Sunstone Hotel Investors Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Sunstone Hotel Investors EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.20
• Consensus EPS: $0.18
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.02
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.16

Sunstone Hotel Investors Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $236.97 million
• Expected Revenue: $226.18 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$10.78 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +10.30%

Sunstone Hotel Investors Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 2/27/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Friday, February 27, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 12:00PM ET

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) is a real estate investment trust that owns and invests in luxury and upper-upscale hotels in the United States. The company focuses on acquiring, renovating, repositioning and managing a portfolio of full-service lodging properties located primarily in high-demand, coastal and urban gateway markets.

Sunstone’s hotels serve business and leisure travelers and typically offer accommodations, restaurants and bars, meeting and event facilities, and other hospitality amenities. The company generally relies on third-party hotel management companies and established lodging brands to operate its properties.

Sunstone Hotel Investors was founded in 1985 and became a publicly traded company in 2004. Its portfolio has included hotels in markets such as California, Florida and Hawaii, as well as other major U.S. destinations. John Arabia serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations with total RevPAR up 7.4% (12.5% including Andaz Miami Beach), led by resorts (Wailea) and a strong Andaz launch carrying momentum into 2026.
• Neutral Sentiment: 2026 guidance calls for rooms RevPAR +4–7% (to $234–$241), total RevPAR +3.5–6.5% (to $385–$396), Adjusted EBITDAre of $225–$250M, and FFO/share of $0.81–$0.94, with Q1 weighted ~25% due to Andaz.
• Positive Sentiment: Strong capital returns and balance sheet: management returned >$170M in 2025, repurchased ~$108M common stock (avg $8.83), reauthorized up to $500M buybacks, declared a $0.09 Q1 dividend, and holds pro forma liquidity >$700M with net leverage ~3.5x.
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital recycling and portfolio investment remain a focus—Sunstone is pursuing disciplined dispositions where private-market values justify it while investing in renovations (Andaz, Wailea, San Diego, San Antonio) to drive long-term NAV and earnings.
• Positive Sentiment: Cost management outperformed expectations in 2025 with comparable margin expansion of ~40 bps; company expects comparable expense growth near ~3% (overall ~5% including Andaz) and plans to defend margins in 2026.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sunstone Hotel Investors Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. I would like to remind everyone that this conference is being recorded today, February 27th, 2026, at 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Aaron Reyes, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Thank you, operator. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this call contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those described in our filings with the SEC, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. We caution you to consider these factors in evaluating our forward-looking statements.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We also note that the commentary on this call will contain non-GAAP financial information, including Adjusted EBITDAre, Adjusted FFO, and Hotel Adjusted EBITDAre. We are providing this information as a supplement to information prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Additional details on our quarterly results have been provided in our earnings release and supplemental, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. With us on the call today are Bryan Giglia, Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

After our remarks, the team will be available to answer your questions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Bryan. Please go ahead.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Thank you, Aaron, good morning, everyone. Despite the various headwinds that impacted our industry in 2025, our portfolio finished the year on a high note with fourth quarter operating results that exceeded our expectations, driven by broad-based strength across the portfolio. The fourth quarter capped off a productive year at Sunstone, where we made further progress on our three strategic objectives, which include recycling capital, investing in our portfolio, and returning capital to our shareholders.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Earlier in the year, we completed the sale of the Hilton New Orleans St. Charles at a mid 6% cap rate inclusive of required near-term capital and fully recycled the proceeds into the repurchase of our stock at a compelling discount and a higher implied yield.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

In addition, we completed several capital projects, including the debut of the Andaz Miami Beach, which despite its later opening, had a solid festive period and good momentum heading into this year. Lastly, we returned more than $170 million of capital to our shareholders through a well-covered dividend and accretive share repurchases.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

These strategic accomplishments will drive growth in per share earnings and NAV in the years to come. We will share additional details on our outlook and our expectations for 2026 shortly, but I'll start with a quick recap on the fourth quarter results. As I noted at the top of the call, our results came in better than expected with total RevPAR growth of 7.4% in the quarter or 12.5% including the contribution from Andaz.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Our resorts led the portfolio driven by solid performance at the Wailea Beach Resort. As we shared with you on our recent calls, our results in Maui were hampered through much of last year as market demand normalized. We were pleased to see the green shoots we witnessed at the resort in the fall continue into year-end, leading to 19% RevPAR growth in the quarter.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

