RLJ Lodging Trust's portfolio is well-positioned to benefit early during the recovery, according to President and CEO Leslie Hale, who added the company is "actively monitoring the transaction market."

On a call with analysts to report fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings, Hale said the real estate investment trust's ability to preserve liquidity and reduce cash burn has put it in the position to pursue long-term growth opportunities.

• Click here to read HNN's complete coverage of the fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings season.

RLJ ended the year with more than $1 billion in liquidity, which "will enable us to take advantage of both internal and external value-creation opportunities," she said.

Externally, RLJ is open to acquisitions and is considering younger assets as well as older ones and is "not afraid to do a deep turn," Hale told analysts.

When asked by analysts why now is the time to potentially move faster on growth opportunities, she said the key is to be able to underwrite an asset to break even.

"Additionally, we wanted to make sure that we had conviction in our underwriting. Based on the way fundamentals have continued to show positive signs early on this year, we feel that where we sit today we have a greater amount of confidence in our ability to underwrite and [get] back to pre-COVID levels," she said.

Hale said the company "may be a little off on the initial ramp here or there," but her team feels greater confidence today in their ability to get assets to return to pre-COVID levels.

RLJ hotels in leisure markets such as south Florida; Orlando; and Charleston, South Carolina, outperformed in 2020, which is expected to continue in 2021, Hale said.

The company's portfolio mix enabled it to capture pent-up demand, especially on weekends, she said.

Fourth-quarter business transient and group rooms revenue increased 12% and 4%, respectively, from the third quarter, which is evidence of improvements in both segments, she said.

Business-transient demand was generated by health care, government and insurance organizations while group demand benefited from small social groups such as weddings and sports teams, she said.

RLJ reported a 55% decline in occupancy to 34.1% for the fourth quarter, according to the company's earnings release. Revenue per available room decreased 72.2% to $37.80, and average daily rate was down 38.3% to $110.94.

For the full year, occupancy decreased 57.2% to 33.8%, and RevPAR was down 66.8% to $48.13 as ADR declined 22.3% to $142.41.

As of press time, RLJ's stock was trading at $15.75, up 11.4% year to date. The New York Stock Exchange Composite was down 4.4% for the same period.