New Accounting Standards

Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09 - “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASU 2014-09”)

ASU 2014-09 supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in Topic 605, Revenue Recognition, as well as most industry-specific guidance, and significantly enhances comparability of revenue recognition practices across entities and industries by providing a principles-based, comprehensive framework for addressing revenue recognition issues. In order for a provider of promised goods or services to recognize as revenue the consideration that it expects to receive in exchange for the promised goods or services, the provider should apply the following five steps: (1) identify the contract with a customer(s); (2) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (3) determine the transaction price; (4) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (5) recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation. ASU 2014-09 also specifies the accounting for some costs to obtain or fulfill a contract with a customer and provides enhanced disclosure requirements. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) has deferred ASU 2014-09 for one year, and with that deferral, the standard will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period, which for us will be our 2018 first quarter. We are permitted to use either the retrospective or the modified retrospective method when adopting ASU 2014-09, and we are evaluating the available adoption methods. We are still assessing the potential impact that ASU 2014-09 will have on our financial statements and disclosures, but we believe that recognition of base management fees, franchise royalty fees, and owned and leased revenues will remain unchanged. We expect to recognize gains from the sale of real estate assets when control of the asset is transferred to the buyer, generally at the time the sale closes. Under current guidance, we defer gains on sales of real estate assets if we maintain substantial continuing involvement. We do not expect that this change will have a material impact on our Financial Statements, as we typically do not have transactions that require us to defer significant gains. There likely will be changes to our revenue recognition policies related to our loyalty programs and the following:


•	We expect to recognize franchise application and relicensing fees over the term of the franchise contract rather than at hotel opening.


•	We expect to present the amortization of contract acquisition costs paid to customers as a reduction of revenue rather than as an amortization expense.

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We expect to recognize incentive management fees throughout the year to the extent that we determine that it is probable that a significant reversal will not occur as a result of future hotel profits or cash flows. This may result in a different pattern of recognition for incentive management fees from quarter to quarter than under the current guidance, but we do not expect a material impact on the total incentive management fees we will recognize during the full fiscal year.

Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02 - “Leases” (“ASU 2016-02”)

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, which introduces a lessee model that brings substantially all leases onto the balance sheet. Under the new standard, a lessee will recognize on its balance sheet a lease liability and a right-of-use asset for all leases, including operating leases, with a term greater than 12 months. The new standard will also distinguish leases as either finance leases or operating leases. This distinction will affect how leases are measured and presented in the income statement and statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-02 is effective for annual and interim periods in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, which for us will be our 2019 first quarter. We are still assessing the potential impact that ASU 2016-02 will have on our financial statements and disclosures.

Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-09 - “Stock Compensation” (“ASU 2016-09”)

We adopted ASU 2016-09 in the 2017 first quarter, which involves several aspects of the accounting for share-based payments. The new guidance had the following impacts on our Financial Statements:

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We now record excess tax benefits (or deficiencies) as income tax benefit (or expense) in our Income Statements. Previously, we recorded excess tax benefits (deficiencies) in additional paid-in-capital in our Balance Sheets. As required, we prospectively applied this amendment in our Income Statements, which resulted in a benefit of $56 million to our provision for income taxes, approximately $0.15 per diluted share, for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

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We now classify excess tax benefits (or deficiencies) along with other income taxes in operating activities in our Statements of Cash Flows. ASU 2016-09 allowed for this amendment to be applied either prospectively or retrospectively. For consistency with our application of ASU 2016-09 in our Income Statements, we applied this amendment prospectively in our Statements of Cash Flows. For the six months ended June 30, 2017, operating activities in our Statements of Cash Flows include $56 million from excess tax benefits. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, we classified $16 million of excess tax benefits as financing inflows.


•	We now classify cash paid to taxing authorities when we withhold shares for employee tax-withholding purposes as a financing activity. As required, we retrospectively applied this amendment in our Statements of Cash Flows, and accordingly we reclassified $64 million of cash outflows from operating activities to financing activities for the six months ended June 30, 2016.

Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-01 - “Clarifying the Definition of a Business” (“ASU 2017-01”)

We prospectively adopted ASU 2017-01 in the 2017 first quarter, which clarifies the definition of a business to help companies evaluate whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions or disposals of assets or businesses. We expect that under this new guidance, our hotel sales will generally qualify as asset disposals, with the result that no goodwill of the reporting unit will be assigned to the carrying value of the asset when calculating the gain or loss on sale.