10-K 1 a12312018-10kxdocument.htm 10-K Document
 
 
 
 
 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
FORM 10-K
 
ý  ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
 
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018
 
OR
 
o   TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
 
For the transition period from          to         
 
Commission File Number:  001-35074
 
SUMMIT HOTEL PROPERTIES, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
Maryland
 
27-2962512
(State or other jurisdiction
 
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
of incorporation or organization)
 
 
 
13215 Bee Cave Parkway, Suite B-300
Austin, TX  78738
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)
 
(512) 538-2300
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 
Title of each class
 
Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share
 
New York Stock Exchange
6.45% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share
 
New York Stock Exchange
6.25% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share
 
New York Stock Exchange
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  ý Yes  o No
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.  o Yes  ý No
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  ý Yes  o No
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405) of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).  ý Yes  o No
 
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ý Yes  o No
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.


 
Large accelerated filer
x
Accelerated filer
o
Non-accelerated filer
 o
Smaller reporting company
o
 
 
Emerging growth company
o
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
o
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  o Yes  ý No
 
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant’s as of June 30, 2018 was $1,471,222,849 based on the closing sale price of the registrant’s common stock on the New York Stock Exchange as of June 30, 2018.
 
As of February 18, 2019 the number of outstanding shares of common stock of Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. was 104,783,179.
 
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
 
Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A for its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year pursuant to Regulation 14A, are incorporated herein by reference into Part III, Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.
 
 
 
 
 



ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2018
SUMMIT HOTEL PROPERTIES, INC.
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
 
Page
 
 
 
 
 
Item 1.
Item 1A.
Item 1B.
Item 2.
Item 3.
Item 4.
 
 
 
 
 
Item 5.
Item 6.
Item 7.
Item 7A.
Item 8.
Item 9.
Item 9A.
Item 9B.
 
 
 
 
 
Item 10.
Item 11.
Item 12.
Item 13.
Item 14.
 
 
 
 
 
Item 15.
 
 
 




CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
 
This report contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include this statement for purposes of complying with these safe harbor provisions. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words “may,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “forecast,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “likely,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this report include, among others, statements about our business strategy, including acquisition and development strategies, industry trends, estimated revenues and expenses, ability to realize deferred tax assets and expected liquidity needs and sources (including capital expenditures and the ability to obtain financing or raise capital). You should not rely on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could materially affect actual results, performances or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to:
 
•
financing risks, including the risk of leverage and the corresponding risk of default on our existing indebtedness and potential inability to refinance or extend the maturities of our existing indebtedness;
•
default by borrowers to which we lend or provide seller financing;
•
global, national, regional and local economic and geopolitical conditions;
•
levels of spending for business and leisure travel, as well as consumer confidence;
•
supply and demand factors in our markets or sub-markets;
•
adverse changes in, occupancy, average daily rate (“ADR”) and revenue per available room (“RevPAR”) and other hotel operating metrics;
•
hostilities, including future terrorist attacks, or fear of hostilities that affect travel;
•
financial condition of, and our relationships with, third-party property managers and franchisors;
•
the degree and nature of our competition;
•
increased interest rates;
•
increased operating costs, including but not limited to labor costs;
•
increased renovation costs, which may cause actual renovation costs to exceed our current estimates;
•
changes in zoning laws;
•
increases in real property taxes that are significantly higher than our expectations;
•
risks associated with hotel acquisitions, including the ability to ramp up and stabilize newly acquired hotels with limited or no operating history or that require substantial amounts of capital improvements for us to earn economic returns consistent with our expectations at the time of acquisition;
•
risks associated with dispositions of hotel properties, including our ability to successfully complete the sale of hotel properties under contract to be sold, including the risk that the purchaser may not have access to the capital needed to complete the purchase;
•
the nature of our structure and transactions such that our federal and state taxes are complex and there is risk of successful challenges to our tax positions by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") or other federal and state taxing authorities;
•
the recognition of taxable gains from the sale of hotel properties as a result of the inability to complete certain like-kind exchanges in accordance with Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “IRC”);
•
availability of and our ability to retain qualified personnel;
•
our failure to maintain our qualification as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) under the IRC;
•
changes in our business or investment strategy;
•
availability, terms and deployment of capital;
•
general volatility of the capital markets and the market price of our common stock;
•
environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters;
•
our ability to recover fully under third party indemnities or our existing insurance policies for insurable losses and our ability to maintain adequate or full replacement cost "all-risk" property insurance policies on our properties on commercially reasonable terms;
•
the effect of a data breach or significant disruption of hotel operator information technology networks as a result of cyber attacks that are greater than insurance coverages or indemnities from service providers;

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•
current and future changes to the IRC; and
•
the other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in this report.
 
Accordingly, there is no assurance that our expectations will be realized. Except as otherwise required by the federal securities laws, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to publicly release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein (or elsewhere) to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.


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PART I
Item 1.        Business.
 
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to “we”, “us,” “our,” or the “Company” refer to Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
 
Overview
 
Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. is a self-managed hotel investment company that was organized in June 2010 and completed its initial public offering in February 2011. We focus on owning primarily premium-branded, select-service hotels. At December 31, 2018, our portfolio consisted of 77 hotels with a total of 11,659 guestrooms located in 26 states. We own our hotels in fee simple, except for six hotels, five of which are subject to ground leases and one of which is subject to a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) lease.

As of December 31, 2018, 90.8% of our guestrooms were located in the top 50 metropolitan statistical areas (“MSAs”), 95.6% were located within the top 100 MSAs and 99.5% of our hotel guestrooms operated under premium franchise brands owned by Marriott® International, Inc. (“Marriott”), Hilton® Worldwide (“Hilton”), Hyatt® Hotels Corporation (“Hyatt”) and InterContinental® Hotels Group (“IHG”). Our hotels are typically located in markets with multiple demand generators such as corporate offices and headquarters, retail centers, airports, state capitols, convention centers, universities, and leisure attractions.

Substantially all of our assets are held by, and all of our operations are conducted through, our operating partnership, Summit Hotel OP, LP (the “Operating Partnership”). Through a wholly-owned subsidiary, we are the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership. At December 31, 2018, we owned, directly and indirectly, approximately 99.7% of the Operating Partnership’s issued and outstanding common units of limited partnership interest (“Common Units”), and all of the Operating Partnership’s issued and outstanding Series D and Series E preferred units of limited partnership interest (“Preferred Units”). Pursuant to the Operating Partnership’s partnership agreement, we have full, exclusive and complete responsibility and discretion in the management and control of the Operating Partnership, including the ability to cause the Operating Partnership to enter into certain major transactions including acquisitions, dispositions and refinancings, to make distributions to partners and to cause changes in the Operating Partnership’s business activities.
 
We have elected to be taxed as a REIT for federal income tax purposes commencing with our short taxable year ended December 31, 2011.  To qualify as a REIT, we cannot operate or manage our hotels.  Accordingly, all of our hotels are leased to wholly-owned subsidiaries (our “TRS lessees”) of Summit Hotel TRS, Inc., our taxable REIT subsidiary.  All of our hotels are operated pursuant to hotel management agreements between our TRS lessees and professional third-party hotel management companies that are not affiliated with us.  We have one reportable segment as defined by generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). See Item 8. – "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data – Note 2 – Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies" to our Consolidated Financial Statements.
 
Our corporate offices are located at 13215 Bee Cave Parkway, Suite B-300, Austin, TX 78738.  Our telephone number is (512) 538-2300.  Our website is www.shpreit.com.  The information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this report and should not be considered a part of this report.
 

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Business Strategy
 
Our strategy includes focused asset management, targeted capital investment and strategic transactions, including increasing the value of the Company through transformation of our portfolio, or capital recycling, by selling assets with lower operating margins, RevPAR growth opportunities, or risk-adjusted return profiles and purchasing assets with higher operating margins, RevPAR growth opportunities, or risk-adjusted return profiles. Our primary objective is to enhance stockholder value over time by generating strong, risk-adjusted returns in excess of our weighted average cost of capital. The key elements of our strategy that we believe will allow us to create long-term value include the following:

Focus on Premium-Branded Hotels. We primarily focus on hotels in the Upscale segment of the lodging industry, as defined by Smith Travel Research ("STR"). We believe that our focus on this segment provides us the opportunity to achieve strong, risk-adjusted returns across multiple lodging cycles for several reasons, including:

•
RevPAR Growth.  We believe that our hotels will continue to experience long-term demand growth based on the characteristics of our portfolio and current industry fundamentals and trends in the Upscale segment. We expect RevPAR growth to vary by market and increase across the portfolio for 2019.
•
Stable Cash Flow Potential.  Our hotels can generally be operated with fewer employees than full-service hotels that offer more amenities including more extensive food and beverage options, which we believe enables us to generate higher operating margins and cash flows with less volatility.             
•
Broad Customer Base.  Our target brands deliver consistently high-quality hotel accommodations with value-oriented pricing that we believe appeals to a wide range of customers, including both business and leisure travelers. We believe that our hotels are particularly popular with frequent business travelers who seek to stay in hotels operating under Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, or IHG brands, which offer strong loyalty rewards programs.
•
Enhanced Diversification.  Premium-branded Upscale hotels generally require less capital to acquire, build, or maintain on an absolute and a per-key basis, than hotels in the Upper-upscale and Luxury segments of the industry. As a result, we can diversify our investment capital into ownership of a larger number of hotels than we could in more expensive segments.
 
Capitalize on Investments in Our Hotels.  We strongly believe in investing in our properties to enable them to be performance leaders in their respective markets.  Over the past three years, we have invested $146.2 million in capital improvements to our hotels. We believe these investments produce attractive returns, and we intend to continue to use available capital to upgrade our hotels with strategic renovations and brand-required hotel property improvement plans.
 
External Growth Through Acquisitions.  We intend to continue to grow through acquisitions of existing hotels using a disciplined approach, while maintaining a prudent capital structure. We generally target premium-branded hotels that meet one or more of the following acquisition criteria:
 
•
potential for strong risk-adjusted returns and are located in the top 50 MSAs and other select markets;
•
can operate under leading franchise brands, which may include but are not limited to brands owned by Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG;
•
located in close proximity to multiple demand generators, such as corporate offices and headquarters, retail centers, airports, state capitols, convention centers, universities, and leisure attractions, with a diverse source of potential guests, including corporate, government and leisure travelers;
•
located in markets with barriers to entry due to strong franchise areas of protection or other factors;
•
can be acquired at a discount to replacement cost; and
•
provide an opportunity to add value through operating efficiencies, repositioning, renovating or rebranding.
 
Strategic Hotel Sales (Capital Recycling Program).  We strive to maximize our return on invested capital and we periodically review our hotels to determine if any significant changes to area markets or our hotels have occurred or are anticipated to occur that would warrant the sale of a hotel or hotels.  We intend to continue to pursue a disciplined capital allocation strategy designed to maximize the value of our investments by selectively selling hotel properties that we believe are no longer consistent with our investment strategy or whose returns on invested capital appear to have been maximized. To the extent that we sell hotel properties, we intend to redeploy the capital into acquisition and capital investment opportunities that we believe have the potential to generate better risk-adjusted returns. We expect to generate these improvements with our proactive asset management approach and by investing in our hotels to enhance their quality and attractiveness, increase their long-term value and generate more favorable returns on our invested capital. Alternatively, we may redeploy our capital into the purchase of assets with a higher potential long-term return.
 

4


Selectively Develop Hotels.  We endeavor to identify attractive opportunities to selectively partner with experienced hotel developers to acquire, upon completion, newly constructed hotels that meet our acquisition criteria.  We will consider unique opportunities to develop hotels utilizing our own resources if and when circumstances warrant.
 
Selective Mezzanine Lending. We seek to identify select opportunities to provide mezzanine lending to developers, where we also have the opportunity to acquire the hotel at or after the completion of the development project.

Our Financing Strategy
 
We rely on cash provided by operations, working capital, borrowings under our $600 million senior unsecured credit and term loan facility, term debt, repayment of notes receivable, proceeds from the issuance of securities, the strategic sale of hotels and the release of restricted cash upon satisfaction of the usage requirements to finance our business.  While the ratio will vary from time to time, we generally intend to limit our ratio of net debt to EBITDA, which amount may be adjusted for non-cash and non-recurring items, to no more than 6.5x.  At December 31, 2018, our ratio of net debt to EBITDA was 4.1x. For purposes of calculating this ratio, we exclude preferred stock from indebtedness.  During 2018, we financed our long-term growth with borrowings under our senior unsecured credit and term loan facility and term loans and proceeds from the strategic sale of hotels and intend to continue to do so in the future. Our debt includes, and may include in the future, mortgage debt secured by hotels and unsecured debt.  As of December 31, 2018, we had $965.0 million in outstanding indebtedness.
 
When purchasing hotel properties, the Operating Partnership may issue Common Units or Preferred Units as full or partial consideration to sellers who may be interested in taking advantage of the opportunity to defer taxable gains on the sale of a property or participate in the potential appreciation in the value of our common stock.

Competition
 
We face competition for investments in hotel properties from institutional pension funds, private equity investors, REITs, hotel companies and others who are engaged in hotel acquisitions and investments. Some of these entities have substantially greater financial and operational resources than we have. This competition may increase the bargaining power of property owners seeking to sell, reduce the number of suitable investment opportunities available to us and increase the cost of acquiring targeted hotel properties.
 
The lodging industry is highly competitive. Our hotels compete with other hotels and alternative accommodations for guests in their respective markets based on a number of factors, including location, convenience, brand affiliation, quality of the physical condition of the hotel, guestroom rates, range of services and guest amenities or accommodations offered and quality of customer service. Competition is often specific to the individual markets in which our hotels are located and includes competition from existing and new hotels. Competition could adversely affect our occupancy rates, our ADR and our RevPAR, and may require us to provide additional amenities or make capital improvements that we otherwise would not have to make, which may reduce our profitability.
 
Seasonality
 
Certain segments of the hotel industry are seasonal in nature.  Leisure travelers tend to travel more during the summer.  Business travelers occupy hotels relatively consistently throughout the year, but decreases in business travel occur during summer and the winter holidays.  The hotel industry is also seasonal based upon geography.  Hotels in the southern U.S. tend to have higher occupancy rates during the winter months.  Hotels in the northern U.S. tend to have higher occupancy rates during the summer months.
 
Regulation
 
Our properties are subject to various covenants, laws, ordinances and regulations, including regulations relating to accessibility, fire and safety requirements. We believe each of our hotels has the necessary permits and approvals to operate its business.
 

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Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”)
 
Our properties must comply with Title III of the ADA to the extent that they are “public accommodations” as defined by the ADA. Under the ADA, all public accommodations must meet federal requirements related to access and use by disabled persons. The ADA may require removal of structural barriers to access by persons with disabilities in certain public areas of our properties where removal is readily achievable. Although we believe the properties in our portfolio substantially comply with present requirements of the ADA, a determination to the contrary could require removal of access barriers and non-compliance could result in litigation costs, costs to remediate deficiencies, U.S. government fines or in damages to private litigants. The obligation to make readily achievable accommodations is an ongoing one, and we will continue to assess our properties and to make alterations as appropriate in this respect.
 
Environmental, Health and Safety Matters
 
Our hotels and undeveloped land parcels are subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws that impose liability for contamination. Under these laws, governmental entities have the authority to require us, as the current owner of the property, to perform or pay for the cleanup of contamination (including hazardous substances, waste, or petroleum products) at, on, under or emanating from the property and to pay for natural resource damages arising from contamination.  These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or operator or other responsible party knew of, or caused the contamination, and the liability may be joint and several.  Because these laws also impose liability on persons who owned a property at the time it became contaminated, we could incur cleanup costs or other environmental liabilities even after we sell properties. Contamination at, on, under or emanating from our properties also may expose us to liability to private parties for costs of remediation, personal injury and death or property damage.  In addition, environmental liens may be created on contaminated sites in favor of the government for damages and costs it incurs to address contamination.  If contamination is discovered on our properties, environmental laws also may impose restrictions on the manner in which our property may be used or our businesses may be operated, and these restrictions may require substantial expenditures. Moreover, environmental contamination can affect the value of a property and therefore, an owner’s ability to borrow funds using the property as collateral or to sell the property on favorable terms or at all. Furthermore, persons who sent waste to a waste disposal facility, such as a landfill or an incinerator, may be liable for costs associated with cleanup of that facility.
 
