RLJ Lodging Trust (RLJ) Business

Item 1.    Business

Our Company

We are a self-advised and self-administered Maryland real estate investment trust that owns primarily premium-branded, rooms-oriented, high-margin, focused-service and compact full-service hotels located within heart of demand locations. We are one of the largest U.S. publicly-traded lodging REITs in terms of both number of hotels and number of rooms. Our hotels are concentrated in markets that we believe exhibit multiple demand generators and attractive long-term growth prospects. We believe premium-branded, focused-service and compact full-service hotels with these characteristics generate high levels of RevPAR, strong operating margins and attractive returns.

As of December 31, 2025, we owned 93 hotel properties with approximately 20,800 rooms, located in 23 states and the District of Columbia. We owned, through wholly-owned subsidiaries, a 100% interest in 91 of our hotel properties, a 95% controlling interest in one hotel property, and a 50% non-controlling interest in an entity owning one hotel property. We consolidate our real estate interests in the 92 hotel properties in which we hold a controlling financial interest, and we record the real estate interest in the one hotel property in which we hold an indirect 50% non-controlling interest using the equity method of accounting. We lease 92 of the 93 hotel properties to our TRSs, of which we own a controlling financial interest.

We elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes (a "REIT"). Substantially all of our assets and liabilities are held by, and all of our operations are conducted through, the Operating Partnership. We are the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2025, we owned, through a combination of direct and indirect interests, 99.5% of the units of limited partnership interest in the Operating Partnership ("OP units").

The Lodging Industry

The lodging industry in the United States consists of public and private entities that operate in an extremely diversified market under a variety of brand names. The key participants in the lodging industry are as follows:

•Owners — own the hotel property and typically enter into a management agreement with an independent third party to manage the hotel property. The hotel properties may be branded and operated under the independent manager’s brand or branded under a separate franchise agreement.

•Franchisors — own a brand or brands and provide the franchised hotels with brand recognition, marketing support and worldwide reservation systems.

•Independent Managers — responsible for the day-to-day operation of the hotel property, including the employment of the hotel staff, the determination of room rates, the development of sales and marketing plans, the preparation of operating and capital expenditure budgets and the preparation of financial reports for the owner.

Our Investment and Business Strategies

Our objective is to generate strong returns for our shareholders by acquiring and owning primarily premium-branded, focused-service and compact full-service hotels at prices where we believe we can generate attractive returns on investment and long-term value appreciation through proactive asset management. We also intend to selectively dispose of hotel properties when we believe the returns have been maximized or the hotel properties no longer meet our strategy in order to have investment capacity for other opportunities, which may include acquisitions. We intend to pursue this objective through the following investment and business strategies:

Investment Strategies

•Targeted ownership of premium-branded, focused-service and compact full-service hotels.  We believe that premium-branded, rooms-oriented, high-margin, focused-service and compact full-service hotels located within heart of demand locations have the potential to generate attractive returns relative to other types of hotels due to their ability to achieve RevPAR levels at or close to those generated by traditional full-service hotels, while achieving higher profit margins due to their more efficient operating model and less volatile cash flows.

•Use of premium hotel brands.  We believe in affiliating our hotels with premium brands owned by leading international franchisors such as Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. We believe that utilizing premium brands provides significant advantages because of their guest loyalty programs, worldwide reservation systems, effective product segmentation, global distribution and strong customer awareness.

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•Focus on high-growth markets.  We focus on owning and acquiring hotel properties in markets that we believe exhibit multiple demand generators and attractive long-term growth prospects. As a result, we believe that these hotel properties generate higher returns on investment.

Business Strategies

•Maximize returns from our hotel properties.  We believe that our hotel properties have the potential to generate improvements in RevPAR and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") as a result of our proactive asset management. We actively monitor and advise our independent managers on most aspects of our hotels' operations, including property positioning, physical design, capital planning and investment, guest experience and overall strategic direction. We regularly review opportunities to further invest in our hotel properties in an effort to enhance quality and attractiveness, increase long-term value and generate attractive returns on investment.

•Pursue a disciplined hotel acquisition strategy.  We seek to acquire additional hotel properties at prices below replacement cost where we believe we can generate attractive returns on investment. We intend to target newly or recently built hotel properties and we will also target acquisition opportunities where we can enhance value by pursuing proactive investment strategies such as renovation, repositioning or rebranding.

•Pursue opportunistic capital recycling.  We may opportunistically and selectively sell hotel properties whose returns appear to have been maximized. To the extent that we sell our hotel properties, except as may be required by our debt agreements, we intend to redeploy the capital into other investment opportunities, including without limitation, acquisitions and internal value creation opportunities.

