Extended Stay America's fourth-quarter comparable systemwide revenue per available room declined 0.8 percent year over year, driven by a 4 percent decline in average daily rate, partially offset by a 240 basis-point increase in occupancy, the company reported Thursday.
Quarterly revenue declined 1.9 percent year over year to $284.2 million.
CEO Bruce Haase during a Thursday earnings call said that "after a very soft October, our RevPAR trends improved significantly in November and December. And we're happy to report the recent stronger RevPAR trends have continued into 2020."
The company revamped its leadership team in November, adding Haase and Kelly Poling as chief commercial officer, and promoting Mike Kuenne to chief customer experience officer. Haase during the call cited several strategic goals, including improving the guest experience. ESA recently initiated a property operation improvement program, and in April will launch a quality assurance program across all branded properties.
Haase also said that he wants to refocus on securing more extended-stay business and less transient, noting the latter, which is more expensive to service, represented about 37 percent of ESA's business.
ESA opened four hotels in 2019, and as of Dec. 31 had a pipeline of 9,100 rooms across 75 hotels.
ESA full-year 2019 RevPAR declined 0.9 percent, driven by a 2.9 percent decline in ADR, partially offset by a 150 basis-point increase in occupancy. Net income declined 39.5 percent year over year to $23.8 million for the fourth quarter and 22 percent to $165.1 million for full-year 2019.
ESA's 2020 net income outlook, which does not take into effect any potential impact from the coronavirus outbreak, is a range of $133 million to $154 million.
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