Some of our properties may have contained historical uses which involved the use or storage of hazardous chemicals and petroleum products (for example, storage tanks, gas stations and dry cleaning operations) which if released, could have affected our properties. In addition, some of our properties may be near or adjacent to other properties that have contained or currently contain storage tanks containing petroleum products or conducted or currently conduct operations which use other hazardous or toxic substances. Releases from these adjacent or surrounding properties could affect our properties and we may be liable for any associated cleanup.

Independent environmental consultants conducted Phase I environmental site assessments on all of our properties prior to acquisition and we intend to conduct Phase I environmental site assessments on properties we acquire in the future. Phase I site assessments are intended to discover and evaluate information regarding the environmental condition of the surveyed properties and surrounding properties. These assessments do not generally include soil sampling, subsurface investigations or comprehensive asbestos surveys. In some cases, the Phase I environmental site assessments were conducted by another entity such as a lender, and we may not have the authority to rely on such reports. A few of our properties have experienced environmental contamination prior to our ownership, but all contamination has been remediated to the satisfaction of state regulatory agencies.  None of the Phase I environmental site assessments of the hotel properties in our portfolio revealed any past or present environmental condition that we believe could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or results of operations. In addition, the Phase I environmental site assessments may also have failed to reveal all environmental conditions, liabilities or compliance concerns. The Phase I environmental site assessments were completed at various times and material environmental conditions, liabilities or compliance concerns may have arisen after the review was completed or may arise in the future; and future laws, ordinances or regulations may impose material additional environmental liability.
 
In addition, our hotels (including our real property, operations and equipment) are subject to various federal, state and local environmental, health and safety regulatory requirements that address a wide variety of issues, including, but not limited to the existence of mold and other airborne contaminants above regulatory thresholds, the registration, maintenance and operation of our boilers and storage tanks, the supply of potable water to our guests, air emissions from emergency generators, storm water and wastewater discharges, protection of natural resources, asbestos, lead-based paint, and waste management. Some of our hotels also routinely handle and use hazardous or regulated substances and wastes as part of their operations (for example, swimming pool chemicals or biological waste). Our hotels incur costs to comply with these environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and if these regulatory requirements are not met or unforeseen events result in the discharge of dangerous or toxic substances at our hotels, we could be subject to fines and penalties for non-compliance with applicable laws

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and material liability from third parties for harm to the environment, damage to real property or personal injury or death. We are aware of no past or present environmental liability for non-compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or results of operations.

Tax Status
 
REIT Election

We have elected to be taxed as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. Our qualification as a REIT depends upon our ability to meet, on a continuing basis, through actual investment and operating results, various complex requirements under the IRC relating to, among other things, the sources of our gross income, the composition and values of our assets, the timing and amount of our dividend distributions and the diversity of ownership of our stock. We believe that we have been organized and have operated in conformity with the requirements for qualification as a REIT under the IRC and that our current and intended manner of operation will enable us to continue to meet the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT for federal income tax purposes.
 
In order for the income from our hotel operations to constitute “rents from real property” for purposes of the gross income tests required for REIT qualification, we cannot directly operate any of our hotel properties.  Accordingly, all of our hotels are leased to our TRS lessees, which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Summit Hotel TRS, Inc. (our “TRS”).  Our TRS is a “taxable REIT subsidiary,” which is a corporate subsidiary of a REIT that jointly elects with the REIT to be treated as a TRS and pays federal income tax at regular corporate rates on its taxable income. We will lease newly acquired hotels to our existing TRS or additional TRSs in the future.  Our TRS lessees pay rent to us that will qualify as “rents from real property,” provided that the TRS lessees engage “eligible independent contractors” to manage our hotels.  All of our hotels are operated pursuant to hotel management agreements with professional third-party hotel management companies.  We believe each of the third-party managers qualifies as an “eligible independent contractor” under the IRC.
 
As a REIT, we generally will not be subject to federal income tax on our REIT taxable income that we distribute as dividends to our stockholders.  Under the IRC, REITs are subject to numerous organizational and operational requirements, including a requirement that they distribute each year at least 90% of their taxable income, determined without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding any net capital gains, which does not necessarily equal net income as calculated in accordance with GAAP.  If we fail to qualify for taxation as a REIT in any taxable year and do not qualify for certain statutory relief provisions, our income for that year will be taxed at regular corporate rates, and we will be unable to re-elect REIT status until the fifth calendar year after the year in which we failed to qualify as a REIT, unless we satisfy certain relief provisions.  Even if we qualify as a REIT for federal income tax purposes, we may still be subject to state and local taxes on our income and assets and to federal income and excise taxes on our undistributed income.  Additionally, any income earned by our TRS will be fully subject to federal, state and local corporate income tax.

Tax Legislation

On December 22, 2017, H.R. 1, originally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”), was enacted. The TCJA made many significant changes to the U.S. federal income tax laws applicable to businesses and their owners, including REITs and their stockholders. Pursuant to this legislation, as of January 1, 2018, (1) the federal income tax rate applicable to corporations was reduced to 21%, (2) the highest marginal individual income tax rate was reduced to 37% (through taxable years ending in 2025), (3) the corporate alternative minimum tax was repealed, and (4) the backup withholding rate for U.S. stockholders was reduced to 24%. In addition, individuals, estates and trusts may deduct up to 20% of certain pass-through income, including ordinary REIT dividends that are not “capital gain dividends” or “qualified dividend income,” subject to certain limitations. For taxpayers qualifying for the full deduction, the effective maximum tax rate on ordinary REIT dividends would be 29.6% (through taxable years ending in 2025). The maximum rate of withholding with respect to our distributions to non-U.S. stockholders that are treated as attributable to gains from the sale or exchange of U.S. real property interests is also reduced from 35% to 21%. The deduction of net interest expense is limited for all businesses; provided that certain businesses, including real estate businesses, may elect not to be subject to such limitations and instead to depreciate their real property related assets over longer depreciable lives. The reduced corporate tax rate will apply to our TRS and any other TRS that we form.

The reduced 21% federal income tax rate applicable to corporations applies to taxable earnings reported for the full 2018 fiscal year. Accordingly, we remeasured our net deferred tax assets as a result of the TCJA at December 31, 2017 using the lower federal tax rate that will apply when the deferred tax assets are expected to be realized. At September 30, 2018, we completed our accounting for all the enactment-date income tax effects of the act under ASC 740, Income Taxes. No additional adjustments were necessary for the year ended December 31, 2018.

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Employees
 
As of February 18, 2019, we employ 57 full-time employees. The staff at our hotels are employed by our professional third-party hotel managers.
 
Available Information
 
Our Internet website is located at www.shpreit.com. Copies of the charters of the committees of our board of directors, our code of business conduct and ethics and our corporate governance guidelines are available on our website. We will provide timely disclosures of amendments and waivers to the aforementioned documents, if any, via website posting. All reports that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) including this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our current reports on Form 8-K, can be obtained free of charge from the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or through our website. The information contained on, or accessible through the SEC’s website or our website is not incorporated by reference into this report and should not be considered a part of this report.

Item 1A.    Risk Factors.
 
The following risk factors address the material risks concerning our business. If any of the risks discussed in this report were to occur, our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operation and our ability to service our debt and make distributions to our stockholders could be materially and adversely affected and the market price per share of our stock could decline significantly. Some statements in this report, including statements in the following risk factors, constitute forward-looking statements. Please refer to the section entitled “Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements.” The discussion of the potential effect of the following risk factors on our financial results relates to our consolidated financial position, consolidated results of operations and cash flows.
 
Risks Related to Our Business
 
Our business strategy, future results of operations and growth prospects are dependent on achieving revenue and net income growth from anticipated increases in demand for hotel guestrooms and general economic conditions.
 
Our business strategy includes achieving continued revenue and cash flow growth from anticipated improvement in demand for hotel guestrooms driven by long-term economic growth. We, however, cannot provide any assurances that demand for hotel guestrooms will increase from current levels or continue to exceed the growth of new supply, or the time or extent of any demand growth that we do experience. If demand does not continue to increase as the economy grows, or if there is a setback in the general economy resulting in weakening demand, our operating results and growth prospects could be adversely affected. As a result, any slowdown in economic growth or a new economic downturn could adversely affect our future results of operations and our growth prospects.
 
Our expenses may not decrease if our revenue decreases.
 
Many of the expenses associated with owning and operating hotels, such as debt service payments, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and certain employee compensation costs are relatively fixed. They do not necessarily decrease directly with a reduction in revenue at the hotels and may be subject to increases that are not related to the performance of our hotels or the increase in the rate of inflation. Also, as of December 31, 2018, five of our hotels are subject to third-party ground leases, and one hotel is subject to a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes lease, which generally require periodic increases in rent payments. Our ability to pay these rents could be adversely affected if our hotel revenues do not increase at the same or a greater rate than the increases in rental payments under the ground leases.

Additionally, certain costs, such as wages, benefits and insurance, may exceed the rate of inflation in any given period. In the event of a significant decrease in demand, our hotel managers may not be able to reduce the size of hotel work forces in order to decrease compensation costs. Our managers also may be unable to offset any fixed or increased expenses with higher room rates. Any of our efforts to reduce operating costs also could adversely affect the future growth of our business and the value of our hotel properties.

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We may be unable to complete acquisitions that would grow our business.
 
Our growth strategy includes the disciplined acquisition of hotels as opportunities arise. Our ability to acquire hotels on satisfactory terms or at all is subject to the following significant risks:
 
•
we may be unable to acquire, or may be forced to acquire at significantly higher prices, desired hotels because of competition from other real estate investors, including other real estate operating companies, REITs and investment funds;
•
we may be unable to obtain the necessary debt or equity financing to consummate an acquisition or, if obtainable, financing may not be on satisfactory terms; and
•
agreements for the acquisition of hotels are typically subject to customary conditions to closing, including satisfactory completion of due diligence investigations and the receipt of franchisor and lender consents, and we may spend significant time and incur significant transaction costs on potential acquisitions that we do not consummate.
 
Our inability to complete hotel acquisitions on favorable terms or at all, could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

The sale of certain hotel properties could result in significant tax liabilities unless we are able to defer the taxable gain through like-kind exchanges under Section 1031 of the IRC ("1031 Exchanges").
 
From time to time, we structure asset sales for possible inclusion in like-kind exchanges within the meaning of Section 1031 of the IRC. The ability to complete a like-kind exchange depends on many factors, including, among others, identifying and acquiring suitable replacement property within limited time periods, and the ownership structure of the properties being sold and acquired.  Therefore, we are not always able to sell an asset as part of a like-kind exchange. When successful, a like-kind exchange enables us to defer the taxable gain on the asset sold. Our inability to defer the taxable gain resulting from the sales of certain hotel properties, could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We may fail to successfully integrate acquired hotels or achieve expected operating performance.
 
Our ability to successfully integrate newly acquired hotels or achieve expected operating performance is subject to the following risks:
 
•
we may not possess the same level of familiarity with the dynamics and market conditions of any new markets that we may enter, which could result in us paying too much for hotels in new markets or not have the hotels achieve their maximum potential;
•
market conditions may result in lower than expected occupancy and guestroom rates;
•
we may acquire hotels without any recourse, or with only limited recourse, for liabilities, whether known or unknown, such as cleanup of environmental contamination, claims by tenants, vendors or other persons against the former owners of the hotels and claims for indemnification by general partners, directors, officers and others indemnified by the former owners of the hotels;
•
we may need to spend more than anticipated amounts to make necessary improvements or renovations to our newly acquired hotels; and
•
we may be unable to quickly and efficiently integrate new acquisitions, particularly acquisitions of portfolios of hotels, into our existing operations.
 
The inability of our acquired hotels to meet our operating performance expectations could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We may assume liabilities in connection with the acquisition of hotel properties, including unknown liabilities.
 
We may assume existing liabilities in connection with the acquisition of hotel properties, some of which may be unknown or unquantifiable on the acquisition date.  Unknown liabilities might include liabilities for cleanup or remediation of undisclosed environmental conditions, claims of hotel guests, vendors or other persons dealing with the seller of a particular hotel property, tax liabilities, employment-related issues and accrued but unpaid liabilities whether incurred in the ordinary course of business or otherwise.  If the magnitude of such unknown liabilities is high, they could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

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We may not be able to cause our hotel management companies to operate any of our hotels in a manner that is satisfactory to us, and termination of our hotel management agreements may be costly and disruptive.
 
To qualify as a REIT, we cannot operate or manage our hotels.  Accordingly, all of our hotels are leased to TRS lessees of our TRS.  All of our hotels are operated pursuant to hotel management agreements with independent hotel management companies, each of which must qualify as an “eligible independent contractor” to operate our hotels. As a result, our financial position, results of operations and our ability to service debt and make distributions to stockholders are dependent on the ability of our hotel management companies to operate our hotels successfully. Any failure of our hotel management companies to provide quality services and amenities or maintain a quality brand name and reputation could have a negative effect on their ability to operate our hotels and could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Even if we believe a hotel is being operated inefficiently or in a manner that does not result in satisfactory operating results, we will have limited ability to require the hotel management company to change its method of operation. We generally attempt to resolve issues with our hotel management companies through discussions and negotiations, but otherwise will only be able to seek redress if a hotel management company violates the terms of the applicable hotel management agreement, and then only to the extent of the remedies provided for under the terms of the hotel management agreement. If we replace the hotel management company of any of our hotels, we may be required to pay a substantial termination fee and we may experience significant disruptions at the affected hotel.
 
Furthermore, we have certain indemnifications from our property managers that generally protect us from financial losses due to the gross negligence or willful misconduct of our property managers. However, the indemnifications may be insufficient or the property manager may not have the financial wherewithal to support their indemnification obligation to us. As such, the indemnification may not provide us with sufficient protection against third-party claims resulting from the gross negligence or willful misconduct of our property managers in the operation of our hotels.

Our hotel managers or their affiliates manage, and in some cases own, have invested in, or provided credit support or operating guarantees to hotels that compete with our hotels, all of which may result in conflicts of interest. As a result, our hotel managers may in the future make decisions regarding competing lodging facilities that are not or would not be in our best interest.
 
Certain of our hotels are managed by affiliates of the franchisors for such hotels.  In these situations, the management agreement and the franchise agreement are typically combined into one document.  Thus, the termination of the management agreement due to poor performance or breach of the management agreement by the management company could also terminate our franchise license.  Thus, we may have very limited options to remedy poor hotel management performance if we desire to retain the franchise license.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
The management of a large number of hotels in our portfolio is currently concentrated with one hotel management company.
 
As of December 31, 2018, Interstate Management Company, LLC (“Interstate”) or its affiliate managed 33 of our 77 hotels.  Thus, a substantial portion of our revenues is generated by hotels managed by Interstate.  This significant concentration of operational risk in one hotel management company makes us more vulnerable economically than if our hotel management was more evenly diversified among several hotel management companies. Any adverse developments in Interstate’s business, financial strength or ability to operate our hotels efficiently and effectively could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We cannot provide assurance that Interstate will satisfy its obligations to us or effectively and efficiently operate our hotel properties. The failure or inability of Interstate to satisfy its obligations to us or effectively and efficiently operate our hotel properties could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 

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Restrictive covenants and other provisions in hotel management and franchise agreements could preclude us from taking actions with respect to the sale, refinancing or rebranding of a hotel that would otherwise be in our best interest.
 