On the opposite side of the country, Andaz Miami Beach delivered year-end results that were ahead of expectations, and the outperformance has carried into the early parts of this year, positioning the resort well to deliver on our expectations for 2026. We are pleased with the demand our renovated resort is attracting, including high-profile business around some key events in the market that should help the resort further build awareness.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Performance at our wine country resorts was also stronger than expected, with Montage Healdsburg capping off a better year with 15% total RevPAR growth in the quarter and just over 9% for the year. Our resorts were our strongest performing segment in Q4, and we expect that to continue into 2026, but now with the added benefit of a full year contribution from Andaz Miami Beach.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

At our urban hotels, we were pleased with our quarterly performance at Marriott Long Beach Downtown, which continued to benefit from its brand conversion in 2024 and generated total RevPAR growth of 12%. The Portland market continues to recover with the Bidwell Marriott turning in nearly 13% growth. This strength was partially offset by a softer market and tougher comps in Boston and New Orleans.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

While top-line growth was less robust at our urban hotels, we continued to work with our operators to control costs and managed to grow margins during the quarter. Our convention hotels turned in better than expected performance with RevPAR growth of 2.8% even with some headwinds from the meeting space renovations that we had underway in San Antonio and San Diego. Excluding these two hotels, our convention hotel RevPAR growth was 5.3% during the quarter. San Francisco was once again a standout performer, which added to solid top-line results in the first three quarters of the year to generate more than 12% total RevPAR growth for the year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We continue to be encouraged by how the market and our hotel are setting up for additional growth this year with group pace up in the low double-digit range and a strong start with good group activity in January and the Super Bowl in February. The Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld also had a solid quarter with total RevPAR growth of more than 10% on a better mix of business.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Group revenue production for the current and future periods in Orlando increased over 10% last year, and the hotel is pacing for better performance in 2026. Operating results in San Antonio were softer in 2025 on a lighter group event calendar and some displacement from our completed meeting space renovation. 2026 should benefit from increased production and the renovation. As we shared with you on prior calls, performance last year in Washington, D.C.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

was less robust than initially anticipated and was impacted by government spending cuts, changes in policies, and the government shutdown. Similarly, our results in San Diego were hampered by softer transient demand and a less constructive backdrop for international travel. On the expense side, we were pleased with our operators' ability to drive efficiencies in response to continued cost pressures.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We knew coming into the year that 2025 would be particularly tough on margins as contractual cost escalations at certain of our larger hotels were adding to general inflationary pressures across the portfolio. I am pleased to report that we made significant progress in managing costs and delivered comparable portfolio margin growth of 40 basis points during the year on total RevPAR growth of 3.5%. This was a much better cost management outcome than we expected at the start of the year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

While some of the efficiency measures that were additive in 2025 will be harder to sustain as we move into this year, we will continue to work with our hotel teams to manage costs, increase productivity, and defend margins. As we look into 2026, we see some reasons to be optimistic about the year ahead.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Andaz Miami Beach is starting off well with impressive year-to-date occupancy above 80% at a mid-$500 rate. In addition, the resort has nearly 8,000 group room nights already on the books, representing more than half of our budgeted room nights for the year, which is very strong for a market with a shorter term booking window. The property is building momentum, which will continue this year with the opening of Bazaar Meat and our membership Beach Club.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We are seeing additional positive signs as market recovery continues in Northern California. Fundamentals in Wailea are more constructive, and there is the potential for industry-wide lift from special events such as F1 in Miami, which we missed last year, America 250 celebrations, and the World Cup. Our focused portfolio will experience headwinds from softer transient demand in San Diego and continued uncertainty in D.C., two of our larger markets, which will offset some growth.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Both hotels had better than anticipated transient demand in January and February, which, if current trends continue, could result in a better than anticipated year. The industry and Sunstone have been disappointed by various headwinds over the past two years, making us more cautious. We are excited about our prospects this year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

If costs remain controlled and some of these events produce more than our modest expectations, we could be positioned to see performance accelerate as the year progresses. The guidance that Aaron will share with you later attempts to balance these factors and reflect an outlook that we believe is reasonable and achievable based on how we see things today.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

As we move through 2026, we will continue to execute on the three components of our strategy: recycling capital, investing in our portfolio, and returning capital to shareholders. While the transaction market has been quiet the last couple of years, we are clearly seeing some incremental activity, and we are looking for ways to thoughtfully demonstrate the value of our portfolio. In the meantime, we are focused on delivering profitability growth from operations and realizing the benefits of our investment projects.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We expect these actions will support our capital return objectives in the coming year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

With that, I'll turn the call over to Robert to give some additional details on recent capital investment activity and our plans for 2026.

[Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Thanks, Bryan. 2025 was a busy year for us on the operations and investment front. We debuted Andaz Miami Beach in the second quarter, and the fully renovated resort looks great and is gaining traction. We've been pleased with recent transient booking velocity and the progress we have made attracting high-quality group business.

[Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We will round out the resort this year with the addition of the Beach Club and the introduction of Bazaar Meat, the resort's signature dining destination. Performance in the initial weeks of 2026 has been encouraging with year-to-date RevPAR of nearly $475, and the resort is well positioned to deliver earnings growth this year and into 2027. Earlier in 2025, we completed a rooms renovation at Wailea Beach Resort and are happy to see the demand backdrop turning a corner on the island.

[Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We have the opportunity for meaningful growth at the property as occupancy rebounds, and we benefit from our recent investment. We are seeing good progress with RevPAR index increasing 17 points sequentially into the fourth quarter as the market normalizes and the resort reestablishes its competitive positioning. In the fourth quarter, we completed a renovation of the meeting space in San Antonio, which complements the room renovation done just prior to our acquisition, and the hotel now looks great from top to bottom.

[Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

In San Diego, we are putting the finishing touches on a renovation of the meeting space there as well, which should allow the hotel to maintain its leading position in this premier group event destination. We are completing this work in phases to minimize disruption but will have a modest amount of earnings headwinds in the first quarter. The project remains on schedule and on budget.

[Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

This year, we will also be performing some maintenance projects at our Renaissance Orlando, facade work, and a rooms refresh at Oceans Edge Resort & Marina, as well as some smaller routine projects across the rest of the portfolio. As Bryan alluded to earlier, we are seeing some incremental signs of life in the transaction market. While we are hopeful this will provide a more constructive backdrop to execute on our capital recycling strategy, we expect to remain disciplined in our approach and mindful of other capital allocation opportunities available to us. With that, I'll turn it over to Aaron. Please go ahead.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Thanks, Robert. As we noted at the top of the call, our earnings results for the fourth quarter came in ahead of expectations. A stronger leisure performance at our resort added to modestly better performance across most other hotels in the portfolio. Rooms RevPAR grew an impressive 9.6% in the quarter, including a 540 basis point benefit from Andaz Miami Beach.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

In a continuation of the trends we saw earlier this year, growth in ancillary spend outpaced rooms and contributed to total RevPAR growth of 12.5%, including a 510 basis point benefit from Andaz. This stronger top-line performance and ongoing cost controls contributed to full-year earnings that were ahead of the midpoint of our guidance range, including Adjusted EBITDAre in the fourth quarter of $57 million and Adjusted FFO of $0.20 per diluted share.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We continue to benefit from a strong balance sheet with net leverage of only 3.5 times trailing earnings or 4.7 times, including our preferred equity. In early January, we drew the remaining $90 million balance from a previously arranged term loan and used a majority of the proceeds to repay our Series A Notes at their scheduled maturity.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Following this repayment, we have addressed all debt maturities through 2028. As of the end of the quarter and pro forma for the January payoff, we had over $200 million of total cash and cash equivalents, including our restricted cash. Together with full capacity available on our credit facility, this equates to over $700 million of total liquidity. Included in our press release this morning are the details of our outlook for 2026.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

