBITDA margins were ~250 bps lower y/y on the quarter.
• Strategic and capital updates: Playa completed/advanced portfolio actions (Jewel Paradise Cove sale; major Pacific renovation progressing) and announced a $13.50 per-share cash tender offer by Hyatt, which now dominates the stock’s catalyst path.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Yucatán and DR execution: “Our teams in the Yucatan Peninsula and Dominican Republic continued to execute at a high level,” with Q4 DR comparable EBITDA up ~9–9.5% and Yucatán margins supported by cost efficiencies and FX tailwinds.
  • Cost control and lower corporate expense: Corporate expense was $13.9M, below the $15–$16M guidance, aiding the beat versus Q4 outlook.
  • Clear FX/insurance tailwinds in Q4: MXN depreciation added ~200 bps to owned resort margin and ~$4.3M to Adjusted EBITDA; BI proceeds added ~$1.1M and ~50 bps to margins.

• What Went Wrong

  • Renovation disruption in Pacific Coast: Occupancy down 12.1 pts; Owned Resort EBITDA down 36.5% with margin -740 bps, reflecting peak guest-impacting work (now easing).
  • Jamaica weakness persisted: Travel advisory forced ADR cuts; Q4 Owned Resort EBITDA -50.7% and margin -1,380 bps y/y; sequential improvement vs Q3 but still a major drag.
  • Underlying profitability softer ex tailwinds: Excluding FX and BI, Q4 resort and adjusted EBITDA margins were ~250 bps lower y/y; underlying owned resort EBITDA was down ~15% for the total portfolio in Q4 per management.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day and welcome to the Playa Hotels & Resorts Fourth Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. Please note this call is also being recorded. I would now like to hand the call to Ryan Hymel. Please go ahead.

Ryan Hymel (EVP and CFO)

Thank you very much, Andrea. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Playa Hotels & Resorts Fourth Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Given the potential transaction with Hyatt, today's call will focus on the Fourth Quarter 2024 results and will not include a Q&A session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind participants that many of our comments today will be considered forward-looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from what has been communicated. Forward-looking statements made today are effective only as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements. For discussion of some of the factors that would cause our actual results to differ, please review the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K, which we filed last night with the SEC.

We've updated our investor relations website at investors.playaresorts.com with the company's recent releases. In addition, reconciliations to GAAP of the non-GAAP financial measures we discussed on this call were included in yesterday's press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce Wardinski.

Bruce Wardinski (CEO)

Great. Thanks, Ryan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As you may have seen, we announced on February 10, 2025, that we entered into an agreement with Hyatt Hotels Corporation, pursuant to which a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyatt will acquire all outstanding shares of Playa for $13.50 per share in cash. We will not be commenting on the potential transaction aside from what was already disclosed in press releases and regulatory documents, including the SEC filing we made this week, which our board recommended in favor of the tender offer, other than to reiterate that we believe the transaction is an outstanding result for shareholders that recognizes the value creation efforts of all Playa associates over the years as we change the all-inclusive landscape.

Turning to the fourth quarter, our results exceeded our expectations, driven by strong demand across all segments, and finished with a phenomenal holiday season as demand fully normalized post-Hurricane Beryl. Playa's owned resort EBITDA of $67.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 included a benefit from business interruption insurance proceeds of approximately $1.1 million compared to $900,000 in Q4 2023. Excluding business interruption insurance, the upside compared to the expectations shared on our last earnings call was driven by better-than-expected close-in demand across the portfolio and better-than-expected ADR growth in the Pacific Coast, Yucatan, and Dominican Republic, $1.1 million lower corporate expense, and a higher-than-anticipated foreign currency exchange tailwind of approximately $2 million. For Q4 2024, we estimate that FX was a 200 basis points tailwind for our reported owned resort EBITDA margin.

Business interruption proceeds received in Q4 2024 favorably impacted resort margins by approximately 50 basis points but was a 10 basis points net tailwind on a year-over-year basis, as the amount of business interruption proceeds received was only slightly higher in 2024. Adjusting for all of these factors, underlying owned resort EBITDA growth was down approximately 15% in the fourth quarter for the total portfolio and down approximately 17.5% for the legacy portfolio, both improving sequentially as the bulk of the disruption from Hurricane Beryl was for stays in the third quarter of 2024. The fourth quarter was still challenged by the construction disruption in the Pacific Coast, the U.S. Department of State travel advisory on our Jamaican segment, and the lingering impact of Hurricane Beryl. At the segment level, our teams in the Yucatan did an excellent job on the cost front despite the challenges presented by Hurricane Beryl.

