Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Christeen Kim - Deutsche Bank.
Christeen Kim - Deutsche Bank
Good morning. Last quarter, you were looking for something along the lines of 1% to 2% NOI growth in the core portfolio and you came in at 7%; that’s a pretty big variance. I’m trying to understand what the biggest differences were versus your expectations a few months ago?
Christopher Marr
Good question. The difference is really across the board. First of all, coming off in the third quarter I think it’s fair to say, and again even going into the first quarter, we’re taking a very cautious approach to how we introduce guidance to begin with.
Secondly, on the top line, I would say everything that we included as a risk, we had in our guidance, and none of those risks came to light. And everything that did happen happened as positive as we could have expected it.
The rental activity continued in a very positive way. The cleanup of accounts receivables is officially complete and we experienced a wonderful reduction in write-offs at the property levels. The burn-off of the discounts, the length of stays grew a little bit longer than we had forecast.
And on the operating expense side, we certainly threw the kitchen sink into the guidance and while we continue to invest in the assets and the high repair and maintenance expense and in a few other areas, generally expenses came in as good as we could have hoped. So I think it’s a balance of quite frankly, nothing bad happened against a very cautious outlook.
Christeen Kim - Deutsche Bank
So is it safe to say you’re taking the same cautious stance on 2008 guidance?
Christopher Marr
I think at this stage in the game, as I tried to say or did say early on, one quarter does not a complete process make. We’ve got a lot of work that we have to do. We’re very comfortable with the guidance on the first quarter and we affirm the guidance for the year. And I think for safety sake, that’s where we are from commenting on that today.
Christeen Kim - Deutsche Bank
Okay. My last question is, could you just comment on where occupancy has been trending following the end of the quarter and how sticky some of your new occupancy is?
Christopher Marr
Sure. As we move into the seasonally slow period of December and January, occupancies, net rentals are negative as you would expect them to be, but they are in line with our expectations and February, particularly the last 15 days of February, has been surprisingly strong.
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