As Bryan noted earlier, while we see reasons to be optimistic about the year ahead, we remain cautious while still in these initial months. Based on what we see today, we expect that rooms RevPAR for all hotels in the portfolio will increase between 4% and 7% to a range of $234-$241. This reflects the full year benefit of Andaz Miami Beach, which is expected to contribute approximately 400 basis points of growth at the midpoint. For 2026, we are also introducing guidance for total RevPAR, which is expected to increase between 3.5%-6.5%, and which would imply a range of $385-$396 with a similar 400 basis point benefit from Andaz.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We anticipate that our first quarter will be our strongest growth quarter of the year as the contribution from Andaz and better performance in Maui will more than offset the challenging comp in D.C. from the inauguration and in New Orleans from the Super Bowl last year. This should result in first quarter RevPAR and total RevPAR growth being above the high ends of the full year ranges just discussed, and then the subsequent quarters being between the lower end and the midpoint.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

This revenue growth is expected to translate into Adjusted EBITDAre in the range of $225 million-$250 million. Excluding one-time items and an asset sale, which together contributed approximately $10 million to our 2025 results, the midpoint of our 2026 EBITDA range reflects 5% growth in earnings over last year.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Based on where we sit today, we expect our FFO per diluted share to range from $0.81 to $0.94. Adjusting for the same one-time items in the prior year, the midpoint of our FFO range reflects growth of 8% relative to 2025 as the benefit of our share repurchase activity adds to the growth in hotel earnings. In terms of the distribution of our earnings by quarter, we anticipate that the first quarter will represent approximately 25% of our full year projections at the midpoint.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

This is a bit higher than our historical run rate, but reflects the added contribution from Andaz Miami Beach. As is typical for our portfolio, the second quarter is expected to be our largest contributor at approximately 30%, with the balance split more or less evenly across the third and fourth quarters. Moving to our return of capital.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Since the start of 2025 up to the middle of this week, we have repurchased approximately $108 million of common stock at a blended price of $8.83 per share. In addition, we have also purchased $3.1 million of our preferred stock at a blended price of $20.46 per share, or an 18% discount to its liquidation value. This common and preferred stock repurchase activity has been accretive to both NAV and earnings per share.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

As we noted in our press release this morning, our board of directors has reauthorized our repurchase program back up to $500 million. While we retain capacity and appetite for additional share repurchases, our 2026 outlook does not assume the benefit of additional common stock buyback activity.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

In addition to our share repurchases, our board of directors has also authorized a $0.09 per share common dividend for the first quarter and has also declared the routine distributions for our Series H and I preferred securities. Before we conclude our prepared remarks, I'll turn it back over to Bryan for some additional thoughts.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Before we open the call to questions, I want to highlight our 2026 objectives. The management team and board are focused on realizing the value of our portfolio. Over the past few years, we have actively sold hotels at what have proven to be attractive valuations and redeployed proceeds into the most accretive option available at the time. While most of the proceeds went to repurchase common or preferred stock at a discount, we also acquired assets when our cost of capital became more competitive.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We will continue this practice in 2026 while evaluating other potential transactions to realize and return the value of this portfolio to our shareholders. As I mentioned last quarter, the board and management remain committed to maximizing value for shareholders and are open to any alternative that would reasonably be expected to result in value creation.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

With that, we can now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator]

In order to ask a question at this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We do ask you to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Cooper Clark with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

[Cooper Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Curious if you could walk through some of the puts and takes as we think about the 1.5% midpoint of 2026 RevPAR growth ex-Andaz within the context of 2.1% growth last year and what should be a continued recovery in markets like Hawaii.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Sure. Morning, Cooper. When you look at the remainder of the portfolio ex-Andaz, you're absolutely right. You know, Maui is a market where we are seeing, we are seeing growth. We talked about it last year, where we mentioned that, you know, for the hotel to get back to where it needs to be, the Kaanapali market needed to stabilize, which is something that we saw happening in kind of the late third quarter, fourth quarter of last year, and that continues to happen going forward. We went from, you know, the high, you know, mid to high 90s, occupancy index to, at the end of the year, over 100%. We should stabilize around 110. That is absolutely moving in the right direction.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

As I said earlier, we're seeing continued transient demand as we recapture that index. So far the first two months of the year have been a pleasant surprise to see that continue. The group business in Maui is the pace is down a little bit this year. We do have this one piece of business that is on for a couple of years and then off, and it's off island this year. We are seeing a transient pace is up about 53%, and that will help cover that shortfall.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

