During 2020, CorePoint Lodging continued to make progress on the sale of noncore assets, closing on the sale of 61 hotels for $274 million.

The company sold 11 noncore assets for $48 million during the fourth quarter, Dan Swanstrom, executive vice president and chief financial officer at CorePoint, said during a call to discuss fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings.

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The midscale-focused real estate investment trust also sold eight additional noncore hotels subsequent to year end for $38 million, resulting in a total of 113 noncore hotels sold for $489 million since March 2019, according to the company's earnings release.

As part of CorePoint's initial disposition program, which started in March 2019, 71 of 78 noncore assets have been sold for $283 million. The company initiated a phase two of 132 noncore assets in March 2020 and has sold 42 of those assets for $206 million.

"We continue to believe there is a compelling and strategic rationale for our noncore disposition program and for narrowing our focus to a go-forward core portfolio of 105 higher-quality, higher-growth-potential assets that are primarily located in the top 50 metropolitan statistical areas," he said.

During the week of Feb. 14 when the winter storm hit in Texas and surrounding areas, CorePoint's 40 hotels in the affected areas had minimal operation disruptions from power and water outages caused by freezing temperatures, which led to an occupancy increase of 80 basis points on a net basis, said Keith Cline, president and CEO of CorePoint.

The REIT's portfolio of select-service hotels "has continued to outperform the broader lodging market," Cline said.

The company achieved property level breakeven during the fourth quarter, "which includes the seasonally low demand periods in November and December," he said.

All of CorePoint's hotels have been open since the second quarter, and since then, "we have experienced a market improvement in operating results, with significant [revenue per available room] index outperformance and year-over-year [revenue per available room] change for the fourth quarter that outperformed the broader industry," he said.

This relative outperformance has been most dramatic in drive-to destination markets such as Florida and California, Cline said, adding that leisure travel represents over two-thirds of booking with weekends outperforming.

Cline said CorePoint remains focused on cost-control initiatives.

"These property-level, cost-control initiatives include reduced staffing levels, the elimination of all non-essential amenities, and the freezing of all spending at the hotels to only what is essential to run the hotel safely while serving our guests during this challenging time," he said.

The company has a revised labor standard that includes a "significant reduction" in housekeeping hours driven by lower occupancy, and reductions in areas such as breakfast, maintenance and guest-service associates to better manage cost structure, he said.

For the fourth quarter, CorePoint reported occupancy of 47%, down 1,640 basis points year over year. Average daily rate decreased 23.4% to $68.10 and RevPAR declined 43.2% to $32.03.

Occupancy for the full year decreased 2,030 basis points to 47.6%, average daily rate declined 18.9% to $76.25 and RevPAR dropped 43.2% to $36.30.

As of press time, CorePoint's stock was trading at $9.63 a share, up 40% year to date. The New York Stock Exchange Composite was up 8% for the same period.