Our hotel management agreements and franchise agreements generally contain restrictive covenants and other provisions that do not provide us with flexibility to sell, refinance or rebrand a hotel without the consent of the manager or franchisor. For example, the terms of some of these agreements may restrict our ability to sell a hotel unless the purchaser is not a competitor of the hotel management company or franchisor, assumes the related agreement and meets specified other conditions. In addition, our franchise agreements restrict our ability to rebrand particular hotels without the consent of the franchisor, which could result in significant operational disruptions and litigation if we do not obtain the consent. We could be forced to pay consent or termination fees to hotel managers or franchisors under these agreements as a condition to changing management or franchise brands of our hotels, and these fees could deter us from taking actions that would otherwise be in our best interest or could cause us to incur substantial expense.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We are required to expend funds to maintain franchisor operating standards and we may experience a loss of a franchise license or a decline in the value of a franchise brand.
 
Our hotels operate under franchise agreements, and the maintenance of franchise licenses for our hotels is subject to our franchisors’ operating standards and other terms and conditions. We expect that franchisors will periodically inspect our hotels to ensure that we, our TRS and our hotel management companies maintain our franchisors’ standards. Failure by us, our TRS or our hotel management companies to maintain these standards or other terms and conditions could result in a franchise license being canceled. If a franchise license terminates due to our failure to make required improvements or to otherwise comply with its terms, we could also be liable to the franchisor for a termination payment, which varies by franchisor and by hotel. As a condition of our continued holding of a franchise license, a franchisor could also require us to make capital improvements to our hotels, even if we do not believe the improvements are necessary or desirable or would result in an acceptable return on our investment.
 
The loss of a franchise license could materially and adversely affect the operations or the underlying value of the hotel because of the loss of associated name recognition, marketing support and centralized reservation systems provided by the franchisor. Because our hotels are concentrated with a limited number of franchise brands, a loss of all of the licenses for a particular franchise could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Negative publicity related to one of the franchise brands or the general decline of a brand also may adversely affect the underlying value of our hotels or result in a reduction in business.

We rely on external sources of capital to fund future capital needs, and if we encounter difficulty in obtaining such capital, we may not be able to make future acquisitions necessary to grow our business or meet maturing obligations.
 
To qualify as a REIT under the IRC, we are required, among other things, to distribute each year to our stockholders at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and excluding any net capital gain. Because of this distribution requirement, we may not be able to fund, from cash retained from operations, all of our future capital needs, including capital needed to make investments and to satisfy or refinance maturing obligations.
 
We expect to continue to rely on external sources of capital, including debt and equity financing, to fund future capital needs. Part of our strategy involves the use of additional debt financing to supplement our equity capital which may include our unsecured credit and term loan facilities, mortgage financing and other unsecured financing. Our ability to effectively implement and accomplish our business strategy will be affected by our ability to obtain and use additional leverage in sufficient amounts and on favorable terms. However, the capital environment is often characterized by extended periods of limited availability of both debt and equity financing, increasing financing costs, stringent credit terms and significant volatility. We may not be able to secure first mortgage financing or increase the availability under, extend the maturity of or refinance our unsecured credit and term loan facility.  If we are unable to obtain needed capital on satisfactory terms or at all, we may not be able to make the investments needed to expand our business, or to meet our obligations and commitments as they mature. Our access to capital will depend upon a number of factors over which we have little or no control, including general market conditions, the market’s perception of our current and potential future earnings and cash distributions and the

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market price of the shares of our common stock. We may not be in a position to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities for growth if we are unable to access the capital markets on a timely basis or on favorable terms.
 
We have a significant amount of debt, and our organizational documents have no limitation on the amount of additional indebtedness that we may incur in the future.
 
We have a significant amount of debt.  In the future, we may incur additional indebtedness to finance future hotel acquisitions, capital improvements and development activities and other corporate purposes. In addition, there are no restrictions in our charter or bylaws that limit the amount or percentage of indebtedness that we may incur or restrict the form in which our indebtedness will be incurred (including recourse or non-recourse debt or cross-collateralized debt).
 
A substantial level of indebtedness could have adverse consequences for our business, results of operations and financial position because it could, among other things:
 
•
require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to make principal and interest payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing our cash flow available to fund working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes, including to pay dividends on our common stock and our preferred stock as currently contemplated or necessary to satisfy the requirements for qualification as a REIT;
•
increase our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions and limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry;
•
limit our ability to borrow additional funds or refinance indebtedness on favorable terms or at all to expand our business or ease liquidity constraints; and
•
place us at a competitive disadvantage relative to competitors that have less indebtedness.
 
Generally, our mortgage debt carries maturity dates or call dates such that the loans become due prior to their full amortization.  It may be difficult to refinance or extend the maturity of such loans on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and we may not have sufficient borrowing capacity on our unsecured credit and term loan facility to repay any amounts that we are unable to refinance.  Although we believe that we will be able to refinance or extend the maturity of these loans, or will have the capacity to repay them, if necessary, using draws under our unsecured credit and term loan facility, there can be no assurance that our unsecured credit and term loan facility will be available to repay such maturing debt, as draws under our unsecured credit and term loan facility are subject to limitations based upon our unencumbered assets and certain financial covenants.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

The agreements governing our indebtedness place restrictions on us and our subsidiaries, reducing operational flexibility and creating default risks.
 
The agreements governing our indebtedness contain covenants that place restrictions on us and our subsidiaries. These covenants may restrict, among other activities, our and our subsidiaries’ ability to:
 
• merge, consolidate or transfer all or substantially all of our or our subsidiaries’ assets;
•sell, transfer, pledge or encumber our stock or the ownership interests of our subsidiaries;
• incur additional debt or place mortgages on our unencumbered hotels;
•enter into, terminate or modify leases for our hotels and hotel management and franchise agreements;
•make certain expenditures, including capital expenditures;
• pay dividends on or repurchase our capital stock; and
•enter into certain transactions with affiliates.
 
These covenants could impair our ability to grow our business, take advantage of attractive business opportunities or successfully compete. Our ability to comply with financial and other covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, including prevailing economic, financial and industry conditions. A breach of any of these covenants or covenants under any other agreements governing our indebtedness could result in an event of default. Cross-default provisions in our debt agreements could cause an event of default under one debt agreement to trigger an event of default under our other debt agreements. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under any of our debt agreements, the lenders could exercise their remedies available under the terms of the loan agreements, which could include accelerating outstanding debt to be immediately due and payable. If we were unable to repay or refinance the accelerated debt, the lenders could proceed against

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any assets pledged to secure that debt, including foreclosing on or requiring the sale of our hotels, and the proceeds from the sale of these hotels may not be sufficient to repay such debt in full.
 
These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

Mortgage debt obligations expose us to the possibility of foreclosure, which could result in the loss of our investment in any hotel subject to mortgage debt.
 
Except for the borrowings under our unsecured credit and term loan facilities, all of our other long-term debt existing as of December 31, 2018 is secured by mortgages on our hotel properties and related assets. Incurring mortgages and other secured debt obligations increases our risk of property losses because defaults on secured indebtedness may result in foreclosure actions initiated by lenders and ultimately our loss of the hotels securing such loans. If we are in default under a cross-defaulted mortgage loan, we could lose multiple hotels to foreclosure. For tax purposes, a foreclosure of any of our hotels would be treated as a sale of the hotel for a purchase price equal to the outstanding balance of the debt secured by the mortgage. If the outstanding balance of the debt secured by the mortgage exceeds our tax basis in the hotel, we would recognize taxable income on foreclosure, but would not receive any cash proceeds, which could hinder our ability to meet the REIT distribution requirements imposed by the IRC. We may assume or incur new mortgage indebtedness on the hotels in our portfolio or hotels that we acquire in the future. Any default under any one of our mortgage debt obligations may increase the risk of our default on our other indebtedness.
    
These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
An increase in interest rates would increase our interest costs on our variable rate debt and could have broader effects on the cost of capital for real estate companies and real estate asset values.
 
With respect to our existing and future variable-rate debt, an increase in interest rates would increase our interest payments and reduce our cash flow available for other corporate purposes, including capital improvements to our hotels, acquisitions of additional hotels, or dividends, among other things. In addition, rising interest rates could limit our ability to refinance existing debt when it matures and increase interest costs on any debt that is refinanced. Further, an increase in interest rates could increase the cost of capital for real estate assets which, in turn, could have a negative effect on real estate asset values generally, and our hotel properties specifically.  

See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Qualitative and Quantitative Effects of Market Risk.”

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We hedge our interest rate exposure to manage our exposure to interest rate volatility.
 
We have entered into four interest rate swaps having an aggregate notional amount of $400.0 million at December 31, 2018, to hedge against interest rate increases on certain of our outstanding variable-rate indebtedness. In the future, we may manage our exposure to interest rate volatility by using hedging arrangements, such as interest rate swaps and interest rate caps. Hedging arrangements involve the risk that the arrangement may fail to protect or adversely affect us because, among other things:
 
•
interest rate hedging can be expensive, particularly during periods of volatile interest rates;
•
available interest rate hedges may not correspond directly with the interest rate risk for which protection is sought;
•
the duration of the hedge may not match the duration of the related liability;
•
the credit quality of the hedging counterparty owing money on the hedge may be downgraded to such an extent that it impairs our ability to sell or assign our side of the hedging transaction; and
•
the hedging counterparty owing money in the hedging transaction may default on its obligation to pay.
 
As a result of any of the foregoing, our hedging transactions, which are intended to limit losses and exposure to interest rate volatility, could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

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Our success depends on key personnel whose continued service is not guaranteed.
 
We depend on the efforts and expertise of our management team to manage our day-to-day operations and strategic business activities.  The loss of services from any of the members of our management team, and our inability to find suitable replacements on a timely basis could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

System security risks, data protection breaches, cyber-attacks and systems integration issues could disrupt our internal operations or services provided to guests at our hotels, and any such disruption could reduce our expected revenue, increase our expenses, damage our reputation and adversely affect our stock price.

We and our third-party managers and franchisors rely on information technology networks and systems, including the Internet, to process, transmit and store electronic and customer information. These systems require the collection and retention of large volumes of hotel guests’ personally identifiable information, including credit card numbers. We purchase some of our information technology from vendors, on whom our systems depend. We rely on commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of confidential customer information, such as personally identifiable information, including information relating to financial accounts. Although we have taken steps to protect the security of our information systems and the data maintained in those systems, it is possible that our safety and security measures will not be able to prevent the systems’ improper functioning or damage, or the improper access or disclosure of personally identifiable information such as in the event of cyber-attacks. Cyber criminals may be able to penetrate our network security or the network security of our third-party managers and franchisors, and misappropriate or compromise our confidential information or that of our hotel guests, create system disruptions or cause the shutdown of our hotels. Computer programmers and hackers also may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms and other malicious software programs that attack our computer systems or the computer systems operated by our third-party managers and franchisors, or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of our respective networks. In addition, sophisticated hardware and operating system software and applications that we and our third-party managers or franchisors may procure from outside companies may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with our internal operations or the operations at our hotels. The costs to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and efforts to address these problems may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays, cessation of service and loss of existing or potential business at our hotels. Any compromise of our third-party managers and franchisor information networks’ function, security and availability could result in disruptions to operations, delayed sales or bookings, lost guest reservations, increased costs and lower margins. Any of these events could adversely affect our financial results, stock price and reputation, result in misstated financial reports and subject us to potential litigation and liability.
 
Portions of our information technology infrastructure or the information technology infrastructure of our third-party managers and franchisors also may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with systems integration or migration work that takes place from time to time. We or our third-party managers and franchisors may not be successful in implementing new systems and transitioning data, which could cause business disruptions and be expensive, time consuming, disruptive and resource-intensive. Such disruptions could adversely impact the ability of our third-party managers and franchisors to fulfill reservations for guestrooms and other services offered at our hotels.
 
Although we have taken steps to protect the security of our information systems, and the data maintained in these systems, there can be no assurance that the security measures we have taken will prevent failures, inadequacies or interruptions in system services, or that system security will not be breached through physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses or attacks by hackers. The increased level of sophistication and volume of attacks in recent years make it more difficult to predict the effect of a future breach. In addition, we rely on the security systems of our third-party managers and franchisors to protect proprietary and customer information from these threats.
 
Many of our managers carry cyber insurance policies to protect and offset a portion of potential costs that may be incurred from a security breach. Additionally, we currently have cyber insurance policies to provide supplemental coverage above the coverage carried by our third-party managers. Despite various precautionary steps to protect our hotels from losses resulting from cyber-attacks, any occurrence of a cyber-attack could still result in losses at our properties, which could affect our results of operations. To date, we are not currently aware of any cyber incidents that we believe to be material or that could have a material adverse effect on the business, financial condition and results of operations of the Company.


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Any of these items could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

Joint venture investments could be adversely affected by a lack of sole decision-making authority with respect to such investments, disputes with joint venture partners and the financial condition of joint venture partners.
 
We have in the past and may in the future enter into strategic joint ventures with unaffiliated investors to acquire, develop, improve or dispose of hotels, thereby reducing the amount of capital required by us to make investments and diversifying our capital sources for growth. We may not have sole decision-making authority with respect to these investments, and as a result we may not be able to take actions which are in the best interest of our stockholders.  Further, disputes between us and our joint venture partners may result in litigation or arbitration which could increase our expenses and prevent our officers and directors from focusing their time and effort on our business and could result in subjecting the hotels owned by the applicable joint venture to additional risks.
 
If a joint venture partner becomes bankrupt or otherwise defaults on its obligations under a joint venture agreement, we and any other remaining joint venture partners would generally remain liable for the joint venture liabilities. Furthermore, if a joint venture partner becomes bankrupt or otherwise defaults on its obligations under a joint venture agreement, we may be unable to continue the joint venture other than by purchasing such joint venture partner’s interests or the underlying assets at a premium to the market price. If any of the above risks are realized, it could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

Actions by organized labor could have a material adverse effect on our business.
 
We believe that unions are generally becoming more aggressive about organizing workers at hotels in certain locations.  If the workers employed by the third-party hotel management companies that manage our hotels unionize in the future, potential labor activities at any affected hotel could significantly increase the administrative, labor and legal expenses of the third-party hotel management company that we have engaged to manage that hotel, which likely would adversely affect the operating results of the hotel properties. If hotels in our portfolio are unionized, this could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

Risks Related to the Lodging Industry
 
Economic conditions may adversely affect the lodging industry.
 
The performance of the lodging industry has historically been closely linked to the performance of the general economy and, specifically, growth in U.S. gross domestic product (“GDP”). The lodging industry is also sensitive to business and personal discretionary spending levels. Declines in corporate budgets and consumer demand due to adverse general economic conditions, risks affecting or reducing travel patterns, lower consumer confidence or adverse political conditions can lower the revenue and profitability of our assets and therefore the net operating profits of our investments. Economic weakness could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We experience a high level of competition from other hotels and alternative accommodations in the markets in which we operate.
 
The lodging industry is highly competitive. Our hotels compete with other hotels for guests in each market in which our hotels operate based on a number of factors, including location, convenience, brand affiliation, guestroom rates, range of services and guest amenities or accommodations offered and quality of customer service. We also compete with numerous owners and operators of vacation ownership resorts, as well as companies that offer alternative accommodations, such as Airbnb and similar organizations, which operate websites that market available furnished, privately-owned residential properties, including homes and condominiums, that can be rented on a nightly, weekly or monthly basis. Competition will often be specific to the individual markets in which our hotels are located and includes competition from existing and new hotels as well as alternative accommodations. The price transparency of the lodging industry could lead to difficulty in increasing ADR as our competitors may offer guestrooms at lower rates than we can, which could result in our competitors increasing their occupancy at our expense. Competition could adversely affect our occupancy, ADR and RevPAR, and may require us to provide additional amenities or make capital improvements that we otherwise would not have to make.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

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Our operating results and ability to make distributions to our stockholders may be adversely affected by the risks inherent to the ownership of hotels and the markets in which we operate.
 
