stockrowWhat it does
Ryman Hospitality Properties is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, specializing in hotels designed for large group meetings and conventions. Founded in 1925 and headquartered in Nashville, it is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Fioravanti.
Its core hotel portfolio consists of five Gaylord Hotels resorts and two JW Marriott resorts, with 11,869 rooms in total. These properties combine hotel rooms with meeting and exhibition space, restaurants, spas and other attractions. They serve meeting organizers and attendees as well as leisure travelers. Marriott manages their day-to-day operations, along with two nearby overflow hotels.
Ryman also owns an approximate 70% controlling equity interest in Opry Entertainment Group. Its entertainment and media assets include the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, radio station WSM-AM, the Ole Red and Category 10 venues, and a controlling interest in festival producer Southern Entertainment. Block 21 in Austin combines entertainment, lodging, office and retail space.
The company operates through Hospitality, Entertainment, and Corporate and Other segments. As a REIT, Ryman generally does not pay federal corporate income tax on REIT taxable income distributed to shareholders; its taxable subsidiaries and entertainment businesses remain subject to applicable corporate income taxes.
How it makes money
Ryman earns revenue from hotel stays and related spending at its resorts, as well as from its entertainment and media businesses. Hospitality represented approximately 83% of total revenue for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, while Entertainment represented approximately 17%. Corporate and Other represented approximately 0%.
At the hotels, the number and mix of customers affect the prices Marriott can charge for rooms and amenities such as food, beverages and meeting space. Group meetings and conventions are often contracted several years in advance. Hospitality revenue also includes fees collected when groups cancel or do not meet agreed commitments: attrition and cancellation fee collections were $44.9 million in 2025.
The entertainment portfolio includes live performances, restaurants and bars, festivals, broadcasting, and the lodging, office and retail space at Block 21. The Grand Ole Opry presents regularly scheduled live shows, while Ryman Auditorium hosts concerts and productions. Ole Red venues combine dining, bars and live music; Category 10 Nashville includes spaces for ticketed events and food and beverage service. Ryman believes licensing its entertainment brands for products could add revenue and cash flow with relatively little capital investment.
Ryman’s hotel properties are leased or subleased to its taxable subsidiaries, which engage Marriott to operate them. This structure allows qualifying rent from the subsidiaries to count toward REIT income requirements. Ryman’s dividend policy calls for minimum annual dividends of 100% of REIT taxable income, subject to future board decisions on amounts and timing.
Customers and how it sells
Ryman’s hotel customers include large groups holding meetings and conventions, their attendees, and leisure travelers. Its resorts are designed so that guests can stay, meet, eat and use recreational facilities within one property. Group meetings and conventions are often booked several years ahead, and the hotels also seek transient, or non-group, guests.
The core hotels are in U.S. destination markets: Nashville, the Orlando and Dallas areas, National Harbor near Washington, D.C., the Denver area, San Antonio and Phoenix. The Inn at Opryland and AC Hotel provide overflow capacity near Gaylord Opryland and Gaylord National, respectively. Marriott supplies hotel management, a sales force and a frequent-traveler program.
Entertainment customers include concertgoers, diners, festival audiences and visitors to Nashville attractions. The Grand Ole Opry reaches audiences through live shows, radio and internet streaming. Ryman also has entertainment properties and venues outside Nashville, including Block 21 in Austin and Ole Red locations in Florida, Oklahoma and Nevada. Southern Entertainment produces music festivals and events nationally.
The company identifies geographic concentration at its hotel properties as a risk. It does not identify an individual customer concentration in the information presented here.
Suppliers and costs
Marriott is Ryman’s hotel operator rather than a conventional materials supplier. It manages the Gaylord and JW Marriott resorts, the overflow hotels, and certain other assets, and is responsible for hiring and managing their workforces. Ryman employed 1,819 people as of December 31, 2025, in its Entertainment and Corporate segments.
Marriott receives base management fees based on property revenue and incentive fees tied to hotel profitability. For the Gaylord Hotels properties other than Gaylord Rockies, the base fee is approximately 2% of gross revenues for each fiscal year or portion thereof; rates vary for other properties. Total Marriott base management fees across applicable assets were $52.4 million in 2025, and incentive fees were $27.4 million.