•Maintain a flexible balance sheet. We intend to continue to maintain a flexible capital structure that allows us to execute our strategy. We believe that a strong balance sheet is a key competitive advantage that affords us a lower cost of capital and positions us for growth. We structure our debt profile to maintain financial flexibility and a balanced maturity schedule with access to different forms of financing.

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Our Hotels

Our hotel properties operate under industry-leading, premium brands, with approximately 89.3% of our hotel properties operating under existing relationships with Marriott, Hilton or Hyatt. The following table sets forth the brand affiliations of our hotel properties as of December 31, 2025:

Asset Management

We have a dedicated team of asset management professionals that proactively work with our independent managers to maximize profitability at each of our hotels to the extent permitted under the REIT rules. Our asset management team monitors the performance of our hotels on a daily basis and holds frequent ownership meetings with corporate operations executives and key personnel at the hotels. Our asset management team works closely with our independent managers on key aspects of each hotel's operation, including, among others, revenue management, market positioning, cost structure, capital and operational budgeting, as well as the identification and evaluation of return on investment initiatives and overall business strategy. While we have limited ability (or in some cases, no ability) to impact our independent managers' decisions with respect to their employees, we do retain approval rights on key staffing positions at many of our hotels, such as the hotel's general manager and director of sales. We believe that our strong asset management process helps to ensure that each hotel is being operated to our and our franchisors' standards, that our hotel properties are being adequately maintained in order to preserve the value of the

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asset and to ensure the safety of our customers, and that our management companies are maximizing revenues, profits and operating margins.

Competition

The U.S. lodging industry is highly competitive. Our hotel properties compete with other participants in the lodging industry for guests in each of their markets on the basis of several factors, including, among others, location, quality of accommodations, convenience, brand affiliation, room rates, service levels, amenities and the availability of lodging and event space. Competition is often specific to the individual markets in which our hotel properties are located and includes competition from existing and new hotels in the focused-service and compact full-service hotel segments and non-traditional accommodations for travelers, such as online services that market homes, apartments and condominiums as an alternative to hotel rooms. We believe that hotels, such as our hotels, that are affiliated with leading national brands, such as the Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt brands, will enjoy competitive advantages associated with operating under such brands.

We face competition for the acquisition of hotel properties from institutional pension funds, private equity funds, REITs, hotel companies and other parties who are engaged in the acquisition of hotel properties. Some of these competitors may have substantially greater financial and operational resources and access to capital, a lower cost of capital and/or greater knowledge of the markets in which we seek to invest. This competition may reduce the number of suitable investment opportunities offered to us and decrease the attractiveness of the terms on which we may acquire our targeted hotel investments, including the cost thereof.

Seasonality

The lodging industry is seasonal in nature, which can cause quarterly fluctuations in our revenues. For example, our hotels in the northeastern metropolitan areas experience lower revenues and profits during the winter months of December through March, while our hotels in Florida generally have higher revenues in the months of January through April. This seasonality can be expected to cause periodic fluctuations in a hotel's room revenues, occupancy levels, room rates, operating expenses and cash flows.

Our Financing Strategy

Over time, we intend to finance our long-term growth with equity issuances and debt financing with staggered maturities. Our strategy with respect to our debt profile is to primarily have unsecured debt and a greater percentage of fixed rate and hedged floating rate debt as compared to unhedged floating rate debt. Our debt is currently comprised of unsecured senior notes, unsecured credit agreements, and mortgage loans secured by certain hotel properties. We have a mix of fixed and floating rate debt; however, the majority of our debt currently either bears interest at fixed rates or effectively bears interest at fixed rates due to interest rate swaps on the debt.

Organizational Structure

We conduct our business through a traditional umbrella partnership real estate investment trust ("UPREIT") structure in which our assets are owned and our business activities are undertaken by the Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries. We are the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership and, as of December 31, 2025, we owned 99.5% of the OP units in the Operating Partnership. In the future, we may issue OP units from time to time in connection with acquiring hotel properties, financing, compensation or other reasons.

Our hotel properties are indirectly owned by the Operating Partnership through limited partnerships or limited liability companies (“hotel owners”). The hotel owners lease the hotels to our TRSs, which engage independent managers to operate our hotel properties on market terms. The independent managers operate the hotels, collect hotel operating revenue, pay operating expenses (including the independent managers’ management fees) on behalf of the TRSs pursuant to the relevant hotel management agreement. Our TRSs are corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, thus, are subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax, as well as applicable state and local income tax, on their taxable income.