Hotels have different economic characteristics than many other real estate assets. A typical office property owner, for example, has long-term leases with third-party tenants, which provide a relatively stable long-term stream of revenue. By contrast, our hotels are subject to various operating risks common to the lodging industry, many of which are beyond our control, including the following:
 
•
relatively short-duration occupancies;
•
dependence on business and commercial travelers and tourism;
•
over-building of hotels in our markets, which could adversely affect occupancy and revenue at the hotels we acquire;
•
increases in energy costs and other expenses affecting travel, which may affect travel patterns and reduce the number of business and commercial travelers and tourists;
•
increases in operating costs, including increased real estate and personal property taxes, due to inflation and other factors that may not be offset by increased guestroom rates;
•
potential increases in labor costs at our hotels, including as a result of unionization of the labor force and increasing health care insurance expense;
•
changes in governmental laws and regulations, fiscal policies and zoning ordinances and the related costs of compliance with laws and regulations, fiscal policies and ordinances;
•
adverse effects of international, national, regional and local economic and market conditions; and
•
unforeseen events beyond our control, such as instability in the national, European or global economy, terrorist attacks, travel-related health concerns including pandemics and epidemics, travel-related environmental concerns including water contamination and air pollution, political instability, regional hostilities, increases in fuel prices, imposition of taxes or surcharges by regulatory authorities and travel-related accidents and unusual weather patterns, including natural disasters such as hurricanes.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

We have significant ongoing needs to make capital expenditures at our hotels, which require us to devote funds to these purposes.
 
Our hotels have an ongoing need for renovations and other capital improvements, including replacements, from time to time, of furniture, fixtures and equipment. Our franchisors also require periodic capital improvements as a condition of keeping the franchise licenses. In addition, lenders and hotel management companies may require that we set aside annual amounts for capital improvements to our assets. These capital improvements and replacements may give rise to the following risks: 

 
•
possible environmental problems;                 
•
construction cost overruns and delays;
•
a possible shortage of available cash to fund capital improvements and replacements and, the related possibility that financing for these capital improvements may not be available to us on affordable terms; and
•
uncertainties as to market demand or a loss of market demand after capital improvements and replacements have begun.
 
These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 

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Hotel development is subject to timing, budgeting and other risks.
 
We have in the past and may in the future develop hotels or acquire hotels that are under development from time to time as suitable opportunities arise, taking into consideration general economic conditions. Hotel development involves a number of risks, including the following: 

•
possible environmental problems;
•
construction cost overruns and delays;
•
receipt of and expense related to zoning, occupancy and other required governmental permits and authorizations;
•
development costs incurred for projects that are not pursued to completion;
•
acts of God such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods or fires that could adversely affect a project;
•
inability to raise capital; and
•
governmental restrictions on the nature or size of a project.
 
To the extent we develop hotels or acquire hotels under development, we cannot provide assurance that any development project will be completed on time or within budget. Our inability to complete a project on time or within budget could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Customers may increasingly use Internet travel intermediaries.
 
Our hotel guestrooms can be booked through Internet travel intermediaries, including, but not limited to Expedia.com and Booking.com, and their portfolio of companies (commonly referred to as "online travel agents" or "OTA's"). As these Internet bookings increase, these intermediaries may be able to obtain higher commissions, reduced guestroom rates or other significant contract concessions from our management companies. Moreover, some of these Internet travel intermediaries are attempting to offer hotel guestrooms as a commodity, by increasing the importance of price and general indicators of quality (such as “three-star downtown hotel”) at the expense of brand identification. These agencies hope that consumers will eventually develop brand loyalties to their reservations system rather than to the brands under which our hotels are franchised. If the amount of sales made through Internet intermediaries increases significantly, guestroom revenue may flatten or decrease, which could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We could incur uninsured and underinsured losses.
 
We intend to maintain comprehensive insurance on our hotels, including liability, fire and extended coverage, of the type and amount we believe are customarily obtained for or by owners of hotels similar to our hotels. Various types of catastrophic losses, such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, acts of terrorism, data breaches, losses related to business disruption from disputes with franchisors, or losses from customer litigation, may not be insurable or may not be economically insurable. In the event of a substantial loss, our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover the operating loss or the full market value or replacement cost of our lost investment. Should an uninsured loss or a loss in excess of insured limits occur, we could lose all or a portion of the capital we have invested in a hotel, as well as the anticipated future revenue from the hotel. In that event, we might nevertheless remain obligated for any mortgage debt or other financial obligations related to the asset. Loan covenants, inflation, changes in building codes and ordinances, environmental considerations and other factors might also keep us from using insurance proceeds to replace or renovate an asset after it has been damaged or destroyed. Under those circumstances, the insurance proceeds we receive might be inadequate to restore our economic position on the damaged or destroyed hotels.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

 Consumer trends and preferences, particularly with respect to younger generations, could change away from select-service hotels.

Consumer trends and preferences continuously change, especially within younger generations.   Many new hotel brands have been introduced over recent years to specifically address the perceived unique needs and preferences of younger travelers.  As our portfolio is concentrated in select-service hotels, significant consumer shifts in preferences away from select-service hotels could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.


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Risks Related to the Real Estate Industry and Real Estate-Related Investments
 
Illiquidity of real estate investments could significantly impede our ability to respond to adverse changes in the performance of our hotels or to adjust our portfolio in response to changes in economic and other conditions.
 
Our ability to promptly sell one or more hotels in our portfolio in response to changing economic, financial and investment conditions may be limited. We cannot predict whether we will be able to sell any hotels for the price or on the terms set by us, or whether any price or other terms offered by a prospective purchaser would be acceptable to us. We also cannot predict the length of time needed to find a willing purchaser and to close the sale of an asset. The real estate market is affected by many factors that are beyond our control, including:
 
•
adverse changes in international, national, regional and local economic and market conditions;
•
changes in interest rates and in the availability, cost and terms of debt financing;
•
changes in governmental laws and regulations, fiscal policies and zoning ordinances and the related costs of compliance with laws and regulations, fiscal policies and ordinances;
•
the ongoing need for capital improvements, particularly in older structures, that may require us to expend funds to correct defects or to make improvements before an asset can be sold;
•
changes in operating expenses; and
•
civil unrest, acts of God, including earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters, which may result in uninsured losses, and acts of war or terrorism, including the consequences of the terrorist acts such as those that occurred on September 11, 2001.
 
These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.

We could incur significant costs related to government regulation and litigation over environmental, health and safety matters.
 
Our hotels and development land parcels are subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws that impose liability for contamination. Under these laws, governmental entities have the authority to require us, as the current or former owner of the property, to perform or pay for the cleanup of contamination (including hazardous substances, waste or petroleum products) at or emanating from the property and to pay for natural resource damage arising from contamination. These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or operator knew of, or caused the contamination. We can also be liable to private parties for costs of remediation, personal injury and death and/or property damage resulting from contamination at or emanating from our properties. Moreover, environmental contamination can affect the value of a property and, therefore, an owner’s ability to borrow funds using the property as collateral or to sell the property on favorable terms or at all. Furthermore, persons who sent waste to a waste disposal facility, such as a landfill or an incinerator, may be liable for costs associated with cleanup of that facility.
 
In addition, our hotels (including our real property, operations and equipment) are subject to various federal, state and local environmental, health and safety regulatory requirements that address a wide variety of issues, including, but not limited to the registration, maintenance and operation of our boilers and storage tanks, air emissions from emergency generators, storm water and wastewater discharges, asbestos, lead-based paint, mold and mildew, and waste management. Some of our hotels also routinely handle or use hazardous or regulated substances and waste in their operations (for example, swimming pool chemicals or biological waste). Our hotels incur costs to comply with these environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and if these regulatory requirements are not met or unforeseen events result in the discharge of dangerous or toxic substances at our hotels, we could be subject to fines and penalties for non-compliance with applicable laws and material liability from third parties for harm to the environment, damage to real property or personal injury and death. We are aware of no past or present environmental liability for non-compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, assets or results of operations.

Certain hotels we currently own or those we acquire in the future contain, may contain, or may have contained, asbestos-containing material (“ACM”). Environmental, health and safety laws require that ACM be properly managed and maintained, and include requirements to undertake special precautions, such as removal or abatement, if ACM would be disturbed during maintenance, renovation, or demolition of a building. These laws regarding ACM may impose fines and penalties on building owners, employers and operators for failure to comply with these requirements or expose us to third-party liability.


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These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Compliance with the laws, regulations and covenants that apply to our hotels, including permit, license and zoning requirements, may adversely affect our ability to make future acquisitions or renovations, result in significant costs or delays and adversely affect our growth strategy.
 
Our hotels are subject to various covenants and local laws and regulatory requirements, including permitting and licensing requirements which can restrict the use of our properties and increase the cost of acquisition, development and operation of our hotels.  In addition, federal and state laws and regulations, including laws such as the ADA, impose further restrictions on our operations. Under the ADA, all public accommodations must meet federal requirements related to access and use by disabled persons. We have not conducted a comprehensive audit or investigation of all of our properties to determine our compliance. As such, some of our hotels currently may be in noncompliance with the ADA. If one or more of the hotels in our portfolio is not in compliance with the ADA or any other regulatory requirements, we may be required to incur additional costs to bring the hotel into compliance and we might incur damages or governmental fines. In addition, existing requirements may change and future requirements may require us to make significant unanticipated expenditures.

These conditions could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
We have fixed obligations related to right-of-use assets on which certain of our hotels are located.
 
If we default on the terms of any of our right-of-use assets, such as ground leases, air rights or other intangible assets, and are unable to cure the default in a timely manner, we may be liable for damages and could lose our leasehold interest in the applicable property and interest in the hotel on the applicable property. An event of default that is not timely cured could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
The states and localities in which we own material amounts of property or conduct material business operations could raise their income and property tax rates or amend their tax regimes in a manner that increases our state and local tax liabilities.
 
We and our subsidiaries are subject to income tax and other taxes by states and localities in which we conduct business. Additionally, we are and will continue to be subject to property taxes in states and localities in which we own property, and our TRS lessees are and will continue to be subject to state and local corporate income tax.  As these states and localities seek additional sources of revenue, they may, among other steps, raise income and property tax rates or amend their tax regimes to eliminate for state income tax purposes the favorable tax treatment REITs enjoy for federal income tax purposes. We cannot predict when or if any states or localities would make any such changes, or what form those changes would take. If states and localities in which we own material amounts of property or conduct material amounts of business make changes to their tax rates or tax regimes that increase our state and local tax liabilities, such increases could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Risks Related to Our Organization and Structure
 
Our fiduciary duties as the general partner of our Operating Partnership could create conflicts of interest.
 
We, through our wholly-owned subsidiary that serves as the sole general partner of our Operating Partnership, have fiduciary duties to our Operating Partnership’s limited partners, the discharge of which may conflict with the interests of our stockholders. The limited partners of our Operating Partnership have agreed for so long as we own a controlling interest in our Operating Partnership that, in the event of a conflict between the duties owed by our directors to our company and the duties that we owe, in our capacity as the sole general partner of our Operating Partnership, to the limited partners, our directors must give priority to the interests of our stockholders. In addition, those persons holding Common Units have the right to vote on certain amendments to the limited partnership agreement (which require approval by a majority interest of the limited partners, including us) and individually to approve certain amendments that would adversely affect their rights, as well as the right to vote on mergers and consolidations of the general partner or us in certain limited circumstances. These voting rights may be exercised in a manner that conflicts with the interests of our stockholders. For example, we cannot adversely affect the limited partners’ rights to receive distributions, as set forth in the limited partnership agreement, without their consent, even though modifying such rights might be in the best interest of our stockholders generally.
 

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Provisions of our charter may limit the ability of a third party to acquire control of us by authorizing our board of directors to issue additional securities.
 
Our board of directors may, without stockholder approval, amend our charter to increase or decrease the aggregate number of our shares or the number of shares of any class or series that we have the authority to issue and to classify or reclassify any unissued shares of common stock or preferred stock, and set the preferences, rights and other terms of the classified or reclassified shares. As a result, our board of directors may authorize the issuance of additional shares or establish a series of common or preferred stock that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company, including transactions at a premium over the market price of our shares, even if stockholders believe that a change in control is in their interest. These provisions, along with the restrictions on ownership and transfer contained in our charter and certain provisions of Maryland law described below, could discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or make it more difficult for a third party to gain control of us, which could adversely affect the market price of our securities.
 
Provisions of Maryland law may limit the ability of a third party to acquire control of us by requiring our board of directors or stockholders to approve proposals to acquire our company or effect a change in control.
 
Certain provisions of the Maryland General Corporation Law (the “MGCL”) applicable to Maryland corporations may have the effect of inhibiting a third party from making a proposal to acquire us or of impeding a change in control under circumstances that otherwise could provide our stockholders with the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price of such shares, including “business combination” and “control share” provisions.
 
By resolution of our board of directors, we have opted out of the business combination provisions of the MGCL and provided that any business combination between us and any other person is exempt from the business combination provisions of the MGCL, provided that the business combination is first approved by our board of directors (including a majority of directors who are not affiliates or associates of such persons). In addition, pursuant to a provision in our bylaws, we have opted out of the control share provisions of the MGCL. However, our board of directors may by resolution elect to opt in to the business combination provisions of the MGCL and we may, by amendment to our bylaws, opt in to the control share provisions of the MGCL in the future.
 
Our rights and the rights of our stockholders to take action against our directors and officers are limited.
 
Under Maryland law, generally, a director will not be liable if he or she performs his or her duties in good faith, in a manner he or she reasonably believes to be in our best interests and with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances. In addition, our charter limits the liability of our directors and officers to us and our stockholders for money damages, except for liability resulting from:
 
•
actual receipt of an improper benefit or profit in money, property or services; or
•
active and deliberate dishonesty by the director or officer that was established by a final judgment as being material to the cause of action adjudicated.
 
Our charter authorizes us to indemnify our directors and officers for actions taken by them in those capacities to the maximum extent permitted by Maryland law. Our bylaws require us to indemnify each director and officer, to the maximum extent permitted by Maryland law, in the defense of any proceeding to which he or she is made, or threatened to be made, a party by reason of his or her service to us. In addition, we may be obligated to advance the defense costs incurred by our directors and officers. As a result, we and our stockholders may have more limited rights against our directors and officers than might otherwise exist absent the current provisions in our charter and bylaws or that might exist with other companies.


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Our stockholders have limited voting rights and our charter contains provisions that make removal of our directors difficult.
 
Our shares of common stock are the only class of our securities that carry full voting rights. Voting rights for holders of our preferred stock exist primarily with respect to the ability to elect two additional directors to our board of directors in the event that six quarterly dividends (whether or not consecutive) payable on the preferred stock are in arrears, and with respect to voting on amendments to our charter or articles supplementary relating to the preferred stock that materially and adversely affect the rights of the holders of preferred stock or create additional classes or series of senior equity securities. Further, our charter provides that a director may be removed only for cause (as defined in our charter) and then only by the affirmative vote of holders of shares entitled to cast at least two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast generally in the election of directors. Our charter also provides that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of the remaining directors in office, even if less than a quorum. These requirements prevent stockholders from removing directors except for cause and with a substantial affirmative vote and from replacing directors with their own nominees and may prevent a change in control of our company or effect other management changes that are in the best interests of our stockholders.
 
The ability of our board of directors to change our major policies without the consent of stockholders may not be in our stockholders’ interest.
 
Our board of directors determines our major policies, including policies and guidelines relating to our acquisitions, leverage, financing, growth, operations and distributions to stockholders. Our board of directors may amend or revise these and other policies and guidelines from time to time without the vote or consent of our stockholders. Accordingly, our stockholders will have limited control over changes in our policies and those changes could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Our board of directors has the ability to revoke our REIT qualification without stockholder approval.
 
Our charter provides that our board of directors may revoke or otherwise terminate our REIT election, without the approval of our stockholders, if it determines that it is no longer in our best interest to continue to qualify as a REIT. If we cease to be a REIT, we would become subject to federal income tax on our taxable income and would no longer be required to distribute most of our taxable income to our stockholders, which may have adverse consequences on the total return to our stockholders.
 
