Dublin

Service Properties Trust Completes Sale of TravelCenters to BP

Last week BP plc completed the acquisition of TravelCenter of America Inc . Service Properties Trust received $379.3 million in cash as part of the transaction. Sonder Holdings was cut to Perform from Outperform by Oppenheimer and InterContinental Hotels Group was upgraded to Neutral from Sell by Redburn. The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index rose 1.4% in April from March. The Hotel Brand sub-index rose 2.5% from March while the Hotel REIT sub-index was down -2.6%.

Host Hotels' Sparkling Balance Sheet

The earnings calendar accelerated in both the REIT and C-Corp section in the past 24 hours. Hyatt received the most attention with a clean beat but then some concerns creeping in. Host Hotels had a lousy two days to issue a great report with a clean and positive beat and raise. Summit Hotels came in just under consensus even with a strong top-line performance as higher hotel-level expenses hurt results.

Apple Hospitality and Xenia Hotels Beat Expectations

Apple Hospitality and Xenia Hotels were the next up to report earnings. APLE beat expectations and continues to be one of the few hotel REITs reporting EBITDA above 2019 levels. XHR also beat expectations on a higher top line with RevPAR growth of 23.9%. STR reported US lodging data for the week ended April 29. Year over year hotel RevPAR was up 5.6%.

U.S. Businesses Pare Back Travel Restrictions

The DJIA was up 338 points while Nasdaq was up 97, the S&P 500 was up 42 points, while the 10-year treasury yield was down nearly .02 to 4.00%. Evercore ISI Group upped its rating on DiamondRock Hospitality to Outperform from In-Line. US Travel’s latest Business Travel Tracker finds American companies increasingly paring back pandemic-era restrictions on business travel