You know, when we look at the rest of the portfolio, you know, continued strength in San Francisco, in Wine Country, you know, other markets and one that we highlighted on the call, D.C. is a market that we faced a lot of headwinds last year. Not only with the government shutdown at the end of the year, but then also cutbacks and, impacted a lot of the group business there. The amount, the percentage where groups would actually actualize as compared to their blocks was down to historic averages. While we anniversary that coming up shortly, and so the year-over-year comp will get easier, we are cautious.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Then we are also seeing in D.C. a pickup in transient business that we were not seeing in the middle part of last year. So like some of the, you know, government transient, we're starting to see that come back. Again, with what, you know, the impacts and the headwinds that we saw last year, we're approaching the D.C. market as cautious. If we continue to see these trends, we would expect that, you know, we could be in a position where that midpoint would move up a little bit. You know, D.C. is one of the markets right now that we're keeping an eye on and is, you know, pulling that average back.

[Cooper Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Okay, great. That's helpful. Then could you talk through the expense growth implied in guide, both including and excluding the Andaz, and what are some of the key drivers there?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Sure. I mean, I think roughly we're on expenses, we're, you know, right around, you know, 3% total. You know, labor over the last couple years has been, you know, sort of at four-ish range. It's coming down a little bit this year into the 3s. Energy prices are up a bit this year. Then there are a couple of the larger fixed expenses that, you know, will unfold as the year goes on.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Our insurance renews in June, and that's something that we had good renewals with last year. There were not, you know, any major, you know, CAT hits in our portfolio, so that should be helpful. We go into the year and we expect there to be some growth in those rates.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

If we get a year like last year, that could be a benefit. Property taxes have been down, you know, over the last few years. We're kind of assuming that those are gonna normalize. On the Andaz side, you know, overall, I don't think it's going to make, you know, a material difference in that overall percentage.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. Hey, Cooper, it's Aaron. Just to maybe to add to what Bryan was saying. You know, as we moved through last year, as we noted in the prepared remarks, you know, we were, you know, much more successful in managing costs relative to where we thought that they would be at the beginning of the year. We ended up with, you know, margin expansion to the tune of about 40 basis points on RevPAR growth of about 3.5%. You know, from a cost growth perspective for the comparable portfolio, so the 13 hotels, ex-Andaz, you know, expense growth is in that, kind of that three-ish% or so area.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

What we'll feel a bit differently this year is just that, as you noted, the blended RevPAR growth rate for that comp set is for that set of hotels is a bit lower. We'll expect some margin headwinds for the comp portfolio in 2026. If we add in Andaz, things obviously do get a little bit noisier given that it was, you know, only open up part of the year last year. It'll be open all of the year this year. We'd look at probably a total overall expense growth rate of around 5% or so, which starts to then align with where the midpoint of the RevPAR range is for the total portfolio.

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

A good chance of, you know, being able to defend margins as we move from 2025 to 2026 for the total portfolio. And we'll be hopeful that we have an outcome like we had last year, where as the year went on, we were a bit more successful on the cost side.

[Cooper Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Great. Thank you. Appreciate the color.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

[Duane Pfennigwerth, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Hey, thank you. Good morning. You know, a call earlier today talked about the expectation for being a net seller of assets. I wonder if that's your expectation as well, and if you have any update on the marketing process around the Wine Country assets.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Sure. Good morning, Duane. You know, In the fourth quarter, we started to see a pickup in transactions, either closed transactions or announced transactions. I think as we have more clarity into this year, you know, debt markets continue to be strong, I think that we'll continue to see an uptick in transactions. I think thematically it will be similar. I think that there is a lot of demand for luxury assets. I think there's a lot of demand for cash flowing assets.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

So those obviously can support the highest debt balance. We're still seeing, you know, for mid-sized transactions, enough equity out there. As you start to get to larger assets, the bidder pool is still, you know, thinner. I do think we're seeing that improve.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

So, you know, our view is really no different than what we were doing last year and when we sold New Orleans at a very attractive cap rate and then redeployed those proceeds into our common stock. You know, we're gonna look to realize private market values where we can, you know, for those, you know, for hotels and resorts that we have where we see the biggest gap between the public and private market values.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Basically, you know, we'll continue to try to unlock value where we can and then go and deploy that in the most accretive manner. You know, we don't comment on transactions prior to announcement, but, you know, we have been clear, and I think our actions have been very clear is that, you know, our major pillar of our strategy is recycling assets.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