We are a holding company with no direct operations. As a result, we rely on funds received from our Operating Partnership to pay liabilities and dividends, our stockholders’ claims will be structurally subordinated to all liabilities of our Operating Partnership and our stockholders will not have any voting rights with respect to our Operating Partnership activities, including the issuance of additional Common Units or Preferred Units.
 
We are a holding company and conduct all of our operations through our Operating Partnership. We do not have, apart from our ownership of our Operating Partnership, any independent operations. As a result, we rely on distributions from our Operating Partnership to pay any dividends we might declare on shares of our common or preferred stock. We also rely on distributions from our Operating Partnership to meet any of our obligations, including tax liabilities on taxable income allocated to us from our Operating Partnership (which might make distributions to us that do not equal the tax on such allocated taxable income).
 
In addition, because we are a holding company, stockholders’ claims will be structurally subordinated to all existing and future liabilities and obligations (whether or not for borrowed money) of our Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries. Therefore, in the event of our bankruptcy, liquidation or reorganization, claims of our stockholders will be satisfied only after all of our and our Operating Partnership’s and its subsidiaries’ liabilities and obligations have been paid in full.
 
We own approximately 99.7% of the Common Units in the Operating Partnership, all of the issued and outstanding 6.45% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Units of the Operating Partnership (“Series D Preferred Units”), and all of the issued and outstanding 6.25% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Units of the Operating Partnership ("Series E Preferred Units"). We refer to the Series D Preferred Units and Series E Preferred Units collectively as Preferred Units.  Any future issuances by our Operating Partnership of additional Common Units or Preferred Units could reduce our ownership percentage in our Operating Partnership. Because our common stockholders do not directly own any Common Units or Preferred Units, they will not have any voting rights with respect to any such issuances or other partnership-level activities of the Operating Partnership.


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If we are unable to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to produce and report accurate financial information on a timely basis or prevent fraud.
 
A system of internal controls that is well designed and properly functioning is critical for us to produce and report accurate and reliable financial information and effectively prevent fraud. We must also rely on the quality of the internal control environments of our third-party property managers who provide us with financial information related to our hotel properties. At times, we may identify areas of internal controls that are not properly functioning as designed, that need improvement or that must be developed to ensure that we have an adequate system of internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires us to evaluate and report on our internal controls over financial reporting and have our independent auditors annually issue their own opinion on our internal controls over financial reporting. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in maintaining adequate internal controls over our financial reporting and processes. Additionally, as we grow our business, our internal controls will become more complex and we will require significantly more resources to ensure that our internal controls remain effective. If we or our independent auditors discover a material weakness, the disclosure of that fact, even if promptly remedied, could cause our stockholders to lose confidence in our financial results, which could reduce the market value of our common shares. Additionally, the existence of any material weakness or significant deficiency could require management to devote substantial time and incur significant expense to remediate any such conditions.  There can be no assurance that management will be able to remediate any material weaknesses in a timely manner.
 
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
 
The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) or another nationally-recognized exchange may not continue to list our securities.
 
Our common stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol “INN,” our 6.45% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol “INNPrD,” and our 6.25% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol "INNPrE." In order for our securities to remain listed, we are required to meet the continued listing requirements of the NYSE or, in the alternative, any other nationally-recognized exchange to which we apply. We may be unable to satisfy those listing requirements, and there is no guarantee our securities will remain listed on a nationally-recognized exchange. If our securities are delisted from the NYSE or another nationally-recognized exchange, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
 
•
a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•
a limited ability of our stockholders to make transactions in our securities;
•
additional trading restrictions being placed on us;
•
reduced liquidity with respect to our securities;
•
a determination that our common stock is “penny stock,” which will require brokers trading in our common stock to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for the common stock;
•
a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
•
a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
 

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The cash available for distribution may not be sufficient to make distributions at expected levels and we may use borrowed funds or funds from other sources to make distributions.
 
Subject to the preferential rights of the holders of our Series D and Series E preferred stock and any other class or series of our stock that are senior to our common stock with respect to distribution rights, we intend to make quarterly distributions to holders of our common stock. Distributions declared by us will be authorized by our board of directors in its sole discretion out of funds legally available for distribution and will depend upon a number of factors, including restrictions under applicable law and the capital requirements of our company. All distributions will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our earnings, our financial condition, the requirements for qualification as a REIT, restrictions under applicable law and other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant from time to time. We may be required to fund distributions from working capital, borrowings under our unsecured revolving credit facility, proceeds of future stock offerings or a sale of assets to the extent distributions exceed earnings or cash flows from operations. Funding distributions from working capital would restrict our operations. If we borrow from the unsecured revolving credit facility to pay distributions, we would be more limited in our ability to execute our strategy of using that unsecured revolving credit facility to fund acquisitions. Finally, selling assets may require us to dispose of assets at a time or in a manner that is not consistent with our disposition strategy. If we borrow to fund distributions, our leverage ratios and future interest costs would increase, thereby reducing our earnings and cash available for distribution from what they otherwise would have been. We may not be able to make distributions in the future. In addition, some of our distributions may be considered a return of capital for income tax purposes. If we decide to make distributions in excess of our current and accumulated earnings and profits, such distributions would generally be considered a return of capital for federal income tax purposes to the extent of the holder’s adjusted tax basis in their shares. A return of capital is not taxable, but it has the effect of reducing the holder’s adjusted tax basis in its investment. If distributions exceed the adjusted tax basis of a holder’s shares, they will be treated as gain from the sale or exchange of such stock.

The market price of our stock may be volatile due to numerous circumstances beyond our control.
 
The trading prices of equity securities issued by REITs and other real estate companies historically have been affected by changes in market interest rates. One of the factors that may influence the market price of our common or preferred stock is the annual yield from distributions on our common or preferred stock, respectively, as compared to yields on other financial instruments. An increase in market interest rates, or a decrease in our distributions to stockholders, may lead prospective purchasers of our common or preferred stock to demand a higher annual yield, which could reduce the market price of our common or preferred stock, respectively.
 
Other factors that could affect the market price of our stock include the following:
 
•
actual or anticipated variations in our quarterly results of operations;
•
increases in interest rates;
•
changes in market valuations of companies in the lodging industry;
•
changes in expectations of future financial performance or changes in estimates of securities analysts;
•
fluctuations in stock market prices and volumes;
•
our issuances of common stock, preferred stock, or other securities in the future;
•
the inclusion of our common stock and preferred stock in equity indices, which could induce additional purchases;
•
the addition or departure of key personnel;
•
announcements by us or our competitors of acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances;
•
unforeseen events beyond our control, such as instability in the national, European or global economy, terrorist attacks, travel related health concerns including pandemics and epidemics, political instability, regional hostilities, increases in fuel prices, imposition of taxes or surcharges by regulatory authorities and travel-related accidents and unusual weather patterns, including natural disasters; and
•
changes in the tax laws or regulations to which we are subject.
 
The market’s perception of our growth potential and our current and potential future cash distributions, whether from operations, sales or refinancings, as well as the real estate market value of the underlying assets, may cause our common and preferred stock to trade at prices that differ from our net asset value per share. If we retain operating cash flow for investment purposes, working capital reserves or other purposes, these retained funds, while increasing the value of our underlying assets, may not correspondingly increase the market price of our common and preferred stock. Our failure to meet the market’s expectations with regard to future earnings and distributions likely would adversely affect the market price of our common and preferred stock.
 

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The trading market for our stock will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who do cover us downgrades our stock or our industry, or the stock of any of our competitors, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company, we could lose attention in the market, which in turn could cause the price of our stock to decline.
 
The number of shares of our common stock and preferred stock available for future sale could adversely affect the market price per share of our common stock and preferred stock, respectively, and future sales by us of shares of our common stock, preferred stock, or issuances by our Operating Partnership of Common Units may be dilutive to existing stockholders.
 
Sales of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock or preferred stock in the public market, or upon exchange of Common Units or exercise of any equity awards, or the perception that such sales might occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and preferred stock. As of February 18, 2019, a total of 259,265 Common Units are redeemable and could be converted into shares of our common stock and sold into the public market. The exchange of Common Units for common stock, the vesting of any equity-based awards granted to certain directors, executive officers and other employees under the 2011 Equity Incentive Plan which was amended and restated effective June 15, 2015 (as amended and restated, the “Equity Plan”), the issuance of our common stock or Common Units in connection with hotel, portfolio or business acquisitions and other issuances of our common stock or Common Units could have an adverse effect on the market price of the shares of our common stock.
 
We may execute future offerings of debt securities, which would be senior to our common and preferred stock upon liquidation, and issuances of equity securities (including Common Units).
 
In the future we may offer debt securities and issue equity securities, including Common Units, preferred stock or other preferred shares that may be senior to our common stock for purposes of dividend distributions or upon liquidation. Upon liquidation, holders of our debt securities and our preferred shares will receive distributions of our available assets prior to the holders of our common stock. Holders of our common stock are not entitled to preemptive rights or other protections against us offering senior debt or equity securities. Therefore, additional common share issuances, directly or through convertible or exchangeable securities (including Common Units), warrants or options, will dilute the holdings of our existing common stockholders and such issuances or the perception of such issuances may reduce the market price of our common stock. In addition, new issues of preferred stock could have a preference on liquidating distributions and a preference on dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay a dividend or make another distribution to the holders of our common stock. Because our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of future issuances. Thus, our stockholders bear the risk of our future offerings reducing the market price of our common stock and diluting their interest in us.
 
Risks Related to Our Status as a REIT
 
Failure to remain qualified as a REIT would cause us to be taxed as a regular corporation.
 
The REIT rules and regulations are highly technical and complex.  We believe that our organization and method of operation has enabled us to meet the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT commencing with our short taxable year ended December 31, 2011. However, we cannot provide assurance that we will remain qualified as a REIT.
 
Failure to qualify as a REIT could result from a number of situations, including, without limitation:
 
•
if the leases of our hotels to our TRS lessees are not respected as true leases for federal income tax purposes;
•
if our Operating Partnership is treated as a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation for federal income tax purposes;
•
if our existing or future hotel management companies do not qualify as “eligible independent contractors” or if our hotels are not “qualified lodging facilities,” as required by federal income tax law; or
•
if we fail to meet any of the required REIT qualifications.


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If we fail to qualify as a REIT in any taxable year, we will face serious tax consequences that will substantially reduce the funds available for distributions to our stockholders because:
 
•
we would not be allowed a deduction for dividends paid to stockholders in computing our taxable income and would be subject to federal income tax at regular corporate rates (at a rate of 21%);
•
we could be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax for taxable years prior to 2018 and possibly increased state and local taxes; and
•
unless we are entitled to relief under certain federal income tax laws, we could not re-elect REIT status until the fifth calendar year after the year in which we failed to qualify as a REIT.
 
In addition, if we fail to qualify as a REIT, we will no longer be required to make distributions. As a result of all these factors, our failure to qualify as a REIT could impair our ability to expand our business and raise capital, and it could adversely affect the value of our stock.
 
Even if we continue to qualify as a REIT, we may face other tax liabilities.
 
Even if we continue to qualify for taxation as a REIT, we may be subject to certain federal, state and local taxes on our income and assets including, but not limited to taxes on any undistributed income, tax on income from some activities conducted as a result of a foreclosure, and state or local income, property and transfer taxes. In addition, our TRS is subject to regular corporate federal, state and local taxes. Any of these taxes would decrease cash available for distributions to stockholders.
 
Failure to make required distributions would subject us to federal corporate income tax.
 
We intend to operate in a manner so as to qualify as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. To qualify as a REIT, we generally are required to distribute at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and excluding any net capital gain, each year to our stockholders. To the extent that we satisfy this distribution requirement, but distribute less than 100% of our REIT taxable income, we will be subject to federal corporate income tax on our undistributed taxable income. In addition, we will be subject to a 4% non-deductible excise tax if the actual amount that we pay out to our stockholders in a calendar year is less than a minimum amount specified under the IRC.

We have significant REIT distribution requirements to maintain our status as a REIT.
 
To satisfy the requirements for qualification as a REIT and to meet the REIT distribution requirements, we may need to borrow funds on a short-term basis or sell assets, even if the then-prevailing market conditions are not favorable for these borrowings or sales. Our cash flows from operations may be insufficient to fund required distributions as a result of differences in timing between the actual receipt of income and the recognition of income for federal income tax purposes, or the effect of non-deductible capital expenditures, the creation of reserves or required debt service or amortization payments. Our REIT distribution requirements could adversely affect our liquidity and may force us to borrow funds or sell assets during unfavorable market conditions or pay taxable stock dividends. The insufficiency of our cash flows to cover our distribution requirements could have an adverse effect on our ability to raise short- and long-term debt or sell equity securities to fund distributions required to maintain our qualification as a REIT.
 
The formation of our TRS increases our overall tax liability.
 
Our TRS is subject to federal, state and local income tax on its taxable income, which typically consists of the revenue from the hotels leased by our TRS lessees, net of the operating expenses for such hotels and rent payments to us and, in the case of any hotel that is owned by a wholly-owned subsidiary of our TRS, the revenue from that hotel, net of the operating expenses. In certain circumstances, the ability of our TRS to deduct interest expense or utilize net operating loss carryfowards for federal income tax purposes may be limited. Accordingly, although our ownership of our TRS allows us to participate in the operating income from our hotels in addition to receiving rent, that operating income will be fully subject to income tax. The after-tax net income of our TRS is available for distribution to us.
 

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Our TRS lessee structure subjects us to the risk of increased hotel operating expenses.
 
Our leases with our TRS lessees require our TRS lessees to pay us rent based in part on revenue from our hotels. Our operating risks include decreases in hotel revenue and increases in hotel operating expenses, including but not limited to the increases in wage and benefit costs, repair and maintenance expenses, energy costs and other operating expenses, which would adversely affect our TRS’ ability to pay us rent due under the leases. Increases in these operating expenses could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows or the market price of our stock.
 
Our Operating Partnership could be treated as a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation for federal income tax purposes.
 
Although we believe that our Operating Partnership will be treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, no assurance can be given that the IRS will not successfully challenge that position. If the IRS were to successfully contend that our Operating Partnership should be treated as a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation, we would fail to meet the 75% gross income test and certain of the asset tests applicable to REITs and, unless we qualified for certain statutory relief provisions, we would cease to qualify as a REIT. Also, our Operating Partnership would become subject to federal, state and local income tax, which would reduce significantly the amount of cash available for debt service and for distribution to us.
 
Our current hotel management companies, or any other hotel management companies that we may engage in the future may not qualify as “eligible independent contractors,” or our hotels may not be considered “qualified lodging facilities.”
 
Rent paid by a lessee that is a “related party tenant” of ours will not be qualifying income for purposes of the two gross income tests applicable to REITs. An exception is provided, however, for leases of “qualified lodging facilities” to a TRS so long as the hotels are managed by an “eligible independent contractor” and certain other requirements are satisfied. We lease all of our hotels to our TRS lessees. All of our hotels are operated pursuant to hotel management agreements with Interstate and other hotel management companies, each of which we believe qualifies as an “eligible independent contractor.”  Among other requirements, to qualify as an eligible independent contractor, the hotel manager must not own, directly or through its stockholders, more than 35% of our outstanding shares, and no person or group of persons can own more than 35% of our outstanding shares and the shares (or ownership interest) of the hotel manager, taking into account certain ownership attribution rules. The ownership attribution rules that apply for purposes of these 35% thresholds are complex, and monitoring actual and constructive ownership of our shares by our hotel managers and their owners may not be practical. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that these ownership levels will not be exceeded.

In addition, for a hotel management company to qualify as an eligible independent contractor, such company or a related person must be actively engaged in the trade or business of operating “qualified lodging facilities” (as defined below) for one or more persons not related to the REIT or its TRS at each time that such company enters into a hotel management contract with a TRS or its TRS lessee. As of the date hereof, we believe each of our hotel management companies operates qualified lodging facilities for certain persons who are not related to us or our TRS. However, no assurances can be provided that our hotel management companies or any other hotel managers that we may engage in the future will in fact comply with this requirement. Failure to comply with this requirement would require us to find other managers for future contracts, and, if we hired a management company without knowledge of the failure, it could jeopardize our status as a REIT.
 