We treat the rent paid by our TRS lessees to our OP lessors as "rents from real property" for purposes of our qualification as a REIT. In addition, we treat any distributions received from our TRSs out of after-tax earnings as dividend income. As a REIT, we generally are not subject to U.S. federal income tax on our income that we distribute to our shareholders as dividends and we are required to distribute 90% of our REIT taxable income (excluding net capital gains) in order to maintain our qualification as a REIT.

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Regulation

General

Our hotel properties are subject to various U.S. federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations, including regulations relating to common areas and fire and life safety requirements. We believe that each of our hotel properties has the necessary permits and approvals to operate its business.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Our hotel properties must comply with the applicable provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Accessibility Guidelines promulgated thereunder (the "ADA"), to the extent that such hotels are "public accommodations" as defined by the ADA. The ADA may require the removal of structural barriers to access by persons with disabilities in certain public areas of our hotels where such removal is readily achievable. We believe that our hotel properties are in substantial compliance with the ADA and that we will not be required to make substantial capital expenditures to address the requirements of the ADA. However, non-compliance with the ADA could result in the imposition of fines or an award of damages to private litigants. The obligation to make readily achievable accommodations is an ongoing one, and we will continue to assess our hotels and to make alterations as appropriate in this respect.

Environmental Matters

Under various federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, a current or previous owner or operator (including tenants) of real estate may be subject to liability related to contamination resulting from the presence or discharge of hazardous or toxic substances at that property and may be required to investigate and clean up such contamination at that property or emanating from that property. These costs could be substantial and liability under these laws may attach without regard to whether the owner or operator knew of, or was responsible for, the presence of the contaminants, and the liability may be joint and several. The presence of contamination or the failure to remediate contamination at our hotels may expose us to third-party liability for cleanup costs, property damage or bodily injury, natural resource damages and costs or expenses related to liens or property use restrictions and materially and adversely affect our ability to sell, lease or develop the real estate or to incur debt using the real estate as collateral.

Our hotel properties are subject to various federal, state, and local environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Certain of our hotel properties may also be subject to various climate disclosure laws and regulations. Our hotel properties incur costs to comply with these laws and regulations and could be subject to fines and penalties for non-compliance. The costs of complying with environmental, health and safety laws could increase as new laws are enacted and existing laws are modified.

Some of our hotel properties contain asbestos-containing building materials. We believe that the asbestos is appropriately contained in accordance with current environmental regulations and that we have no need for any immediate remediation or current plans to remove the asbestos.

We believe that our hotel properties are in compliance, in all material respects, with all federal, state and local environmental ordinances and regulations regarding hazardous or toxic substances and other environmental matters, the violation of which could have a material adverse effect on us. Although we have not received written notice from any governmental authority of any material noncompliance, liability or claim relating to hazardous or toxic substances or other environmental matters in connection with any of our present properties, we can offer no assurance that a material environmental claim will not be asserted against us in the future.

Insurance

We carry comprehensive general liability, fire, extended coverage, business interruption, rental loss of income coverage and umbrella liability coverage on all of our hotels, including earthquake, wind, flood and hurricane coverage on hotels in areas where we believe such coverages are warranted, in each case with limits of liability that we deem adequate. Similarly, we are insured against the risk of direct physical damage in amounts we believe to be adequate to reimburse us, on a replacement cost basis, for the costs incurred to repair or rebuild each hotel, including loss of income during the reconstruction period. We have selected policy specifications and insured limits which we believe to be appropriate given the relative risk of loss, the cost of the coverage and industry practice. Certain of our properties in our portfolio are located in areas known to be subject to hurricanes and we believe that we have appropriate insurance for those risks, although they are subject to higher retentions for

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named windstorms than our other properties. We do not carry insurance for generally uninsurable risks, including, but not limited to losses caused by communicable or infectious diseases, war or governmental actions such as government seizures of property. In addition, we do not carry cyber insurance.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2025, we had 75 employees. We strive to maintain a workplace that is free from discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification or any other status protected by applicable laws. We conduct annual trainings to prevent discrimination and harassment and monitor employee conduct year-round.

Our key human capital management objectives are to attract, recruit, hire, develop and promote a deep and diverse bench of talent that translates into a strong and successful workforce. To support these objectives, our human resources programs are designed to develop talent to prepare them for critical roles and leadership positions for the future; reward and support employees through competitive pay, benefit programs, and flexible work arrangements; enhance our culture through efforts to foster, promote, and preserve a culture of diversity and inclusion; and evolve and invest in technology, tools, and resources to enable employees at work.

Sustainability

We are committed to driving long-term value creation for our shareholders by upholding our corporate responsibility and incorporating sustainability initiatives in all key aspects of our strategy and business.

In June 2025, we released our third annual Corporate Sustainability Report, which included the Global Reporting Initiative disclosures for our portfolio, the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board Real Estate disclosures and disclosures in accordance with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. We also continued our participation in sustainability frameworks such as GRESB and meaningfully improved our overall score over the prior year.

On the environmental front, we believe our investment strategy of owning primarily rooms-oriented, focused-service and compact full-service hotels leads to lower operational intensity and higher efficiency with respect to space usage than full-service hotels, resulting in an overall lower environmental impact across our portfolio. We continue to disclose our environmental policy, which includes our environmental objectives such as reducing energy, greenhouse gas, and water usage and making green building investments, as well as addressing the physical impacts of climate change. Our capital expenditure priorities are focused heavily on projects that, in addition to strengthening our market positioning, also enhance profitability by bringing about energy and water usage reductions and savings. Through these and our wider initiatives and support from our hotel operators, across our portfolio since 2019, we were able to reduce our energy usage per square foot by 9% and our greenhouse gas emissions per square foot by 23% as of 2024, bringing us closer to achieving our stated goal of reducing carbon emissions by 35% by 2030.

With respect to social causes, we continue to show our commitment to making an impact in the communities we serve. In 2025, RLJ employees participated in a number of company-sponsored volunteer opportunities, including a finance mentorship program with Junior Achievement of Greater Washington during which RLJ employees taught local middle school students about principles of personal finance. Additionally, in response to the Los Angeles area wildfires in January 2025, several RLJ properties organized donations and care packages for victims and impacted families. We maintain our partnership with a number of other locally-based charitable organizations including the N Street Village, Bridges from School to Work, and Don Bosco Cristo Rey. Additionally, we continue to support small businesses in our community through a $5.0 million deposit at Industrial Bank, a minority-owned financial institution which aims to empower under-banked businesses and individuals locally.

In connection with our adherence to the American Hotel Lodging Association ("AHLA") Safe Stay® initiative, we are committed to promoting the health and well-being of all members of our community – from our customers and associates to the employees of our independent managers. To that end, we incorporate all related AHLA Safe Stay policies and procedures into hotel operations so that all related parties benefit from our support. We have committed to initiatives that support associate well-being, including the AHLA 5-Star Promise – a voluntary industry pledge to improve and promote workplace safety around sexual violence, assault, and human trafficking. We are also committed to supporting our independent managers with integrating the 5-Star Promise principles throughout their hotel operations. Our labor and human rights policy outlines our approach to ensuring fair and equitable labor practices.

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We continue to uphold high standards with respect to governance, which is reflected in our approach to maintaining a highly diverse board and our overall approach to risk management. With respect to our board, three trustees are women, five are ethnically diverse and seven are independent. Nearly 80% of our board has deep expertise and experience in risk management. In addition, our board, via the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee (the "NCG Committee") of the board, has the overall responsibility for overseeing sustainability-related issues, policies and programs for our company. We have an internal sustainability committee that reports sustainability matters directly through our CEO to the board’s NCG Committee and meets several times a year. The NCG Committee, with critical support from management, is leading the effort to formulate our strategy with respect to adapting and responding to the risks and opportunities presented by sustainability-related matters.

We intend to continue to enhance our sustainability initiatives and our disclosures by striving to adhere to the widely recognized frameworks in order to continue to provide transparency regarding our sustainability initiatives. We also intend to enhance strategic decision making by identifying and addressing material risks and opportunities that mitigate long-term environmental impacts to our hotel properties. We will continue to seek ways to maximize the positive impact of our business in ways that foster long-term resiliency for both the portfolio and our stakeholders.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive offices are located at 7373 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1500, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Our telephone number is (301) 280-7777. Our website is located at www.rljlodgingtrust.com. The information that is found on or accessible through our website is not incorporated into, and does not form a part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document that we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). We have included our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as an inactive textual reference and do not intend it to be an active link to our website.

We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. We also make available on our website on the Corporate Governance page under the Investor Relations section various documents related to our corporate governance including our: Board Committee Charters; Corporate Governance Guidelines; Code of Business Conduct and Ethics; Complaint Procedures for Financial and Auditing Matters; Declaration of Trust; and Bylaws.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC are available on the SEC's website, which contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC's website address is www.sec.gov.