Occupancy declined 70 basis points year-over-year in the fourth quarter, driving currency-neutral margins to decline by approximately 210 basis points year-over-year and underlying EBITDA growth of approximately -4%. The modest currency-neutral EBITDA decline on flat year-over-year RevPAR reflects our ongoing efficiency efforts, which really began gaining traction in the second half of 2023. In the Pacific, our planned renovation work in this segment continued during the fourth quarter, with the peak of the guest impacting construction work taking place during Q3. The year-over-year occupancy decline improved sequentially. The renovation work has remained on track and is expected to be completed in Q1 2025. Turning to the DR, we completed the sale of the Jewel Punta Cana Resort in late December of 2023, and the Jewel Palm Beach Resort was closed for a significant portion of Q1 2023 and sold in the third quarter of 2024.

The remaining core resorts in this segment continued to perform well on an underlying basis, with both occupancy and ADR increasing year-over-year in the fourth quarter and driving approximately positive 9% underlying profit growth after adjusting for business interruption proceeds in both periods. Finally, Jamaica's fourth quarter was largely as expected, with the approximately 16% RevPAR decline improving compared to the negative 30% decline in the third quarter, but resulting in a material 50% decline in resort EBITDA. As we outlined on our last earnings call, the segment was starting to regain its footing, especially for the fourth quarter, but the recovery was significantly disrupted by Hurricane Beryl in late June. Subsequent to the fourth quarter, we recently closed on the sale of the Jewel Paradise Cove Resort on February 20, 2025, for a gross consideration of $28.5 million.

Fiscal year 2024 adjusted EBITDA, $258 million, was in line with the forecast shared with you at the beginning of the year, but the path was quite choppy. Compared to the guidance to start the year, we received $3.2 million of business interruption proceeds. FX was a $9 million-$10 million lower expected tailwind. Construction disruption in the Pacific Coast was approximately $10 million, worse than expected. Hurricane Beryl had a significant impact on the second half of the year, and the travel warning issued for Jamaica had an approximate $25 million-$30 million impact on the segment. Excluding business interruption and FX, underlying EBITDA grew 3.5% in the Yucatan and 8.4% at our legacy Dominican Republic resorts. Underlying profits in the Pacific Coast fell by 19.6%, and Jamaica experienced a 36.2% decline.

Taking a look at our guest segmentation, during the fourth quarter of 2024, 47.6% of Playa-owned and managed transient revenues booked were booked direct, up 30 basis points year-over-year, while roughly 43.3% of the Playa-owned and managed transient room nights stays in the quarter came from our direct channels, which was consistent with Q4 2023. PlayaResorts.com accounted for approximately 13% of our total Playa-owned and managed transient room night bookings, continuing to be a critical factor in our customer sourcing and ADR gains. Our direct sourcing mix has improved by over 20 percentage points compared to 2018 and has been a critical competitive advantage driving Playa's success in the post-pandemic era. Geographically, our South American, European, and Canadian guest mix all improved meaningfully year-over-year as our American-sourced guest mix continues to normalize.

The recovery of our Canadian guest segmentation versus pre-pandemic remains near 80%, and our American guest mix is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels. Our European and South American guest mix remained the most elevated versus pre-pandemic at 175%, while our Asian guest mix was largely unchanged and remains only approximately 25% recovered. Finally, on the capital allocation front, we repurchased approximately $25 million worth of Playa stock during the fourth quarter, bringing our total repurchases since resuming our program in September 2022 to approximately $376 million, representing nearly 30% of the shares outstanding at the time. Capital expenditures in 2024 came in lower than anticipated at approximately $97 million, largely due to the timing of payments and slippage into 2025. We finished the year with a cash balance of $189 million and total outstanding interest-bearing debt of $1.08 billion.

Separately, we have implemented FX hedges on approximately 75% of our Mexican peso exposure for 2025 at an exchange rate of approximately 19.5, compared to our average incurred exchange rate of approximately 18.3 in 2024, which should result in a favorable year-over-year FX benefit. Once again, I would like to thank all of our associates who have continued to deliver world-class service and really redefine the all-inclusive experience with their unwavering passion and dedication to Service from the Heart. Thank you very much for participating on today's call.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.