Finally, each property with respect to which our TRS lessees pay rent must be a “qualified lodging facility.” A “qualified lodging facility” is a hotel, motel or other establishment more than one-half of the dwelling units in which are used on a transient basis, including customary amenities and facilities, provided that no wagering activities are conducted at or in connection with such facility by any person who is engaged in the business of accepting wagers and who is legally authorized to engage in such business at or in connection with such facility. As of the date hereof, we believe that the properties that are leased to our TRS lessees are qualified lodging facilities. Although we intend to monitor future acquisitions and improvements of properties, REIT provisions of the IRC provide only limited guidance for making determinations under the requirements for qualified lodging facilities, and there can be no assurance that these requirements will be satisfied. If any of our properties are not deemed to be a "qualified lodging facility," we may fail to qualify as a REIT.
 

26


Our ownership of our TRS is subject to limitations and our transactions with our TRS could cause us to be subject to a 100% penalty tax on certain income or deductions if those transactions are not conducted on arm’s-length terms.
 
Overall, no more than 20% (25% for taxable years beginning prior to January 1, 2018) of the value of a REIT’s assets may consist of stock or securities of one or more TRSs. In addition, the IRC limits the deductibility of interest paid or accrued by a TRS to its parent REIT to provide assurance that the TRS is subject to an appropriate level of corporate taxation. The IRC also imposes a 100% excise tax on certain transactions between a TRS and its parent REIT that are not conducted on an arm’s-length basis. The 100% tax would apply, for example, to the extent that we were found to have charged our TRS lessees rent in excess of an arm’s-length rent.  We monitor the value of our investment in our TRS for the purpose of ensuring compliance with TRS ownership limitations and structure our transactions with our TRS on terms that we believe are arm’s-length to avoid incurring the 100% excise tax described above. There can be no assurance, however, that we will be able to comply with the 20% (25% for taxable years beginning prior to January 1, 2018) TRS limitations or to avoid application of the 100% excise tax.
 
We may be subject to adverse legislative or regulatory tax changes.
 
At any time, the federal income tax laws governing REITs or the administrative interpretations of those laws may be amended. We cannot predict when or if any new federal income tax law, regulation, or administrative interpretation, or any amendment to any existing federal income tax law, regulation or administrative interpretation, will be adopted, promulgated or become effective and any such law, regulation, or interpretation may take effect retroactively. We and our stockholders could be adversely affected by any such change in, or any new, federal income tax law, regulation or administrative interpretation and we could experience a reduction in the price of our stock. The TCJA, enacted in 2017, significantly changed the federal income tax laws applicable to businesses and their owners, including REITs and their stockholders. Technical corrections or other amendments to the TCJA or administrative guidance interpreting the TCJA may be forthcoming at any time. We cannot predict the long-term effect of the TCJA or any future law changes on REITs and their stockholders.
 
Stockholders may be restricted from acquiring or transferring certain amounts of our stock.
 
The stock ownership restrictions of the IRC for REITs and the 9.8% stock ownership limit in our charter may inhibit market activity in our capital stock and restrict our business combination opportunities.
 
To qualify as a REIT for each taxable year, five or fewer individuals, as defined in the IRC, may not own, beneficially or constructively, more than 50% in value of our issued and outstanding stock at any time during the last half of a taxable year. Attribution rules in the IRC determine if any individual or entity beneficially or constructively owns our capital stock under this requirement. Additionally, at least 100 persons must beneficially own our capital stock during at least 335 days of a taxable year for each taxable year. To help insure that we meet these tests, our charter restricts the acquisition and ownership of shares of our capital stock.
 
Our charter, with certain exceptions, authorizes our directors to take such actions as are necessary and desirable to preserve our qualification as a REIT. Unless exempted by our board of directors, our charter prohibits any person from beneficially or constructively owning more than 9.8% in value or number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of the outstanding shares of any class or series of our capital stock. Our board of directors may not grant an exemption from these restrictions to any proposed transferee whose ownership in excess of 9.8% of the value of our outstanding shares would result in our failing to qualify as a REIT. These restrictions on transferability and ownership will not apply, however, if our board of directors determines that it is no longer in our best interest to continue to qualify as a REIT.


27


We may pay taxable dividends in our common stock and cash, in which case stockholders may sell shares of our common stock to pay tax on such dividends.
 
We may distribute taxable dividends that are payable in cash and common stock at the election of each stockholder.  Under IRS Revenue Procedure 2017-45, as a publicly offered REIT, as long as at least 20% of the total dividend is available in cash and certain other requirements are satisfied, the IRS will treat the stock distribution as a dividend (to the extent applicable rules treat such distribution as being made out of our earnings and profits). If we made a taxable dividend payable in cash and common stock, taxable stockholders receiving such dividends will be required to include the full amount of the dividend as ordinary income to the extent of our current and accumulated earnings and profits, as determined for federal income tax purposes. As a result, stockholders may be required to pay income tax with respect to such dividends in excess of the cash dividends received. If a U.S. stockholder sells the common stock that it receives as a dividend to pay this tax, the sales proceeds may be less than the amount included in income with respect to the dividend, depending on the market price of our common stock at the time of the sale. Furthermore, with respect to certain non-U.S. stockholders, we may be required to withhold federal income tax with respect to such dividends, including in respect of all or a portion of such dividend that is payable in common stock. If we made a taxable dividend payable in cash and our common stock and a significant number of our stockholders determine to sell shares of our common stock to pay taxes owed on dividends, it may put downward pressure on the trading price of our common stock. We do not currently intend to pay a taxable dividend of our common stock and cash.
 
The 100% prohibited transactions tax may limit our ability to dispose of our properties, and we could incur a material tax liability if the IRS successfully asserts that the 100% prohibited transaction tax applies to some or all of our past or future dispositions.
 
A REIT’s net income from prohibited transactions is subject to a 100% tax. In general, prohibited transactions are sales or other dispositions of property, other than foreclosure property, held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business. We have selectively disposed of certain of our properties in the past and intend to make additional dispositions in the future.  Although a safe harbor to the characterization of the sale of property by a REIT as a prohibited transaction is available, some of our past dispositions may not have qualified for that safe harbor and some or all of our future dispositions may not qualify for that safe harbor. We believe that our past dispositions will not be treated as prohibited transactions, and we may avoid disposing of property that may be characterized as held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business. Consequently, we may choose not to engage in certain sales of our properties or may conduct such sales through our TRS, which would be subject to federal and state income taxation as a corporation.  Moreover, no assurance can be provided that the IRS will not assert that some or all of our past or future dispositions are subject to the 100% prohibited transactions tax.  If the IRS successfully imposes the 100% prohibited transactions tax on some or all of our dispositions, the resulting tax liability could be material.
 
The IRS could determine that certain payments we have received in the nature of liquidated damages may not be ignored for purposes of the gross income tests applicable to REITs.
 
In connection with our purchases and sales of properties, we have received payments in the nature of liquidated damages. The IRC does not specify the treatment of litigation settlements and liquidated damages for purposes of the gross income tests applicable to REITs.  The IRS has issued private letter rulings to other taxpayers ruling that such payments will be ignored for purposes of the gross income tests. A private letter ruling can be relied upon only by the taxpayer to whom it was issued. Based on the IRS’s private letters rulings and the advice of our tax advisors, we believe these payments should be ignored for purposes of the gross income tests.  No assurance can be provided that the IRS will not successfully challenge that position.  In the event of a successful challenge, we believe that we would be able to maintain our REIT status if we qualified to use a REIT “savings clause” and paid the required penalty.

Item 1B.    Unresolved Staff Comments.
 
None.


28

Item 2.        Properties.
 
Our Portfolio
 
A list of our hotel properties as of December 31, 2018 is included in the table below.  According to current chain scales as defined by STR, as of December 31, 2018, two of our hotel properties with a total of 280 guestrooms are categorized as Upper-upscale hotels, 61 of our hotel properties with a total of 9,480 guestrooms are categorized as Upscale hotels and 14 of our hotel properties with a total of 1,899 guestrooms are categorized as Upper-midscale hotels.  Hotel information for the year ended December 31, 2018 is as follows:

Franchise/Brand
 
Location
 
Number of
Guestrooms
Marriott
 
 
 
 

AC Hotel by Marriott(1)
 
Atlanta, GA
 
255

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Indianapolis, IN
 
297

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Fort Lauderdale, FL
 
261

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Nashville (West End), TN
 
226

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
New Haven, CT
 
207

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Fort Worth, TX
 
203

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
New Orleans (Convention), LA
 
202

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Pittsburgh, PA
 
182

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Charlotte, NC
 
181

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Atlanta (Decatur), GA
 
179

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Phoenix (Scottsdale), AZ
 
153

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
New Orleans (Metairie), LA
 
153

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Atlanta (Downtown), GA
 
150

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
New Orleans (French Quarter), LA
 
140

Courtyard by Marriott(1)
 
Kansas City, MO
 
123

Courtyard by Marriott(2)
 
Dallas (Arlington), TX
 
103

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott(2)
 
Louisville, KY
 
140

Four Points by Sheraton(2)
 
San Francisco, CA
 
101

Marriott(1)
 
Boulder, CO
 
165

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Baltimore, MD
 
189

Residence Inn by Marriott(2)
 
Salt Lake City, UT
 
189

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Cleveland, OH
 
175

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Atlanta (Midtown), GA
 
160

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Boston (Watertown), MA
 
150

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)(3)
 
Hunt Valley, MD
 
141

Residence Inn by Marriott(2)(3)
 
Portland, OR
 
124

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
New Orleans (Metairie), LA
 
120

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Branchburg, NJ
 
101

Residence Inn by Marriott(1)
 
Dallas (Arlington), TX
 
96

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(1)
 
New Orleans, LA
 
208

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(2)
 
Louisville, KY
 
198

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(1)
 
Indianapolis, IN
 
156

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(1)
 
Phoenix (Scottsdale), AZ
 
121

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(1)
 
Minneapolis (Bloomington), MN
 
113

SpringHill Suites by Marriott(1)
 
Nashville, TN
 
78

Total Marriott (35 hotel properties)
 
 
 
5,740

 
 
 
 
 

29

Franchise/Brand
 
Location
 
Number of
Guestrooms
Hilton
 
 
 
 

DoubleTree(1)
 
San Francisco, CA
 
210

Hampton Inn(1)
 
Boston (Norwood), MA
 
139

Hampton Inn(2)
 
Santa Barbara (Goleta), CA
 
101

Hampton Inn & Suites(1)
 
Minneapolis, MN
 
211

Hampton Inn & Suites(1)(3)
 
Austin, TX
 
209

Hampton Inn & Suites(1)
 
Minneapolis (Bloomington), MN
 
146

Hampton Inn & Suites(1)
 
Tampa (Ybor City), FL
 
138

Hampton Inn & Suites(1)
 
Baltimore, MD
 
116

Hampton Inn & Suites(2)
 
Ventura (Camarillo), CA
 
116

Hampton Inn & Suites(2)
 
San Diego (Poway), CA
 
108

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Houston (Energy Corridor), TX
 
190

Hilton Garden Inn(1)(3)
 
Houston (Galleria), TX
 
182

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Waltham, MA
 
148

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Birmingham, AL
 
130

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Greenville, SC
 
120

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Minneapolis (Eden Prairie), MN
 
97

Hilton Garden Inn(1)
 
Birmingham, AL
 
95

Homewood Suites(1)
 
Aliso Viejo (Laguna Beach), CA
 
129

Homewood Suites(1)
 
Tucson, AZ
 
122

Total Hilton (19 hotel properties)
 
 
 
2,707

Hyatt
 
 
 
 

Hyatt House(2)
 
Orlando, FL
 
168

Hyatt House(1)
 
Miami, FL
 
163

Hyatt House(2)
 
Denver (Englewood), CO
 
135

Hyatt Place(1)
 
Minneapolis, MN
 
213

Hyatt Place(1)
 
Chicago (Downtown), IL
 
206

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Phoenix (Mesa), AZ
 
152

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Chicago (Lombard), IL
 
151

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Orlando (Convention), FL
 
150

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Orlando (Universal), FL
 
150

Hyatt Place(1)(3)
 
Portland, OR
 
136

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Dallas (Arlington), TX
 
127

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Denver (Lone Tree), CO
 
127

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Phoenix (Scottsdale), AZ
 
126

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Denver (Englewood), CO
 
126

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Chicago (Hoffman Estates), IL
 
126

Hyatt Place(2)
 
Baltimore (Owing Mills), MD
 
123

Hyatt Place(1)(4)
 
Long Island (Garden City), NY
 
122

Total Hyatt (17 hotel properties)
 
 
 
2,501

IHG
 
 
 
 

Holiday Inn Express(1)
 
Charleston, WV
 
66

Holiday Inn Express & Suites(1)
 
San Francisco, CA
 
252

Holiday Inn Express & Suites(1)
 
Minneapolis (Minnetonka), MN
 
93

Hotel Indigo(1)
 
Asheville, NC
 
115

Staybridge Suites(1)
 
Denver (Glendale), CO
 
121

Total IHG (5 hotel properties)
 
 
 
647

Carlson
 
 
 
 

Country Inn & Suites by Carlson(1)
 
Charleston, WV
 
64

Total Carlson (1 hotel property)
 
 
 
64

Total Portfolio (77 hotel properties)
 
 
 
11,659

 
(1)
These hotel properties are unencumbered or included in our borrowing base for our unsecured credit and term loan facilities at December 31, 2018.
(2)
These hotel properties are subject to mortgage debt at December 31, 2018.  For additional information concerning our mortgage debt and lenders, see Item 7. — “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Outstanding Indebtedness,” and "Note 6-Debt,” to our Consolidated Financial Statements included under Item 8. — “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
(3)
These hotel properties are subject to ground leases as described below in “Other Hotel Operating Agreements — Ground Leases.”
(4)
This hotel property is subject to a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) lease as described below in “Other Hotel Operating Agreements — Ground Leases.”

30


In addition to our hotel property portfolio, we own two parcels of undeveloped land. One of the parcels is designated as held for sale. The parcels are generally suitable for the development of new hotel properties or the development of restaurants.  When unique opportunities to develop hotels utilizing our own resources arise, we may develop our own hotels on occasion. We may also sell these parcels in the future if and when market conditions warrant if we opt not to develop our own hotels on these parcels. To reduce the risk of incurring a prohibited transaction tax on any sales, we may transfer some or all of these parcels to our TRS.
 
Our Hotel Operating Agreements
 
Ground Leases
 
At December 31, 2018, five of our hotel properties are subject to ground lease agreements that cover all of the land underlying the respective hotel property.
 
•
The Residence Inn by Marriott located in Portland, OR is subject to a ground lease with an initial lease termination date of June 30, 2084 with one option to extend for an additional 14 years. Ground rent for the initial lease term was prepaid in full at the time we acquired the leasehold interest. If the option to extend is exercised, monthly ground rent will be charged based on a formula established in the ground lease.
•
The Hampton Inn & Suites located in Austin, TX is subject to a ground lease with an initial lease termination date of May 31, 2050. Annual ground rent currently is estimated to be $0.4 million for 2019 including performance based incentive rent.  Annual rent is increased every five years with the next adjustment coming in 2020.
•
The Hilton Garden Inn located in Houston (Galleria Area), Texas is subject to a ground lease with an initial lease termination date of April 20, 2053 with one option to extend for an additional 10 years. Annual ground rent currently is estimated to be $0.5 million for 2019 including performance based incentive rent.  Annual rent is increased every five years with the next adjustment coming in 2023.
•
The Hyatt Place located in Portland, OR is subject to a ground lease with a lease termination date of June 30, 2084 with one option to extend for an additional 14 years. Ground rent for the initial lease term was prepaid in full at the time we acquired the leasehold interest. If the option to extend is exercised, monthly ground rent will be charged based on a formula established in the ground lease.
•
The Residence Inn by Marriott located in Baltimore (Hunt Valley), MD is subject to a ground lease with an initial termination date of December 31, 2019 and twelve successive five-year renewal periods with annual payments increasing by 12.5% at the start of each 5-year term.  Subsequent to December 31, 2018, we acquired a fee simple interest in the real estate for a purchase price of $4.1 million, which resulted in a termination of obligations under the ground lease. As a result, this hotel property is no longer subject to a ground lease.
 
