Good control of rooms expenses also contributed to the EBITDA margin expansion as improved occupancy spread the fixed operating costs over a broader base. whose payroll expense was up roughly 20% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Good margins in the operating departments were somewhat offset by increases in areas such as utilities, which were up approximately 24%. With respect to labor overall, our operators successfully staffed up last year to meet the strong recovery and demand where necessary and have been able to better fill open positions. In general, our fully recovered hotels are operating at FTE staffing levels between 90 and 95% of pre-pandemic levels, while hotels where there is still substantial opportunity for recovery are operating at FTE staffing levels of approximately 75% of pre-pandemic levels.

May 2, 2023 / COO / receipt, needs a key / Barry Bloom, COO | earnings call 2023-05-02 | transcript 540f2dc4-7333-4dbd-bde8-03ed13c5889a | chars 13620-14447 | segment 14

In the food and beverage department, labor costs were down 4.3%, on revenue decline of 2%. Fixed departmental staffing increased significantly during the quarter, particularly in sales and marketing, where our hotels have been aggressively restaffing positions in response to significant increases in group leads. This resulted in a 9.2% increase in labor costs in the department for the third quarter as compared to the second quarter. Our hotels also had success in bringing back personnel in their repairs and maintenance departments, resulting in a 5.8% increase in labor costs between the second and third quarters.

Nov 2, 2022 / COO / receipt, needs a key / Barry Bloom, COO | earnings call 2022-11-02 | transcript c9836005-ccbc-4275-aeef-0261871549b6 | chars 15692-16312 | segment 16

As Marcel mentioned in his remarks, the same-property portfolio REVPAR decreased by 2.6% in the quarter as compared to the same period in 2019. The quarter ended on a high note, however, with September same-property REVPAR growth of 2.7% compared to 2019. This compares to REVPAR declines in July and August of 4.1% and 6.5% respectively as compared to 2019. September's strength was driven by a notable pickup in occupancy beginning in the middle of the month, consistent with expected seasonal patterns in business transients and group, and generally coincided with a marked increase in return to office and return to business travel.

Nov 2, 2022 / COO / receipt, needs a key / Barry Bloom, COO | earnings call 2022-11-02 | transcript c9836005-ccbc-4275-aeef-0261871549b6 | chars 11324-11960 | segment 11

Despite the seasonally slow and Omicron-impaired levels of business travel, our portfolio experience in January and early February, we are now seeing significant pickup in corporate volume accounts. Business travel has notably picked up in recent weeks, as evidenced by increases in occupancy levels on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, as well as transient business on the books for March.

Mar 1, 2022 / COO / receipt, needs a key / Barry Bloom, COO | earnings call 2022-03-01 | transcript 19d40f43-7c8f-4196-a72b-5a61bacce2e8 | chars 18009-18404 | segment 18