There's always gonna be a point in time where we'll have one or more assets that in some form of marketing or discussion with potential buyers. We don't think that this year will be any different. The question then comes is what is that most accretive allocation of that or redeployment of that capital? That depends on a lot of factors.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

It depends on where the stock is, you know, where our cost of capital is, where our stock's trading, what, you know, and on a risk-adjusted basis, what is, you know, is it to make more sense to repurchase stock or preferred? Does it make more sense to acquire an asset? Over the last few years, I think we've demonstrated that, you know, we've been able to, you know, pivot between those, sometimes in shorter time periods, but we've been able to effectively deploy that capital, whether it be through the acquisitions of San Antonio or buying back stock.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Smedes Rose with Citi. Please go ahead.

[Smedes Rose, Senior Analyst at Citi]

Hi. Thank you. I had another question about your guidance, just in terms of total RevPAR being a little bit lower than your RevPAR outlook. Usually they're sort of at least in line or maybe total RevPAR would be a little bit higher. I was just wondering if you could just speak to that for a moment.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Sure, Smedes. Good morning or good afternoon. You know, having a focused portfolio with some larger assets, D.C. being one of them I spoke about, and then San Diego also that had a, you know, we finish up a pretty substantial meeting space renovation, or we finish a portion of it, and we'll finish it, the rest of it in the quarter. That's impacted on those two big hotels. On the group side, that's gonna impact some of our ancillary spend, you know, getting some of that back in Andaz.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Quite honestly, I would expect a increase in our total RevPAR if we continue to see the, you know, the transient trends in D.C. somewhat, but more importantly, the transient trends we're seeing in Wailea with the additional spend that comes from the transient rooms, you know, that will, that will help buoy our total RevPAR. Right now, it's more a function of the, some of the, you know, limited displacement in the first quarter in San Diego and then a slower group pace in D.C. It's more of that shift than anything.

[Smedes Rose, Senior Analyst at Citi]

I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more. You mentioned in your opening remarks some transient weakness in San Diego. Is that specifically to your hotel? Are you seeing that kind of market wide? Maybe just if you could just speak to kind of just the broader market in San Diego, what you're seeing just, you know, maybe on the group side, what's happening with the convention calendar there, et cetera.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. You know, in San Diego, we saw some ups and downs last year. Some of it government related. There's a lot of defense contractors. We saw it slow down last year. We've seen that pick up, you know, towards the end of the year, the leisure time period, you know, whether it's some international travel not coming in, some of, you know, some, you know, Canadian markets, you know, are, you know, come to that area. What we're seeing now, you know, the first two months have been pretty promising in San Diego, D.C. too, we mentioned.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

You know, I think we're starting to see government transient come back and, you know, part of that might just be certain segments and what San Diego pulls from is the defense contractors, and so that can be a positive for the market. Like, we'll see over the next few months, but we are seeing positive signs, as the year goes on right now in San Diego on the transient side.

[Smedes Rose, Senior Analyst at Citi]

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Bellisario with Baird. Please go ahead.

[Michael Bellisario, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Thanks. Good morning, guys.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Good morning.

[Michael Bellisario, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

First one for Aaron, just on this Ohana Preferred. Can you just remind us, like, what are the mechanisms there for you to take that out? When and by how much does that coupon ratchet? Then, just on capital allocation, is this a potential use of capital if you were successful with dispositions?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah, Mike, thanks for the question. The Ohana is referring to is our Series G Preferred, which is issued in connection with our acquisition of Montage. That one does have a mechanism where the yield there is tied to a greater of the hotel yields or a fixed rate, which is currently now 6.5%. Overall, it's even at $66 million in size, so it's a manageable amount of capital. We kind of view our preferred, I would say, as a total bucket. They all end at $280 million at a, you know, a pretty attractive blended price of, at just around 5% or so.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

As you saw in our results for the quarter, we did take the opportunity to look at, you know, some buyback on the preferred side, and we'll continue to do that as a way to kinda just manage the overall preferred dividend exposure and ensure that we're mindful of that of the mechanism on the Series G, which does step up. I think as we think about this year, I wouldn't expect that our preferred dividend would increase in 26 relative to where it was in 25, even with the escalation on the Series G, just given that we'll manage the overall outstanding balance. You know, we'll take another look at it as we move through the year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

I mean, certainly, as we noted, we have, you know, $200 million of cash that we could readily put to use to address that Series G. The function there is, it's callable, solely in our discretion. It doesn't have to be in the total amount either, so we can take out pieces of it at a time.