These ground leases generally require us to make rental payments and payments for our share of charges, costs, expenses, assessments and liabilities, including real property taxes and utilities.  Furthermore, these ground leases generally require us to obtain and maintain insurance covering the subject property.
 
In addition, the Hyatt Place located in Garden City, NY is subject to a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) lease with the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Authority (the “IDA”), as lessor.  The lease expires on December 31, 2019.  Upon expiration of the lease, we expect to exercise our right to acquire a fee simple interest in the Garden City hotel property from the IDA for a nominal consideration.

Franchise Agreements
 
At December 31, 2018, all of our hotel properties operate under franchise agreements, or similar agreements that allow for access to reservation systems, with Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, or Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Inc. We believe that the public’s perception of the quality associated with a branded hotel is an important feature in its attractiveness to guests. Franchisors provide a variety of benefits to franchisees, including centralized reservation systems, national advertising, marketing programs and publicity designed to increase brand awareness, loyalty programs, training of personnel and maintenance of operational quality at hotels across the brand system.
 
The terms of our franchise agreements generally range from 10 to 20 years with various extension provisions. Each franchisor receives franchise fees ranging from 2% to 6% of each hotel property’s room revenue, and some agreements require that we pay marketing fees of up to 4% of room revenue. In addition, some of these franchise agreements require that we deposit into a reserve fund for capital expenditures up to 5% of the hotel property’s gross or room revenues depending on the

31

franchisor to insure we comply with the franchisors’ standards and requirements. We also pay fees to our franchisors for services such as reservation and information systems. 
 
Hotel Management Agreements
 
At December 31, 2018, all of our hotel properties are operated pursuant to hotel management agreements with professional third-party hotel management companies as follows:
 
Management Company
 
Number of
Properties
 
Number of
Guestrooms
Interstate Management Company, LLC and its affiliate Noble Management Group, LLC
 
33

 
4,734

OTO Development, LLC
 
13

 
1,797

Stonebridge Realty Advisors, Inc.
 
8

 
1,143

Affiliates of Marriott, including Courtyard Management Corporation, SpringHill SMC Corporation and Residence Inn by Marriott, Inc.
 
7

 
1,176

Select Hotel Group, LLC, an affiliate of Hyatt
 
6

 
934

White Lodging Services Corporation
 
4

 
791

American Liberty Hospitality, Inc.
 
2

 
372

Aimbridge Hospitality
 
2

 
199

Fillmore Hospitality
 
1

 
261

InterContinental Hotel Group Resources, Inc., an affiliate of IHG
 
1

 
252

Total
 
77

 
11,659

 
Our typical hotel management agreement requires us to pay a base fee to our hotel manager calculated as a percentage of hotel revenues.  In addition, our hotel management agreements generally provide that the hotel manager can earn an incentive fee for EBITDA over certain thresholds.  Our TRS lessees may employ other hotel managers in the future.  We do not, and will not, have any ownership or economic interest in any of the hotel management companies engaged by our TRS lessees.
 
Item 3.        Legal Proceedings.
 
We are involved from time to time in litigation arising in the ordinary course of business; however, there are currently no pending legal actions that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations.
 
Item 4.        Mine Safety Disclosures.
 
Not applicable.


32


PART II

Item 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
 
Market Information
 
Our common stock began trading on the NYSE on February 9, 2011 under the symbol “INN.”  Prior to that time, there was no public trading market for our common stock. The last reported sale price for our common stock as reported on the NYSE on February 18, 2019 was $11.37 per share. 
 
Stockholder Information
 
As of February 18, 2019, our common stock was held of record by 294 holders and there were 104,783,179 shares of our common stock outstanding.
 
Distribution Information
 
As a REIT, we must distribute annually to our stockholders an amount at least equal to 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding any net capital gain. We will be subject to income tax on our taxable income that is not distributed and to an excise tax to the extent that certain percentages of our taxable income are not distributed by specified dates. Our cash available for distribution may be less than the amount required to meet the distribution requirements for REITs under the IRC and we may be required to borrow money, sell assets or issue capital stock to satisfy the distribution requirements to maintain our REIT status.
 
The timing and frequency of distributions will be authorized by our Board of Directors, in its sole discretion, and declared by us based upon a variety of factors deemed relevant by our directors, including financial condition, restrictions under applicable law and loan agreements, capital requirements and the REIT requirements of the IRC. Our ability to make distributions will generally depend on receipt of distributions from the Operating Partnership, which depends primarily on lease payments from our TRS lessees with respect to our hotels.
 
We are generally restricted from declaring or paying any distributions, or setting aside any funds for the payment of distributions, on our common stock unless full cumulative distributions on our preferred stock have been declared and either paid or set aside for payment in full for all past distribution periods.


33


Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
 
The following table provides information as of December 31, 2018 with respect to our securities that may be issued under existing equity compensation plans:
 
Plan Category
 
Number of Securities to
be Issued Upon Exercise
of Outstanding Options
 
Weighted Average
Exercise Price of
Outstanding Options
 
Number of Securities
Remaining Available
for Future Issuance
Under Equity
Compensation Plans (1)
Equity Compensation Plans Approved by Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. Stockholders (2) 
 
235,000

 
$
9.75

 
2,254,653

Equity Compensation Plans Not Approved by Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. Stockholders
 
—

 
—

 
—

Total
 
235,000

 
$
9.75

 
2,254,653

 
(1)  Excludes securities reflected in the column entitled “Number of Securities to be Issued Upon Exercise of Outstanding Options.”
(2)  Consists of our Equity Plan.
 
The following table represents common shares retained by the Company for employee taxes due upon vesting of equity awards during the year ended December 31, 2018:

Period
 
Total Shares Purchased
 
Average Price Paid Per Share
 
Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs
 
Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
January 1, 2018 - January 31, 2018
 
116,160

 
$
15.23

 
—

 
—

March 1, 2018 - March 31, 2018
 
71,690

 
$
13.32

 
—

 
—

Total
 
187,850

 
 
 
—

 
 



34


Stock Performance Graph
 
The following graph compares the yearly change in our cumulative total stockholder return on our common shares from December 31, 2013 through December 31, 2018, with the yearly change in the Standard and Poor’s 500 Stock Index (“S&P 500 Index”), and the SNL US REIT Hotel Index for the same period, assuming a base share price of $100.00 for our common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the SNL US REIT Hotel Index for comparative purposes.  The SNL US REIT Hotel Index is composed of publicly traded REITs, all of which focus on investments in hotel properties.  Total stockholder return equals appreciation in stock price plus dividends paid and assumes that all dividends are reinvested.  The performance graph is not indicative of future investment performance.  We do not make or endorse any predictions as to future share price performance.
 
 
 
Period Ended
Index
 
12/31/2013
 
12/31/2014
 
12/31/2015
 
12/31/2016
 
12/31/2017
 
12/31/2018
Summit Hotel Properties, Inc.
 
100.00

 
144.60

 
144.07

 
201.94

 
200.32

 
135.13

S&P 500 Index
 
100.00

 
113.69

 
115.26

 
129.05

 
157.22

 
150.33

SNL US REIT Hotel
 
100.00

 
131.99

 
102.11

 
126.55

 
134.49

 
116.38


chart-f33b51c7fe4b5e30bc1.jpg


35


Item 6.        Selected Financial Data.
 
The following information should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes thereto, appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K.
(in thousands, except per share amounts)
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2015
 
2014
Statement of Operations Data
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Revenues:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Room
 
$
523,439

 
$
479,934

 
$
443,270

 
$
436,202

 
$
380,472

Food and beverage
 
24,773

 
21,919

 
19,777

 
18,325

 
14,208

Other
 
19,058

 
13,524

 
10,888

 
8,928

 
8,786

Total revenues
 
567,270

 
515,377

 
473,935

 
463,455

 
403,466

Expenses:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
Room
 
119,724

 
108,715

 
97,358

 
97,255

 
91,131

Food and beverage
 
19,447

 
17,002

 
14,841

 
14,275

 
11,698

Other hotel operating expenses
 
158,917

 
144,258

 
134,420

 
134,548

 
117,612

Property taxes, insurance and other
 
43,339

 
37,419

 
30,250

 
31,190

 
25,050

Management fees
 
18,521

 
18,210

 
18,812

 
18,560

 
16,006

Depreciation and amortization
 
101,013

 
85,927

 
72,406

 
64,052

 
63,763

Corporate general and administrative
 
21,509

 
19,597

 
19,292

 
21,204

 
19,884

Hotel property acquisition costs
 
—

 
354

 
3,492

 
1,246

 
769

Loss on impairment of assets
 
1,075

 
—

 
577

 
1,115

 
8,847

Total expenses
 
483,545

 
431,482

 
391,448

 
383,445

 
354,760

Gain on disposal of assets, net
 
41,474

 
43,209

 
49,855

 
65,067

 
391

Operating income
 
125,199

 
127,104

 
132,342

 
145,077

 
49,097

Other income (expense):
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
Interest expense
 
(41,944
)
 
(29,687
)
 
(28,091
)
 
(30,414
)
 
(28,517
)
Other income, net
 
6,949

 
3,778

 
2,560

 
11,146

 
595

Total other expense
 
(34,995
)
 
(25,909
)
 
(25,531
)
 
(19,268
)
 
(27,922
)
Income from continuing operations before income taxes
 
90,204

 
101,195

 
106,811

 
125,809

 
21,175

Income tax benefit (expense)
 
922

 
(1,674
)
 
1,450

 
(553
)
 
(744
)
Income from continuing operations
 
91,126

 
99,521

 
108,261

 
125,256

 
20,431

Income from discontinued operations
 
—

 
—

 
—

 
—

 
492

Net income
 
91,126

 
99,521

 
108,261

 
125,256

 
20,923

Less: Income attributable to non-controlling interests:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
Non-controlling interest in Operating Partnership
 
(205
)
 
(307
)
 
(456
)
 
(819
)
 
(51
)
Joint venture
 
—

 
—

 
—

 
—

 
(1
)
Net income attributable to Summit Hotel Properties, Inc.
 
90,921

 
99,214

 
107,805

 
124,437

 
20,871

Preferred dividends
 
(16,671
)
 
(17,408
)
 
(18,232
)
 
(16,588
)
 
(16,588
)
Premium on redemption of preferred stock
 
(3,277
)
 
(2,572
)
 
(2,125
)
 
—

 
—

Net income attributable to common stockholders
 
$
70,973

 
$
79,234

 
$
87,448

 
$
107,849

 
$
4,283

Earnings per share - Basic:
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Net income per share from continuing operations
 
$
0.68

 
$
0.79

 
$
1.00

 
$
1.25

 
$
0.04

Net income per share from discontinued operations
 
—

 
—

 
—

 
—

 
0.01

Net income per share
 
$
0.68

 
$
0.79

 
$
1.00

 
$
1.25

 
$
0.05

Earnings per share - Diluted:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Net income per share from continuing operations
 
$
0.68

 
$
0.79

 
$
1.00

 
$
1.24

 
$
0.04

Net income per share from discontinued operations
 
—

 
—

 
—

 
—

 
0.01

Net income per share
 
$
0.68

 
$
0.79

 
$
1.00

 
$
1.24

 
$
0.05

Weighted average common shares outstanding:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Basic
 
103,623

 
99,406

 
86,874

 
85,920

 
85,242

Diluted
 
103,842

 
99,780

 
87,343

 
87,144

 
85,566

Dividends per share
 
$
0.72

 
$
0.67

 
$
0.55

 
$
0.47

 
$
0.46

Balance Sheet Data
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Total assets
 
$
2,222,297

 
$
2,209,874

 
$
1,718,505

 
$
1,575,394

 
$
1,453,835

Debt
 
$
958,712

 
$
868,236

 
$
652,414

 
$
671,536

 
$
621,344

Total equity
 
$
1,192,144

 
$
1,277,376

 
$
1,013,470

 
$
856,926

 
$
785,201



36



Item 7.        Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
 
Industry Trends and Outlook
 
Room-night demand in the U.S. lodging industry is generally correlated to certain macroeconomic trends. Key drivers of lodging demand include growth in gross domestic product, corporate profits, capital investments and employment. Volatility in the economy and lodging demand and risks arising from global and domestic political or economic conditions may cause a slowing or decline of economic growth, which would have an adverse effect on lodging demand. Also, increasing supply in the industry, and specifically in our markets or sub-markets, may reduce RevPAR growth expectations.
 
The U.S. lodging industry has experienced a positive trend since emerging from the last downturn in 2009, though at a slower rate in 2018.  According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP industry report, "Hospitality Directions: January 2019," RevPAR growth in the U.S. for Upscale hotels is forecasted to be 1.5% for 2019. While our outlook on national macroeconomic conditions is stable, the velocity of RevPAR growth for fiscal year 2018 decelerated from 2017. Our industry and the Upscale market segment have experienced declining rates of RevPAR growth and we could experience a decline in our RevPAR growth in the near term due to increases in supply or reduced demand in our market or sub-markets.

Operating Performance Metrics
 
We use a variety of performance indicators and other information to evaluate the financial condition and operating performance of our business. These key indicators include financial information that is prepared in accordance with GAAP, as well as other financial information that is not prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, we use other information that may not be financial in nature, including statistical information and comparative data. We use this information to measure the performance of individual hotel properties, groups of hotel properties and/or our business as a whole. We periodically compare historical information to our internal budgets as well as industry-wide information. These key indicators include:
 
•
Occupancy — Occupancy represents the total number of guestrooms occupied divided by the total number of guestrooms available.
•
Average Daily Rate (ADR) — ADR represents total room revenues divided by the total number of guestrooms occupied.
•
Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) — RevPAR is the product of ADR and Occupancy.
 
Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR are commonly used measures within the hotel industry to evaluate operating performance. RevPAR is an important metric for monitoring operating performance at the individual hotel property level and across our business as a whole. We evaluate individual hotel RevPAR performance on an absolute basis with comparisons to budget and prior periods, as well as on a company-wide and market-by-market basis. ADR and RevPAR are based only on room revenue. Room revenue depends on demand (as measured by occupancy), pricing (as measured by ADR), and our available supply of hotel guestrooms. Our ADR, occupancy and RevPAR performance may be affected by macroeconomic factors such as regional and local employment growth, personal income and corporate earnings, office vacancy rates and business relocation decisions, air travel and other business and leisure travel, new hotel property construction, and the pricing strategies of competitors. In addition, our ADR, occupancy and RevPAR performance is dependent on the continued success of our franchisors and brands.


