Chatham Lodging (CLDT) Earnings Call Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Wed, February 25, 2026 astatine 11:05 AM CST 27 min read

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Wednesday, February 25, 2026 astatine 10:30 a.m. ET

• Chief Executive Officer — Jeff Fisher

• President & Chief Operating Officer — Dennis Craven

• Chief Financial Officer — Jeremy Wegner

Jeff Fisher: Thank you precise much, and I surely admit everyone joining america present for our telephone today. Before talking astir the 4th fourth specifically and our outlook for this year, I would similar to walk a fewer minutes highlighting immoderate noteworthy items arsenic we look backmost astatine the past year. Operationally, it was a truly bully twelvemonth for america contempt the utmost volatility that adversely impacted the manufacture and our apical line. On the apical line, for the 4th consecutive year, our RevPAR show bushed the industry, and we continued pushing our different operating profits, different section operating profits, higher arsenic well.

Despite fundamentally level RevPAR, we were capable to bounds our GOP borderline diminution to lone 20 ground points by staying laser-focused connected our staffing levels and improving productivity. Our labour and benefits costs really declined somewhat successful 2026, offsetting wage increases of astir 4% successful the year. Most importantly, for the archetypal clip since the pandemic, we generated the highest operating margins successful the industry, reclaiming our apical spot among the rankings that we held for an full decennary from 2010 to 2019.

Looking up to this year, our edifice wages are reassessed successful July each year, and our wage summation for 2025 is up lone 2% versus the archetypal fractional of the year, which means wage pressures are moderating passim 2026. Strategically, we sold 4 of our older little RevPAR hotels astatine an approximate headdress complaint of 6% and utilized those proceeds to trim indebtedness and to get shares nether the repurchase program we initiated successful 2025. Since announcing the plan, we person repurchased astir 1,800,000 shares, oregon astir 4% of our outstanding shares, astatine an mean terms of $6.87 per share, for a full repurchase of astir $13,000,000, oregon conscionable implicit fractional of our $25,000,000 plan.

At our mean acquisition price, those shares were acquired astatine an approximate 9.5% headdress complaint based connected our 2026 firm NOI guidance and mightiness beryllium the lone lodging REIT with an mean repurchase terms beneath existent trading levels since peers initiated their repurchase plans. Using mean multiples for the past 25 years, these repurchases surely are going to beryllium accretive. On the firm side, we added 10 rooms to our portfolio by converting excess gathering abstraction and different disposable spaces, which volition present the champion returns for those spaces successful the hotels. We proceed to enactment successful the GRESB Sustainability Benchmark and ranked 29th retired of 95 listed companies.