[Michael Bellisario, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

That's helpful. Then just two little modeling follow-ups, and maybe I missed them. What's your EBITDA expectation for Miami this year? Then what are some of those onetime items that you mentioned that's impacting the year-over-year growth rate? I think it's about like $7 million net of the New Orleans sale, if that's right.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

On Miami, our expectation is consistent with where we were before. We think it's, you know, low to mid-teens EBITDA this year. You know, What we've seen, you know, starting in kind of really in December, and, in December, we hit close to 70% occupancy. The comp set was right around 70. Our rate, granted, was lower than the comp than our luxury set.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

We were in the, in the $500s. They were in the $900+. We have plenty of room to grow. We're building a very good base. Our group room nights have doubled quarter-over-quarter. We've got a lot of good momentum going into F1, and FIFA later in the summer, which is a great time for that piece of business to be there.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Our expectations are consistent with where we were last quarter with Miami. You know, if we have a strong summer, I, my expectation is that we are at the, you know, upper end of that. Mike, just on the second part of your question as it relates to the onetime items that we called out for 25. It's a total of around $10 million or so. The components would be about $3 million contribution from the Hilton New Orleans, which we sold last year, so won't repeat this year. A cost recovery that we had in connection with one of a settlement at one of our properties.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Just some incremental interest income that we generated last year, given where deposit rates were and where our cash balance was at the time that we wouldn't expect to repeat in 2026.

[Michael Bellisario, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Got it. Understood. Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

[Chris Woronka, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Hey, guys. Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. Understood everything you said, Bryan, about, you know, any potential transactions in Wine Country. My question on it is kind of, do you think, you know, any sale process is having any kind of impact on operations right now? It looks like in 25, you had pretty good results at the Montage. It looks like Four Seasons maybe a little bit less so. Is there anything to, you know, to draw from that? You know, what's kind of embedded in your guidance as to how those perform this year?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. I mean, both resorts were on pace to have very good years. As you probably remember, there was a fire close to Four Seasons that impacted the third quarter last year, and a little bit trickled into the fourth quarter. Adjusting for that was probably about $1 million of EBITDA. Adjusting for that, one, your question, you know, not commenting on a sale process, but typically for a managed hotel, the management contracts are long-term and stay in place, so that doesn't really impact the day-to-day operations of the hotel. Four Seasons has fantastic group pace for this year. I think group pace is up about 22%. We have really great expectations for that.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

The San Francisco market has been doing better, which then leads to more weekend trips or extensions of convention trips out to Wine Country. The high-end luxury traveler continues to be very strong and spend quite a bit. On the other side of the valley, you know, we had, you know, we'd had great success with group at Montage. Group is not as strong as Four Seasons this year, but they're moving from a much larger base, and our transient demand over at Montage has been phenomenal. I think transient pace is up 25% year-over-year. Like, just like San Francisco, a lot to look forward to in the Bay Area and Wine Country.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

There, you know, again, with the, you know, with the impact of the fire last year was sort of a, you know, a unique impact to Four Seasons. Both hotels should have very good years.

[Chris Woronka, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay, appreciate all that color, Bryan. Maybe to kinda keep it in the San Francisco area. At the Hyatt, I know there was probably a Super Bowl benefit back in January. You know, this hotel's running, I think, single digit margin, 2024 and 2025. Is there any expectation this year that whether it's, you know, again, outside of Super Bowl, but with AI and feedback to office and other group things that are happening in San Francisco, is there a hope or an expectation on your part that hotel, you know, starts meaningfully improving margins?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. I mean, our location in that market has become the primary location. Our basic, you know, with the office that surrounds it, the inflows of new tenants, AI-based, but really the center of San Francisco has moved into the Embarcadero financial area. We have, you know, we're benefiting from a recently renovated hotel that, while it still has quite a ways to go to get back to where we were, you know, we finished 2025 at, you know, 78% occupancy, which is, you know, 10 points of occupancy down from where we were. You know, we have a, you know, $300 rate. There's still quite a bit of room in the rate. You know, we have great pace this year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Transient pace continues to grow. You know, the market had a great Super Bowl. World Cup is, you know, we're just starting to see bookings for that. I, you know, and that's something that will help compress the summer as we get into it. Look, I think that given the, the continuing increase in health of the San Francisco market, our location, our product, our meeting space, we still have a very good run ahead of us and are very, you know, are looking forward to the next several years in this market.

