Note 18. Segment Information Our hotel business is segregated into three separate hotel segments: (i) the Americas, (ii) Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME), and (iii) Asia Pacific. The vacation ownership and residential business is a separate segment. Our reportable segments each have a division president who is responsible for the management of the division. Each division president reports directly to our Chief Executive Officer who is also the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM). Financial information for each reportable segment is reviewed by the CODM to assess performance and make decisions regarding the allocation of resources. Each hotel segment generates its earnings through a network of owned, leased, consolidated and unconsolidated joint venture hotels and resorts operated primarily under our proprietary brand names including St. Regis ® , The Luxury Collection ® , W ® , Westin ® , Le Méridien ® , Sheraton ® , Four Points ® by Sheraton, Aloft ® , and Element ® , as well as hotels and resorts which are managed or franchised under these brand names in exchange for fees. The management of our vacation ownership and residential sales business is conducted by the vacation ownership and residential segment. The vacation ownership and residential segment generates its earnings through the acquisition, development and operation of vacation ownership resorts, marketing and selling of VOIs and residential units, and providing financing to customers who purchase such interests. See Note 20, Planned Spin-off, for a discussion of our plans for a spin-off of our vacation ownership business. The CODM primarily evaluates the operating performance of a segment based on segment earnings. We define segment earnings as net income attributable to our common stockholders before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as well as our share of interest, depreciation and amortization associated with our unconsolidated joint ventures, excluding certain recurring and nonrecurring items, such as restructurin