37


Hotel Property Portfolio Activity
 
Acquisitions
 
We acquired one hotel property in 2018 and 14 hotel properties in 2017. A summary of these acquisitions is as follows (dollars in thousands): 
 
Date Acquired
 
Franchise/Brand
 
Location
 
Guestrooms
 
Purchase 
Price(1)
 
 
Year Ended December 31, 2018
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
September 12, 2018
 
Residence Inn by Marriott
 
Boston (Watertown), MA
 
150

 
$
71,000

 
(2) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Year Ended December 31, 2017
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
March 1, 2017
 
Homewood Suites
 
Aliso Viejo (Laguna Beach), CA
 
129

 
$
38,000

 
 
March 30, 2017
 
Hyatt Place
 
Phoenix (Mesa), AZ
 
152

 
22,200

 
 
May 23, 2017
 
Courtyard by Marriott
 
Fort Lauderdale, FL
 
261

 
85,000

 
 
June 9, 2017
 
Courtyard by Marriott
 
Charlotte, NC
 
181

 
56,250

 
 
June 21, 2017
 
Portfolio Purchase - five properties (4)
 
various (4)
 
812

 
163,000

 
 
July 13, 2017
 
AC Hotel by Marriott
 
Atlanta, GA
 
255

 
57,500

 
 
November 14, 2017
 
Portfolio Purchase - four properties (5)
 
various (5)
 
652

 
164,000

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2,442

 
$
585,950

 
(3) 

(1)  
In addition to the purchase price, we generally anticipate investing additional amounts for hotel renovations at the time we purchase a hotel property. Such additional investments are included in our underwriting of the hotel property prior to purchase, but are not included in the table above.. See Item 7. – "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Capital Expenditures."
(2)  
The net assets acquired totaled $71.0 million due to the purchase at settlement of $0.1 million of net working capital liabilities and capitalized transaction costs of $0.1 million.
(3)
The net assets acquired totaled $588.8 million due to the purchase at settlement of $0.2 million of net working capital assets and capitalized transaction costs of $2.6 million.
(4)  
On June 21, 2017, we acquired a portfolio of five hotels for an aggregate purchase price of $163.0 million. The hotels acquired included the Courtyard by Marriott - Fort Worth, TX, the Courtyard by Marriott - Kansas City, MO, the Courtyard by Marriott - Pittsburgh, PA, the Hampton Inn & Suites - Baltimore, MD, and the Residence Inn by Marriott - Baltimore, MD.
(5)  
On November 14, 2017, we acquired a portfolio of four hotels for an aggregate purchase price of $164.0 million. The hotels acquired included the Courtyard by Marriott - New Haven, CT, the Hilton Garden Inn - Waltham, MA, the Homewood Suites - Tucson, AZ, and the Residence Inn by Marriott - Cleveland, OH.

The purchase price of the hotel acquired in 2018 was funded by an advance on our $300 Million Revolver, cash generated from the sale of properties, and operating cash flows. The purchase price of the 14 hotels acquired in 2017 was funded by a combination of the net proceeds from our Series E cumulative redeemable preferred stock offering, the net proceeds from the sale of common stock, advances on our senior unsecured credit and term loan facility, advances on our 2017 term loan, cash generated from the sale of properties, and operating cash flows.
 
Recently Developed Property

We completed the development and commenced operations of the new 168-guestroom Hyatt House Across From Orlando Universal Resort™ on June 27, 2018. The total construction cost for this hotel was $32.8 million, excluding land that we acquired in a prior-year transaction. The carrying amount for this hotel includes internal capitalized costs of $1.6 million. Total costs of $37.2 million, including the carrying amount of the land of $2.8 million, were reclassified as Investment in hotel properties, net upon completion of construction.




38


Asset Sales

A summary of the dispositions in 2018 and 2017 follows (dollars in thousands):
Disposition Date
 
Franchise/Brand
 
Location
 
Guestrooms
 
Gross Sales Price
 
Aggregate Gain, net
Year Ended December 31, 2018
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
June 29, 2018
 
Portfolio Sale - two properties(1)
 
various (1)
 
175

 
$
18,950

 
$
13,133

June 29, 2018
 
Portfolio Sale - two properties (2)
 
Duluth, GA (2)
 
265

 
24,850

 
4,218

July 24, 2018
 
Portfolio Sale - three properties (3)
 
various (3)
 
322

 
46,500

 
22,964

September 28, 2018
 
Hyatt Place
 
Fort Myers, FL
 
148

 
16,500

 
2,195

November 7, 2018
 
Land parcel
 
Spokane, WA
 
n/a

 
450

 
139

Total
 
 
 
 
 
910

 
$
107,250

 
$
42,649

Year Ended December 31, 2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
March 30, 2017
 
Hyatt Place
 
Atlanta, GA
 
150

 
$
14,500

 
$
4,781

April 27, 2017
 
HIT Portfolio Sale - seven properties(4)
 
various (4)
 
651

 
66,753

 
15,986

June 2, 2017
 
Courtyard by Marriott
 
El Paso, TX
 
90

 
11,150

 
363

July 21, 2017
 
Portfolio Sale - three properties (5)
 
Fort Worth, TX (5)
 
273

 
27,750

 
8,133

Total
 
 
 
 
 
1,164

 
$
120,153

 
$
29,263


(1)  
The portfolio included the Hampton Inn in Provo, UT and the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Sandy, UT.
(2)  
The portfolio included the Holiday Inn in Duluth, GA and the Hilton Garden Inn in Duluth, GA. We provided seller financing of $3.6 million on the sale of these properties under two three-and-a-half-year second mortgage notes with a blended interest rate of 7.38%.
(3)
The portfolio included the Hampton Inn & Suites in Smyrna, TN, the Hilton Garden Inn in Smyrna, TN and the Hyatt Place Phoenix North in Phoenix, AZ. The proceeds from these sales were used to complete a 1031 Exchange, which resulted in the deferral of taxable gains of $22.2 million.
(4)  
The portfolio sale completed our dispositions to Hospitality Investors Trust, Inc.. The proceeds from these sales were used to complete a 1031 Exchange, which resulted in the deferral of taxable gains of $20.8 million. See below for further information.
(5)
The portfolio included the Fairfield Inn & Suites, the Hampton Inn & Suites and the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Worth, TX. The proceeds from these sales were used to complete a 1031 Exchange, which resulted in the deferral of taxable gains of $8.6 million.

Dispositions to Affiliates of Hospitality Investors Trust, Inc. (formerly American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust, Inc.)

On June 8, 2015, we entered into multiple sales agreements with affiliates of Hospitality Investors Trust, Inc. ("HIT") for the sale of a portfolio of hotels to HIT. The agreements were modified on various occasions between 2015 and 2017 such that we sold 23 hotels containing 2,448 guestrooms to HIT in three tranches over that time period for a combined sales price of approximately $325.1 million (collectively, the “HIT Sale”) as follows (dollars in thousands):
Tranche
 
Closing Date
 
Hotels Sold
 
Combined Sales Price
1
 
October 2015
 
10

 
$
150,000

2
 
February 2016
 
6

 
108,300

3
 
April 2017
 
7

 
66,800

 
 
23

 
$
325,100


In connection with the HIT Sale, the Operating Partnership entered into a loan agreement with HIT, as borrower, which provided for a loan by us to HIT in the amount of $27.5 million (the “Loan”).  The proceeds from the Loan were applied by HIT as follows: (i) $20.0 million was applied toward the payment of a portion of the $108.3 million purchase price for the six hotels acquired in the second tranche; and (ii) the remaining $7.5 million was applied by HIT to fund the escrow deposit required for the purchase of the seven hotels in the third tranche. We deferred $20.0 million of gain from the sale of the hotels in the second tranche as a result of the Loan structure. We recognized the deferred gain as principal payments on the Loan were received, and we recognized the final $15.0 million of gain when the Loan was paid in full on March 31, 2017.

Hotel Revenues and Operating Expenses
 
Our revenues are derived from hotel operations and consist of room revenue, food and beverage revenue and other revenue. As a result of our focus on select-service hotels, substantially all of our revenues are related to the sales of hotel guestrooms. Our other revenue consists of ancillary revenues related to meeting rooms, parking and other guest services provided at certain of our hotel properties.
 
Our hotel operating expenses consist primarily of expenses incurred in the day-to-day operation of our hotel properties. Many of our expenses are fixed, such as essential hotel staff, real estate taxes, insurance, depreciation and certain

39


types of franchise fees, and these expenses do not decrease even if the revenues at our hotel properties decrease. Room expense includes housekeeping and front office wages and payroll taxes, reservation systems, room supplies, laundry services and other costs. Food and beverage expense primarily includes the cost of food, the cost of beverages and associated labor costs. Other operating expenses include labor and other costs associated with administrative departments, sales and marketing, repairs and maintenance, utility costs and franchise fees.

Results of Operations
 
The comparisons that follow should be reviewed in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-K.
 
Comparison of 2018 to 2017
 
The following table contains key operating metrics for our total portfolio and our same-store portfolio for 2018 compared with 2017 (dollars in thousands, except ADR and RevPAR).  We define same-store hotels as properties that we owned as of December 31, 2018 and that we have owned at all times since January 1, 2017.
 
 
 
2018
 
2017
 
Year-over-Year
Dollar Change
 
Year-over-Year
Percentage Change
 
 
 
Total 
Portfolio
(77 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(61 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(83 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(61 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(77/83 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(61 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(77/83 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(61 hotels)
 
Revenues:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Room
 
$
523,439

 
$
388,126

 
$
479,934

 
$
388,743

 
$
43,505

 
$
(617
)
 
9.1
%
 
(0.2
)%
 
Food and beverage
 
24,773

 
17,139

 
21,919

 
17,130

 
2,854

 
9

 
13.0
%
 
0.1
 %
 
Other
 
19,058

 
12,270

 
13,524

 
10,684

 
5,534

 
1,586

 
40.9
%
 
14.8
 %
 
Total
 
$
567,270

 
$
417,535

 
$
515,377

 
$
416,557

 
$
51,893

 
$
978

 
10.1
%
 
0.2
 %
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expenses:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Room
 
$
119,724

 
$
91,070

 
$
108,715

 
$
88,242

 
$
11,009

 
$
2,828

 
10.1
%
 
3.2
 %
 
Food and beverage
 
19,447

 
13,195

 
17,002

 
12,936

 
2,445

 
259

 
14.4
%
 
2.0
 %
 
Other hotel operating expenses
 
158,917

 
115,616

 
144,258

 
113,982

 
14,659

 
1,634

 
10.2
%
 
1.4
 %
 
Total
 
$
298,088

 
$
219,881

 
$
269,975

 
$
215,160

 
$
28,113

 
$
4,721

 
10.4
%
 
2.2
 %
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Occupancy
 
77.9
%
 
77.7
%
 
78.9
%
 
79.1
%
 
n/a

 
n/a

 
(104
)
bps
(143
)
bps
ADR
 
$
153.79

 
$
153.87

 
$
146.74

 
$
151.43

 
$
7.05

 
$
2.44

 
4.8
%
 
1.6
 %
 
RevPAR
 
$
119.75

 
$
119.53

 
$
115.80

 
$
119.80

 
$
3.95

 
$
(0.27
)
 
3.4
%
 
(0.2
)%
 
 
The total portfolio information above includes revenues and expenses from the one hotel we acquired and the one hotel we developed in 2018 (the “2018 Acquired Hotels”) and the fourteen hotel properties that we acquired in 2017 (the “2017 Acquired Hotels”) from the date of acquisition through December 31, 2018, and operating information (occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR) for the period each hotel was owned. Accordingly, the information does not reflect a full twelve months of operations in 2018 for the 2018 Acquired Hotels or a full twelve months of operations in 2017 for the 2017 Acquired Hotels. The combined 2018 Acquired Hotels and 2017 Acquired Hotels are referred to as the “2018/2017 Acquired Hotels.”
 
Revenues. Total revenues for the total portfolio increased $51.9 million, or 10.1%, in 2018. The growth was due to incremental revenues of $78.4 million generated by the 2018/2017 Acquired Hotels and a $1.0 million increase in same-store revenues, partially offset by a $27.5 million decline in revenue related to the hotel properties sold after December 31, 2016.

The 3.4% increase in RevPAR for the total portfolio in 2018 compared to 2017 is the result of the purchase of higher RevPAR hotel properties with the 2018/2017 Acquired Hotels, which produced an aggregate RevPAR of $126.13 in 2018 and the sale of lower RevPAR hotels since December 31, 2017, which produced an aggregate RevPAR of $91.01 in 2017.


40


Expenses. The $28.1 million increase in total portfolio expenses in 2018 compared to 2017 is the result of incremental expenses of $39.5 million due to the 2018/2017 Acquired Hotels and an increase in same-store expenses of $4.7 million, partially offset by a decline in expenses of $16.1 million related to properties sold after December 31, 2016. The increase in total portfolio and same-store expenses in 2018 compared to 2017 was primarily driven by increased labor costs. We anticipate that labor costs will continue to grow particularly in certain markets with more supply growth or lower unemployment rates.
     
Property taxes, insurance and other. The increase in property taxes, insurance and other of $5.9 million in 2018 compared to 2017 is primarily due to an increase in property taxes related to the 2018/2017 Acquired Hotels of $7.5 million. This increase was partially offset by a decline in same-store property tax expense of $0.7 million and a $1.0 million reduction in property tax expense related to the hotel properties sold after December 31, 2016.

Depreciation and Amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense increased $15.1 million, or 17.6%, in 2018, due to incremental depreciation associated with the 2018/2017 Acquired Hotels of $16.4 million and an increase in depreciation expense of $1.7 million for the same-store portfolio due to capital renovations at same-store properties, partially offset by a decline in depreciation expense of $3.0 million related to the hotel properties sold after December 31, 2016.
 
Corporate General and Administrative. Corporate general and administrative expenses increased by $1.9 million, or 9.8%, in 2018. This increase was primarily due to increases in stock-based compensation and incentive compensation costs. The increase in stock-based compensation expense related primarily to the modification of grants to our former Chief Financial Officer who retired on March 31, 2018.

Gain on Disposal of Assets. Gain on disposal of assets decreased by $1.7 million in 2018.  This reduction is primarily due to the sale of eight hotels in 2018 for a net gain of $42.5 million compared to the sale of 12 hotels in 2017 for a net gain of $29.3 million and the recognition of $15.0 million in deferred gains in 2017 related to the HIT Sale (See Item 7. — “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Hotel Property Portfolio Activity").

Other Income. Other income, net increased by $3.2 million in 2018. In April 2018, we reached a settlement related to a third-party-caused industrial disaster that occurred in a prior period and affected several of our coastal properties. As a result, we received a net recovery of $2.0 million during 2018 that we recorded as Other income.
 
Income Tax Expense/Benefit. In 2018, we recorded an income tax benefit of $0.9 million, which includes a discrete income tax benefit of $0.9 million associated with amending certain prior year state tax returns to claim a deduction for distributions made by the Operating Partnership to Summit Hotel Properties, Inc.

In 2017, we recorded an income tax expense of $1.7 million, which includes $0.6 million associated with the remeasurement of our deferred tax assets as a result of the passage of TCJA in December 2017, which reduced the maximum corporate federal income tax rate to 21% beginning on January 1, 2018.
     

41


Comparison of 2017 to 2016
 
The following table contains key operating metrics for our total portfolio and our same-store portfolio for 2017 compared with 2016 (dollars in thousands, except ADR and RevPAR).  We define same-store hotels as properties that we owned as of December 31, 2017 and that we have owned at all times since January 1, 2016.
 
 
2017
 
2016
 
Year-over-Year
Dollar Change
 
Year-over-Year
Percentage Change
 
 
 
Total 
Portfolio
(83 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(65 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(81 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(65 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(83/81 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(65 hotels)
 
Total 
Portfolio
(83/81 hotels)
 
Same-Store
Portfolio
(65 hotels)
 
Revenues:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Room
 
$
479,934

 
$
375,467

 
$
443,270

 
$
375,409

 
$
36,664

 
$
58

 
8.3
%
 
—
 %
 
Food and beverage
 
21,919

 
16,443

 
19,777

 
17,082

 
2,142

 
(639
)
 
10.8
%
 
(3.7
)%
 
Other
 
13,524

 
8,778

 
10,888

 
8,529

 
2,636

 
249

 
24.2
%
 
2.9
 %
 
Total
 
$
515,377

 
$
400,688

 
$
473,935

 
$
401,020

 
$
41,442

 
$
(332
)
 
8.7
%
 
(0.1
)%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Expenses:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Room
 
$
108,715

 
$
86,821

 
$
97,358

 
$
82,250

 
$
11,357

 
$
4,571

 
11.7
%
 
5.6
 %
 
Food and beverage
 
17,002

 
12,765

 
14,841

 
12,732

 
2,161

 
33

 
14.6
%
 
0.3
 %
 
Other hotel operating expenses
 
144,258

 
111,946

 
134,420

 
111,153

 
9,838

 
793

 
7.3
%
 
0.7
 %
 
Total
 
$
269,975

 
$
211,532

 
$
246,619

 
$
206,135

 
$
23,356

 
$
5,397

 
9.5
%
 
2.6
 %