HST
#Yes, I'd say we still expect where Houston is one of the markets that we think is going to be challenged in 2016.
And I think it's a tossup as to whether RevPAR there is slightly negative or flat.
I agree with that.
I mean look the one interesting thing about Houston not that it's a big group market but the group booking pace in Houston in 2016 is actually quite strong.
I would say in the long run that our goal is to distribute our taxable income and so from operations but of course also from sales.
And as we work our way through this year and see both how operating results materialize as well as what's the level of sales that we complete, we will continue to assess whether we should be doing increasing the regular dividend or handling things through a special dividend.
Some of that decision will be tied into our outlook for 2017, too, as we try to confront that question.
We ultimately are certainly interested in being able to increase the dividend when operations, when the operating results of the Company support it because we'd love to return capital to shareholders in any way that we can.
I'd be happy to do that <UNK>.
Let me just look at one stat here.
You know the wildcard in group over the years has tended to be what I think you are directing your question at which is what's happening on the corporate side.
And what we saw this past year was fairly good ---+ we saw some improvement on the in terms of Association but as I mentioned in my prepared comments we saw some really good corporate rate improvement as well as some improvement in corporate demand in the fourth quarter.
I think what we're looking at in terms of why we've seen an improvement in group pace this year is a combination of probably a slightly better convention calendar which will reflect itself in a slight increase in Association business across all of our hotels.
But more importantly more activity coming out of the corporate side and companies recognizing that they are going to have events and they are now of a mind that they are convinced enough that they are going to have them that they are making the decision to book those events in advance and not wait until the last minute because what they realize is that if they wait to the last minute they are not going to end up with the time or the hotel that they want.
So I suspect as we work our way through this year while it's fair to assume that there will be some pickup in Association business I'm hopeful that we're going to see good strong corporate growth.
That also tends to tie in with the fact that it could reflect itself in terms of better SMB growth too.
So I think ultimately because corporate, the corporate group is the part that ebbs and flows the most based upon the overall economy the fact that we're seeing this strong growth is likely primarily due to strong corporate growth.
I'm sure that the oil industry, to your point about different businesses, I'm sure that the oil industry with all the challenges that they have is not necessarily booking as many group events as they might have in the past.
So it is sort of interesting to see as <UNK> just referenced how strong our group booking pace is in Houston.
I suspect that has more to do with a smaller overall group profile for those hotels.
But I don't know that we've heard of any other industry besides the energy industry that's cutting back at this point.
If anything our numbers which again as we suggested they are not only strong for 2016 they are strong for 2017.
That suggests that there's a meaningful level of confidence and companies are making commitments.
That would certainly be one of the assets in New York that we would be open to selling, yes.
That would be an asset that we would be interested in selling.
I would say that that's not on the market at the moment.
But that is another asset in New York that we would certainly be open to selling.
The opportunity in New York in order to get the sort of pricing that tends to make the headlines is to take advantage of assets where there's either an opportunity for a brand change or there's an opportunity for redevelopment.
That's where it seems you can best take advantage of the property that you own and so those are the sorts of our fraternities that we're trying to explore.
It's certainly in that $800 million of assets that we're currently marking that does include a New York asset.
And completing a sale in New York continues to be a very high priority for the Company provided we can attract pricing that we think is appropriate.
There is flexibility on that asset with respect to management and branding.
Great, well thank you for joining us on the call today.
We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our year-end results and outlook with you and we look forward to talking with you in the spring to discuss our first-quarter results and provide you more insight into how 2016 is playing out.
Thank you.