Other hotel costs include employee salaries and benefits, property taxes, supplies, advertising, maintenance and consulting. Food, energy, insurance and labor costs also affect operations. The company invests in property maintenance and renovations and may have to fund capital expenditures needed for legal compliance at Marriott-managed properties. Ryman is not a manufacturer.
- Revenue$2.6B
- Cost of revenue−$1.8B
- Selling, general and administrative−$42.8M
- Other operating costs−$282.3M
- Operating income$487.0M
Competitive position
Ryman’s hotels compete for group business with other hotels in the United States and abroad and with municipal convention centers. The company identifies location, airport access, meeting space, service, entertainment options and price among the factors influencing competition. Hilton Anatole in Dallas is among the large U.S. hotels listed alongside Ryman’s properties by meeting and exhibit space. Ryman also faces competition when acquiring group-oriented hotels.
Our reading: The scale and combination of rooms and meeting space give Ryman a meaningful position in large conventions, although other hotels and public convention centers compete for the same business. Our reading: Marriott’s sales force and frequent-traveler program support distribution, but reliance on a third-party operator limits Ryman’s direct control over hotel operations.
In entertainment, Opry Entertainment Group competes with other entertainment and recreational activities. Customer demand for live music, public taste, weather and available leisure time affect that business. Ryman promotes the Grand Ole Opry name through radio, the internet, television and performances, and has distribution partnerships intended to extend its brands. Our reading: The Opry’s established name and media reach support its entertainment offering, though audiences have many alternatives.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Threat (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Hilton | Large hotels and convention facilities, including Hilton Anatole in Dallas | Medium |
Growth opportunities
Ryman’s long-term hotel strategy includes acquiring or developing group-oriented properties, independently or with partners, and investing in its existing portfolio. It generally seeks accessible upper-upscale or luxury assets with over 400 hotel rooms in urban and resort group destinations. The company also considers hotels with substantial meeting space or opportunities for additional rooms or meeting space.
Ryman purchased JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge in June 2025. It has identified over $1 billion in hotel portfolio investment opportunities, which it anticipates completing in phases through 2027. The nearly $225 million multi-phase plan at Gaylord Opryland includes approximately 108,000 square feet of additional meeting space, a sports bar, an event lawn and pavilion, and ballroom renovations.
For 2026, Ryman anticipates approximately $350 million to $450 million in capital expenditures across hotel projects, entertainment construction and maintenance. The planned work includes room renovations at Gaylord Texan and JW Marriott Hill Country.
In entertainment, the company expects Category 10 locations to open in Las Vegas in late 2026 and at Universal Orlando Resort’s CityWalk in late 2027. Opry Entertainment Group began managing Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater in January 2026 and expects to enter an agreement to manage the CCNB Amphitheatre outside Greenville, South Carolina. Ryman also explores brand licensing and distribution partnerships as ways to extend its entertainment businesses.
- $939.4MFY2021
- $1.8BFY2022
- $2.2BFY2023
- $2.3BFY2024
- $2.6BFY2025
Structural risks
- Hotel management: Marriott manages Ryman’s hotels. If it does not operate them successfully, results, debt service and distributions could be affected. Its ability to attract group business and manage costs depends partly on factors outside its control.
- Travel and local demand: The hotel portfolio is geographically concentrated. Economic conditions, disasters, air travel costs or declining interest in a destination can reduce convention and tourism demand. Group convention demand also falls during year-end holidays.
- Costs and investment: Labor shortages, wage increases, food and energy costs can raise expenses. Capital projects can face delays or overruns, while taking rooms or facilities out of service can reduce revenue.
- Debt and liquidity: Debt payments can limit cash available for distributions, capital spending and other needs. Debt covenants may also restrict distributions or flexibility, while hotel real estate can be difficult to sell promptly.
- REIT qualification: Failure to retain REIT status would subject taxable income to corporate income tax rates and prevent deductions for shareholder distributions when computing taxable income.
- Competition: Other hotels and publicly financed convention centers compete for group business. New hotels, including Gaylord Pacific, which Ryman does not own, can affect demand at its properties.
Bottom line
Our reading
Ryman combines a group-meetings hotel portfolio with a smaller entertainment business built around live music and media. Its operating model rests on Marriott’s management and sales capabilities, while its exposure includes convention demand, concentrated hotel locations, capital spending and debt obligations. The entertainment portfolio adds a separate source of revenue, but also faces competition for audiences’ leisure spending.