Company: PEB
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001474098-25-000039
Chunk: 74

Company: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 74
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 make, which may adversely affect our profitability.

Seasonality

Demand in the lodging industry is affected by recurring seasonal patterns which are greatly influenced by overall economic cycles, geographic locations, weather and customer mix at the hotels. Generally, our hotels have lower revenue, operating income and cash flow in the first quarter of each year and higher revenue, operating income and cash flow in the third quarter of each year.

Regulations

Our hotel properties are subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws. Under these laws, courts and government agencies have the authority to require us, as an owner of a contaminated property, to clean up the property, even if we did not know of or were not responsible for the contamination. These laws also apply to persons who owned a property at the time it became contaminated, and therefore it is possible we could incur these costs even after we sell a property. In addition to the cleanup costs, environmental contamination can affect the value of a property and, therefore, an owner's ability to borrow using the property as collateral or to sell the property. Under environmental laws, courts and government agencies also have the authority to require that a person who sent waste to a waste disposal facility, such as a landfill or an incinerator, pay for the clean-up of that facility if it becomes contaminated and threatens human health or the environment. Furthermore, various court decisions have established that third parties may recover damages for injury caused by property contamination. For instance, a person exposed to asbestos while staying in a hotel may seek to recover damages if they suffer injury from the asbestos. Some of these environmental laws restrict the use of a property or place conditions on various activities. An example would be laws requiring a business using chemicals (such as swimming pool chemicals at a hotel property) to manage them carefully and notify local officials that the chemicals are being used.

We could be responsible for any of the costs discussed above. The costs to clean up a contaminated property, to defend against a claim, or to comply with environmental laws could be material and could adversely affect the funds available for distribution to our shareholders. Prior to closing a property acquisition, we obtain Phase I environmental site assessments ("ESAs"), in order to attempt to identify potential environmental concerns at the properties. These assessments are carried out in accordance with an appropriate level of due diligence and generally include a physical site inspection, a review of relevant federal, state and local environmental and health agency database records, one or more interviews with appropriate site-related personnel, review of the property's chain of title and review of historical aerial photographs and