Financial Information
Contractual Obligations and Off Balance Sheet Arrangements
Contractual Obligations
The following table summarizes our contractual obligations at year-end 2014:
(1) Includes principal as well as interest payments.
The preceding table does not reflect unrecognized tax benefits at year-end 2014 of $10 million. See Footnote No. 6, “Income Taxes” for additional information.
In addition to the purchase obligations noted in the preceding table, in the normal course of business we enter into purchase commitments to manage the daily operating needs of the hotels that we manage. Since we are reimbursed from the cash flows of the hotels, these obligations have minimal impact on our net income and cash flow.
Guarantee Commitments
The following table summarizes our guarantee commitments at year-end 2014:
In conjunction with financing obtained for specific projects or properties owned by joint ventures in which we are a party, we may provide industry standard indemnifications to the lender for loss, liability or damage occurring as a result of our actions or the actions of the other joint venture owner.
Investment Commitments
We also had the following investment commitments outstanding at year-end 2014:
For further information on our investment commitments, including the nature of the commitments and their expirations, see the “Commitments” caption in Footnote No. 7, “Commitments and Contingencies.”
Letters of Credit
At year-end 2014, we also had $87 million of letters of credit outstanding (all outside the Credit Facility), the majority of which were for our self-insurance programs. Surety bonds issued as of year-end 2014 totaled $153 million, the majority of which federal, state, and local governments requested in connection with our self-insurance programs.