Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (PK) was formed in January 2017 when Hilton Worldwide (HLT) spun off most of its owned real estate into a separate public REIT, explains Brad Thomas, editor The Intelligent REIT Investor.

Park Hotels is the second-largest publicly traded lodging REIT, with a diverse portfolio of 54 premium-branded hotels and resorts with significant underlying real estate value and over 32,000 rooms, primarily in key U.S. markets with high barriers to entry.

The company's top 10 hotels accounted for about 70% of earnings, including the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, New York Hilton Midtown, Hilton San Francisco Union Square/Parc 55 San Francisco - a Hilton Hotel, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, and Hilton Chicago.

Last month, the company completed the sale of the joint venture Hilton Berlin in Germany, with Park's share approximately $140 million.

It was the 13th hotel Park has sold this year and the 10th international market property, as Park recycles capital out of non-core assets and reduces exposure to non-U.S. markets and joint venture interests. Park now has ownership in four hotels outside the U.S.

First quarter 2018 comparable RevPAR was $165.57, an increase of 1.1% from the same period in 2017. AFFO was $137 million, a decrease of 0.7% over 2017. Park's sale of 12 hotels for $379 million (gross) went toward repurchasing and retiring 14 million shares of common stock from an affiliate of Chinese conglomerate HNA Tourism Group.

Park has an attractive and well-covered dividend and will issue a special cash dividend of $0.45 per share next month (totaling about $90 million), from the sale of the Berlin property. Park represents one of the best lodging REITs, especially given the association with Hilton.

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