Ashford Hospitality Trust, a U.S. hotel owner that has been financially troubled since the onset of COVID-19, is seeking to sell some properties and improve its cash position after reporting a $60.2 million loss for the fourth quarter.

The Dallas-based real estate investment trust with 100 hotels and 22,316 rooms throughout the United States is marketing a number of undisclosed hotels in its portfolio to would-be buyers, CEO Rob Hays told investors during Wednesday's earnings call discussing the fourth quarter and full-year 2022 results.

"We have a handful of assets we've identified internally as our potential for-sale assets that are maybe not long-term core assets, and we are working with a variety of brokers to figure out what is the best timing," Hays said on the call. "Some of those are in the market right now and some maybe have size or scale where we think it's hard to achieve a certain sales price. If there's value in it, we are out in the market right now. We have a lot of irons in the fire."

This isn't the first time Ashford has marketed some of the hotels in its portfolio to would-be buyers as it seeks to deleverage its balance sheet. As of Dec. 31, the REIT had $3.8 billion in total loans with a blended interest rate of 7.2%. During fiscal 2022, the REIT chipped away at hotels in so-called cash traps under their loans, meaning any excess cash flow generated by the hotels would be held by the lender and not available for corporate purposes.

At the end of the fourth quarter, about 79% of the company's hotels were in cash traps, down from 93% as of the end of fiscal 2021.

The REIT in the fourth quarter also completed the refinancing of a two-year mortgage loan with extension options securing a historic New Orleans hotel, which had an initial maturity date of January 2023. Ashford also modified and extended its mortgage loan securing the 141-room Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown in Atlanta, which had an initial maturity date of December 2022.

The REIT also extended its eight-hotel JPMorgan Chase mortgage loan, which had a maturity extension date of February 2023. Ashford made a $50 million principal paydown on the loan, reducing its interest and giving the company more flexibility in the future.

The modification of some of its debt comes as the REIT also reported its best quarterly revenue per available room since the start of the pandemic. Ashford's RevPAR for all hotels in its portfolio increased 24.9% to $118 during the quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, officials said. Compared with the same quarter in 2019, RevPAR only dipped 1.1%, which is the best-performing quarter in several years.

"The lodging industry continues to show signs of strength," Hays said, adding the REIT feels "well prepared" for the upcoming loan extension tests, but there could be situations where loan balances could exceed the market value of the underlying hotels securing those debts. "If those situations arise, we may give assets back to lenders or allocate capital to maximize value for shareholders."

If the REIT can sell some of its properties, Hays told investors the proceeds of those sales would be earmarked to pay down debt.

In the past year, Ashford's executives have met with over 600 would-be investors with plans to meet with more this year. The REIT ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $417.1 million and restricted cash — primarily lender and manager-held reserves — of $142 million. The REIT has also begun raising its nontraded preferred equity to help grow its portfolio over time, subject to market conditions, with $4 million having been raised to date.

"We continue to take decisive actions to improve our liquidity, build our cash balance and enhance our operational and financial flexibility," Hays said. "As we begin 2023, we believe we are well positioned for any economic scenario.”