[Chris Woronka, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. Very good. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Politzer with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

[Michael Hirsh, VP of Equity Research at JPMorgan]

Hi, this is Michael Hirsh on for Dan today. Congrats on a nice quarter. For my question, you noted in the press release that the operating environment could be impacted both positively or negatively by events outside of your control. Could you speak to some of those events or macro environment that you contemplated for this year when putting together your guidance?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. I mean, if you look over the last few years, starting each of the years, expectations were higher, and then, you know, there were various headwinds that popped up and went away and came back throughout that timeframe. I think D.C. is a good example of, you know, what are our expectations in D.C.?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Like I said, they're cautious this year. You know, there was, you know, we did not expect the impact to government business, government shutdown, those things, you know, for a large 800 room hotel in our portfolio. Those were things that were not fully, you know, we weren't expecting last year and impacted operations. Could elements of that happen again? Sure.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

You know, if we look at 26 in D.C., you know, it's just starting off, it's a tough comp. You had inauguration the year before. We had storms in January, you have midterms later in the year, which means Congress won't be in session a lot as much. Those are things that keep us cautious, especially from the framework of the prior year's experience.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

On the other side, you look at the positives there. You've got, you know, you've got the America 250 celebrations. You have an Indy race that's was just scheduled for August that's happening. Our transient pickup for January and February has been stronger than we thought. You know, the negotiated transient demand for the next six months is up 11%.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

You know, part of that is still the benefit we're seeing from the conversion to Westin. Some of it is business that's coming back to the market. You know, when you look at our transient demand for January and February, and you put it against the backdrop of, you know, we had weather issues this January. We didn't have an inauguration this year, yet our transient demand is greater than what we had last year. That points to strength. That makes us very optimistic. The question is, you know, we probably need to see a few more months of this before we can, you know, have our outlook reflect that for the rest of the year.

[Michael Hirsh, VP of Equity Research at JPMorgan]

Thank you. For my follow-up, more modeling related. On your CapEx guidance for $95 million-$115 million, could you speak to the timing and allocation of those dollars between the different projects?

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. Let me start with that. Aaron Reyes can go through some more specifics. You know, we are working through and finishing the meeting space in San Diego. Keep in mind that it's a 1,200-room hotel. It's a lot of meeting space, so there's $25 million of that number right there. A portion of that does come from the FF&E Reserve. That's a big piece of it.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

There's some, you know, additional, you know, bills that are being paid and finish up work from Andaz. Throughout the portfolio, you know, we have various other projects: some HVAC projects, some roofing projects, some elevator modernizations. Those are spread out more throughout the year.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

The biggest chunk, you know, single chunk will come from the San Diego piece, which, you know, will be in the first and second quarter as it gets paid out. Aaron, give-

[Aaron Reyes, CFO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Yeah. Bryan, basically got the punch line there. The largest projects will be front-loaded, so I'd expect about a third of it happens in Q1. Then Q2 will be the second largest contributor, and then the rest will trickle into the back half. Work largely performed in Q1 and then the payments in Q1 and Q2.

[Michael Hirsh, VP of Equity Research at JPMorgan]

Thank you.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Bryan Giglia for closing remarks.

[Bryan Giglia, CEO at Sunstone Hotel Investors]

Thank you everyone for your time and interest in the company. We look forward to seeing many of you in at upcoming conferences and property tours that we have in our portfolio. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Aaron Reyes, CFO
• Bryan Giglia, CEO
• Robert Springer, President and Chief Investment Officer

Analysts

• Cooper Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Duane Pfennigwerth, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI
• Smedes Rose, Senior Analyst at Citi
• Michael Bellisario, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Chris Woronka, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Michael Hirsh, VP of Equity Research at JPMorgan