News Details

RevPAR Expected to Increase 8.0% to 10.0%

BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB) (the “Company”) today provided its outlook for 2012. The Company's outlook for 2012, which assumes continued improvement in economic activity, positive business travel trends and the other significant assumptions detailed below, is as follows:

“We continued to experience healthy demand growth in travel, from both business and leisure, throughout the fourth quarter, allowing Pebblebrook and the industry to increase occupancies and push pricing,” noted Jon Bortz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust. “We expect that 2012 will be a very good year for the overall hotel industry, with the continuation of these positive trends. We’re forecasting U.S. industry RevPAR to increase between 6% and 8% over 2011. Our portfolio, comprised of high quality hotels located in major gateway cities, should benefit from this strong recovery in travel and outperform the industry. For our portfolio, we’re forecasting RevPAR to increase 8.0% to 10.0%.”

The Company’s 2012 outlook includes the operating and financial performance from the hotels the Company owned as of January 23, 2012. The Company’s estimates and assumptions for portfolio RevPAR growth and EBITDA margin growth for 2012 include the hotels owned as of January 23, 2012 as if they were owned for the entire year of 2011. The Company’s outlook assumes no additional acquisitions during 2012; however, the Company intends to take advantage of acquisition opportunities as they become available in the marketplace.

If any of the foregoing estimates and assumptions prove to be inaccurate, actual results, including the 2012 outlook, may vary, and could vary significantly, from the amounts shown above.

The Company will report financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2011 on Tuesday, February 21, 2012, after the market closes. The Company will conduct its quarterly conference call on Wednesday, February 22, 2012, at 9:00 AM EST. To participate in the conference call, dial (888) 481-2845 approximately ten minutes before the call begins (8:50 AM EST), tell the operator that you are calling for Pebblebrook Hotel Trust’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Earnings Conference Call, and state your full name and company affiliation and you will be connected to the call.

About Pebblebrook Hotel Trust

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (“REIT”) organized to opportunistically acquire and invest primarily in upper upscale, full service hotels located in urban markets in major gateway cities. The Company owns 20 hotels, comprised of 14 wholly owned hotels, with a total of 3,812 guest rooms and a 49% joint venture interest in six hotels with 1,733 guest rooms. The Company owns, or has an ownership interest in, hotels located in nine states and the District of Columbia, including 14 markets: Bethesda, Maryland; San Francisco, California; Buckhead, Georgia; Washington, DC; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Columbia River Gorge, Washington; Santa Monica, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; West Hollywood, California; Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York, New York. For more information, please visit www.pebblebrookhotels.com.

This press release contains certain “forward-looking” statements relating to, among other things, projected financial and operating results.Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “potential,” “intend,” “expect,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “approximately,” “believe,” “could,” “project,” “predict,” “forecast,” “continue,” “assume,” “plan” or other similar words or expressions.Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and can include future expectations, future plans and strategies, financial and operating projections and forecasts and other forward-looking information and estimates.Examples of forward-looking statements include the following: projections and forecasts of net income, FFO, Adjusted FFO, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, RevPAR, the Company’s expenses, share count and other financial items; descriptions of the Company’s plans or objectives for future operations, acquisitions, capital investments or services; forecasts of the Company’s future economic performance and its share of future markets; forecasts of hotel industry performance; and descriptions of assumptions and estimates underlying or relating to any of the foregoing expectations, including assumptions regarding the timing of their occurrence.These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements.These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the state of the U.S. economy and the supply of hotel properties, and other factors as are described in greater detail in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.Unless legally required, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information about the Company’s business and financial results, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of the Company’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained at the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at www.pebblebrookhotels.com.

All information in this release is as of January 23, 2012.The Company undertakes no duty to update the statements in this release to conform the statements to actual results or changes in the Company’s expectations.

For additional information or to receive press releases via email, please visit our website at www.pebblebrookhotels.com.

This press release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under Securities and Exchange Commission "SEC" Rules to supplement the Company’s consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP").

These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies.In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles.Non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with the Company’s results of operations determined in accordance with GAAP.

Funds from Operations - Funds from operations (“FFO”) represents net income (computed in accordance with GAAP), plus real estate-related depreciation and amortization and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships.The Company considers FFO a useful measure of performance for an equity REIT because it facilitates an understanding of the operating performance of its properties without giving effect to real estate depreciation and amortization, which assume that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time.Since real estate values have historically risen or fallen with market conditions, the Company believes that FFO provides a meaningful indication of its performance.The Company also considers FFO an appropriate performance measure given its wide use by investors and analysts.The Company computes FFO in accordance with standards established by the Board of Governors of NAREIT in its March 1995 White Paper (as amended in November 1999 and April 2002), which may differ from the methodology for calculating FFO utilized by other equity REITs and, accordingly, may not be comparable to that of other REITs.Further, FFO does not represent amounts available for management’s discretionary use because of needed capital replacement or expansion, debt service obligations or other commitments and uncertainties, nor is it indicative of funds available to fund the Company’s cash needs, including its ability to make distributions.The Company presents FFO per diluted share calculations that are based on the outstanding dilutive common shares plus the outstanding LTIP units of its operating partnership for the periods presented.

Earnings before Interest, Taxes, and Depreciation and Amortization ("EBITDA") - We believe that EBITDA provides investors a useful financial measure to evaluate our operating performance, excluding the impact of our capital structure (primarily interest expense) and our asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization).

The Company’s presentation of FFO in accordance with the NAREIT White Paper and EBITDA, or as adjusted by the Company, should not be considered as an alternative to net income (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of the Company’s financial performance or to cash flow from operating activities (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of its liquidity.The table above is a reconciliation of the Company’s FFO and EBITDA calculations to net income in accordance with GAAP.

The Company also evaluates its performance by reviewing Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted FFO, because it believes that adjusting EBITDA and FFO to exclude certain recurring and non-recurring items described below provides useful supplemental information regarding the Company's ongoing operating performance and that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted FFO, when combined with the primary GAAP presentation of net income (loss), more completely describes the Company's operating performance.The Company adjusts EBITDA and FFO for the following items, which may occur in any period, and refers to these measures as Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted FFO:

- Non-Cash Ground Rent: The Company excludes the non-cash amortization expense of the Company's ground lease asset.
- Acquisition Costs:The Company excludes acquisition transaction costs expensed during the period because it believes that including these costs in EBITDA and FFO does not reflect the underlying financial performance of the Company and its hotels.
- Amortization of LTIP Units: The Company excludes the non-cash amortization of LTIP unitsof its operating partnership expensed during the period.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust
Raymond D. Martz, Chief Financial Officer
240-507-1330

Source: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust