On May 30, 2018, the Company entered into separate hotel management agreements with LQ Management L.L.C. (“LQM”), whereby we pay a fee equal to 5% of total gross revenues, as defined. The term of the management agreements is 20 years, subject to two renewals of five years each, at LQM’s option. There are penalties for early termination.

LQM generally has sole responsibility for all activities necessary for the operation of the hotels, including establishing room rates, processing reservations and promoting and publicizing the hotels. LQM also provides all employees for the hotels, prepares reports, budgets and projections, and provides other administrative and accounting support services to the hotels. We have consultative and limited approval rights with respect to certain actions of LQM, including entering into long-term or high value contracts, engaging in certain actions relating to legal proceedings, approving the operating budget, making certain capital expenditures and the hiring of certain management personnel. We are also responsible for reimbursing LQM for certain costs incurred by LQM during the fulfillment of their duties, such as payroll costs for certain employees, general liability insurance and other costs that the manager incurs to operate the hotels.

For the three months ended March 31, 2019, our management fee expense was $11 million.

On May 30, 2018, we entered into separate hotel franchise agreements with La Quinta Franchising LLC (“LQ Franchising”). As of March 31, 2019, 312 of our franchise agreements were with LQ Franchising. Pursuant to the franchise agreements, we were granted a limited, non-exclusive license to use our franchisor’s brand names, marks and system in the operation of our hotels. The franchisor also may provide us with a variety of services and benefits, including centralized reservation systems, participation in customer loyalty programs, national advertising, marketing programs and publicity designed to increase brand awareness, as well as training of personnel. In return, we are required to operate franchised hotels consistent with the applicable brand standards.

Our franchise agreements require that we pay a 5% royalty fee on gross room revenue. The term of the franchise agreements is through 2038, subject to one renewal of ten years, at the franchisor’s option. There are penalties for early termination. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, our royalty fee expense was $10 million.

In addition to the royalty fee, the franchising agreements include a reservation fee of 2% of gross room revenues, a marketing fee of 2.5% of gross room revenues, a loyalty program fee of 5% of eligible room night revenue, and other miscellaneous ancillary fees. Reservation fees are included within room expense in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. The marketing fee and loyalty program fees are included within other departmental and support in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations.

Our requirement to meet certain brand standards imposed by our franchisor includes requirements that we incur certain capital expenditures, generally ranging from $1,500 to $7,500 per hotel room (with various specific amounts within this range being applicable to different groups of our hotels) during a prescribed period generally ranging from two to eleven years. These amounts are over and above the capital expenditures we are required to make each year for recurring furniture, fixtures and equipment maintenance. However, these amounts that we are required to spend are subject to reduction, in varying degrees, by the amount of capital expenditures made for hotels in the applicable group over and above the capital expenditures required for the recurring maintenance in one or more years before receipt of the franchisor’s notice. The initial period during which the franchisor can notify us that we must make these capital expenditures is through 2028. At the franchisor’s discretion, subject to the franchise agreement provisions governing when such requirements may be imposed, the franchisor may provide a notice obligating us to meet those capital expenditure requirements generally within two to nine years of the notice. As of March 31, 2019, no such notices have been received; however, approximately 64% of our hotels are potentially eligible for such capital expenditure requirements. Through 2028, our remaining hotels will become eligible for such notices and capital expenditure requirements. We expect to meet these requirements primarily through our recurring capital expenditure program. As of March 31, 2019, $15 million was held in lender escrows that can be used to finance these requirements.

We are a party to a number of pending claims and lawsuits arising in the normal course of business. We do not consider our ultimate liability with respect to any such claims or lawsuits, or the aggregate of such claims and lawsuits, to be material in relation to our condensed consolidated financial condition, results of operations or our cash flows taken as a whole.

We maintain general and other liability insurance; however, certain costs of defending lawsuits, such as those within the retention or insurance deductible amount, are not covered by or are only partially covered by insurance policies. We regularly evaluate our ultimate liability costs with respect to such claims and lawsuits. We accrue costs from litigation as they become probable and estimable.

Under the terms of the Spin-Off and Merger agreements, we retained any liabilities arising from LQH federal, state or local income tax obligations through tax years ended December 31, 2014. Wyndham assumed LQH federal, state or local income tax obligations for LQH tax periods thereafter through and including the Spin-Off Date.

Additionally, as the Spin-Off was a taxable spin, Wyndham reserved $240 million to cover their potential tax payments related to the Spin-Off. Any amount of the reserve related to the spin tax payment will be remitted to the Company with an increase to stockholders’ equity. Any related tax payment in excess of the reserve is the responsibility of Wyndham with the Company delivering to Wyndham either cash equal to the excess or issuing common stock based on the excess payment amount and the current fair value of the Company’s common stock. As the income tax returns for the year ended 2017 were recently filed and the short period return to the Spin-Off Date has not yet been filed, which along with other supporting in-process schedules would serve as the basis for determining the final tax payment related to the Spin-Off, the final determination of the reserve amount is not known. However, we believe the eventual resolution of the reserve amount will not be material to the Company’s consolidated financial condition. Any adjustment related to the settlement of the reserve, including the issuance of the Company’s common stock, would result in an adjustment to stockholders’ equity.

