Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB) reported Q1 EPS of $0.26, $0.37 better than the analyst estimate of ($0.11). Revenue for the quarter came in at $269.11 million versus the consensus estimate of $267.79 million.

"The COVID-19 crisis and developments surrounding the global pandemic have caused a dramatic change in the global economy and our daily lives. Our thoughts of thanks, good health and safety remain with the communities and individuals impacted by COVID-19, and also with the first responders and healthcare workers who are making tremendous sacrifices to help save lives and end this crisis. As a response to the pandemic, we have had to make the incredibly difficult decision to scale back our operations to an unprecedented and unimaginable level through temporary hotel and resort suspensions and extensive associate furloughs throughout our portfolio. While we are eager to begin reopening our hotels and welcome back our hotel associates, we cannot predict either the duration of the shutdown or the limitations that federal, state, and local governments may impose on the operations of hotels. As the economy slowly starts to reopen again, we expect substantially weakened hotel demand for the remainder of 2020 due to the likelihood of ongoing travel and meeting restrictions, anxiety on the part of travelers, restrictions on travel instituted by businesses of all kinds and general economic weakness and uncertainty. Of course, the pace of recovery could escalate if there are significant advances in effective health care solutions. Similar to prior crises, we expect there will ultimately be opportunities created, and we are already beginning initial discussions and preparations to position ourselves to aggressively pursue the opportunities we expect to arise in the future."

2020 Outlook

On March 9, 2020, the Company announced that it had withdrawn its 2020 Outlook previously provided on February 20, 2020 due to the large number of group cancellations, travel policy restrictions, government travel advisories, and state of emergency declarations related to concerns about COVID-19. The Company continues to be unable to provide an outlook and intends to issue new guidance when it has more clarity on government restrictions, advances in health solutions, the economy, travel demand and more predictable overall operating fundamentals and trends.

"As we move forward together with our 19 different operators in this uncertain time, we are re-evaluating all aspects of our operating business and developing all-new best practices. As our hotels resume operations, we expect the services and amenities offered will be significantly different than before the pandemic. In addition, we are already working with our operators and the AHLA on new enhanced cleaning standards and protocols that will be implemented to provide a safe and comfortable environment for both our hotel associates and our guests," continued Mr. Bortz. "We expect the resumption of operations at all of our temporarily suspended hotels as well as the recovery at our existing operational hotels will be a phased process with hotel operations slowly resuming normal activity over an extended period. Pending the reduction of government restrictions, we expect that we will likely reopen our drive-to resorts first, followed by our smaller independent lifestyle hotels, which have lower operating expenses and staffing requirements. Our larger group-oriented major branded hotels, which are primarily unionized, will likely reopen last, given their higher cost basis and weakened group demand that we believe will likely persist for most of 2020.”

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