Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE: CLDT) reported Q1 EPS of $0.03, versus $0.06 reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $75.68 million versus the consensus estimate of $76.14 million.

“Overall, we are pleased with our first quarter results, delivering RevPAR in line with our guidance, while beating our adjusted EBITDA, AFFO and AFFO per share guidance, driven by higher than forecast operating margins,” Fisher highlighted. “We had strong RevPAR growth in some of our top markets during the quarter, especially our California markets, where corporate investment and employment growth remains healthy.”

“Given the RevPAR decline of 1.0 percent, we are encouraged that we were able to minimize margin erosion to only 50 basis points at our 40 comparable hotels,” said Dennis Craven, Chatham’s chief operating officer. “Our initiatives with our hotel management company, Island Hospitality, to enhance other revenue and closely manage our payroll and benefits costs, which remains the line item with the highest exposure to increase due to the strong economy and historically low unemployment, are working well.”

“Continuing a positive trend since midway through 2018, on a per occupied room basis, the rate of increase in payroll and benefits has been declining. In fact, this is the first quarter in a very long time that our year-over-year increase was below 3 percent,” Craven stated.

GUIDANCE:

Chatham Lodging Trust sees Q2 2019 EPS of $0.26-$0.29, versus the consensus of $0.28. Chatham Lodging Trust sees Q2 2019 revenue of $88-89 million, versus the consensus of $89.35 million.

Chatham Lodging Trust sees FY2019 EPS of $0.53-$0.63, versus the consensus of $0.59. Chatham Lodging Trust sees FY2019 revenue of $326.5-332.5 million, versus the consensus of $335.2 million.

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