We are subject to regular audits by federal and state tax authorities related to prior periods, which may result in additional tax liabilities. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) is currently auditing one of our former LQH REITs and one of our former LQH TRSs, in each case for the tax years ended December 31, 2010 and 2011. As noted above, any obligations related to these tax years are the responsibility of the Company, with no reimbursement or offset from Wyndham or any other parties. On July 7, 2014, we received an IRS 30-Day Letter proposing to impose a 100% tax on the REIT totaling $158 million for the periods under audit in which the IRS has asserted that the internal rent charged for these periods under the lease of hotel properties from the REIT to our consolidated taxable REIT subsidiary exceeded an arm’s length rent. An appeal of this proposed imposition of tax was filed with IRS Appeals in August 2014. In November 2017, IRS Appeals returned the matter to IRS Examination for further factual development.

In 2014, the IRS also began an audit of the tax returns of the same entities subject to the 2010 and 2011 audit in each case for the tax years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013. As noted above, any obligations related to these tax years are the responsibility of the Company, with no reimbursement or offset from Wyndham or any other parties. On August 8, 2017, the IRS issued a 30-Day Letter, in which it proposed to disallow net operating loss carryovers originating in tax years 2006-2011 or, in the alternative, tax years 2006-2009, depending upon the outcome of the 2010-2011 examination discussed above. In April 2019, the IRS notified the Company that it was combining all of the audits, restating their position with respect to the arm’s length nature of the rents and the disallowance of the NOLs and requesting our acknowledgement of certain facts related to the audits. We responded in May 2019 restating our disagreement with certain of the IRS’s statements.

We believe the IRS transfer pricing methodologies applied in the audits contain flaws and that the IRS proposed tax and adjustments are inconsistent with the U.S. federal tax laws related to REITs. Based on our analysis of the NOL notice, we believe the IRS NOL disallowances applied in the 2012-2013 audit contain the same flaws present in the 2010-2011 audit and that the IRS proposed NOL adjustments are inconsistent with the U.S. federal tax laws related to REITs. We have concluded that the positions reported on our tax returns under audit by the IRS are, based on their technical merits, more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon conclusion of the examination. Accordingly, as of March 31, 2019, we have not established any reserves related to this proposed adjustment or any other issues reflected on the returns under examination. If, however, we are unsuccessful in challenging the IRS, an excise tax would be imposed on the REIT equal to 100% of the excess rent and we would be responsible for additional income taxes, interest and penalties, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flow and the trading price of our common stock. Such adjustments could also give rise to additional state income taxes.

As of March 31, 2019, we had approximately $33 million of purchase commitments related to certain continuing redevelopment and renovation projects and other hotel service contracts in the ordinary course of business.

For certain of our hotel properties we have entered into ground lease arrangements as a lessee. These ground leases generally include base rents, which may be reset based on inflation indexes or pre-established increases, contingent rents based upon the respective hotel’s revenues, and reimbursement or primary responsibility for related real estate taxes and insurance expenses. The initial base terms for the leases are generally in excess of 25 years. Many of these arrangements also contain renewal options at the conclusion of the initial lease term, generally at fair value or pre-set amounts. Including the renewal options, these leases extend for varying periods through 2102. We consider the reset base rents at the time of such renewals as the future minimum rental payment.

The contractual maturity analysis of our operating lease liabilities on an undiscounted basis as of March 31, 2019 is as follows (in millions):

Year	Maturity Analysis of Operating Lease Liabilities

April through December 2019	$	2
2020		3
2021		3
2022		3
2023		3
2024		3
Thereafter		65
	$	82

The difference between the undiscounted contractual payments of $82 million and the March 31, 2019 operating lease liability of $27 million is the present value imputed interest. Contractual payments include base rents that have been contractually reset based on inflation indexes as of March 31, 2019.

For the three months ended March 31, 2019, total rent expense for ground leases included in property tax, insurance and other expenses in our condensed consolidated statement of operations was $1 million, of which $0.1 million related to variable rents. For the three months ended March 31, 2018, total rent expense was $1 million, of which $0.1 million related to variable rents. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, our short-term lease expense was $0.1 million. Differences between amounts expensed and cash paid were not significant.

In accordance with ASC Topic 840, Leases, future minimum non-cancellable payments for all of our operating leases as of December 31, 2018 were as follows (in millions):

Year	Maturity Analysis of Operating Lease Liabilities

2019	$	3
2020		3
2021		3
2022		2
2023		2
Thereafter		98
	$	111

The differences in amounts from future payments as of March 31, 2019 compared to December 31, 2018 are primarily due to differences in the definitions and determinations of lease term and variable lease payments under the new lease accounting standard.