STR - U.S. Hotel Stocks Gain in May

Year-to-date Still Down 0.7%

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. June 13, 2011

June 10, 2011 - The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index ended May with a 1.2-percent increase to 2,380. The index is down 0.7 percent year-to-date 2011. The Hotel Stock Index ended 2010 at 2,364.

Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index—the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry. The index combines Baird's financial markets expertise, the data processing of STR and the industry's leading news website, HotelNewsNow.com.

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index outperformed the S&P 500 and the RMZ for the first time this year. The S&P ended May with a 1.4-percent decrease and the RMZ ended the month with a 1.0-percent increase. The month's outperformance was aided by a 7.1-percent increase in shares of Marriott International, the index's largest component.

"There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the economy, so it is a good sign that the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index stayed positive in May," said Randy Smith, chairman and cofounder of STR. "The U.S. hotel industry is on a steady road to recovery and we expect a busy summer travel season to aid the recovery. We believe solid gains in the industry's performance will further bolster investor interest in the lodging sector."

"Investors have become wary of a second half 2011 slowdown, but declining interest rates have generally aided real estate stocks' performance," said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. "Specifically, hotel fundamentals remain strong and the outlook for continued growth is positive, despite several macroeconomic headwinds. We expect continued demand growth and minimal new supply to lead to occupancy gains; pricing gains should accelerate as the year progresses which should fuel hotel share price gains."

About the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was set to equal 1000 on 1 January 2000, as its starting point. The Index reached its peak of 3178 on 5 July 2007. The Index's lowest point occurred on 6 March 2009, when it dropped to 573.

The Index is available exclusively on www.hotelstockindex.com and www.HotelNewsNow.com. The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index is a co-branded index created by Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and Smith Travel Research, Inc. (STR). The market-cap weighted Index is comprised of 15 of the largest market capitalization hotel companies publicly traded on a U.S. exchange and attempts to characterize the performance of hotel stocks. The Index is maintained by Baird and is hosted on HotelNewsNow.com. The Index is not actively managed and a direct investment cannot be made in it.

The current companies that comprise the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index: Ashford Hospitality Trust, Choice Hotels International, DiamondRock Hospitality, FelCor Lodging Trust, Hersha Hospitality Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, Host Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, LaSalle Hotel Properties, Marriott International, Orient-Express Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Sunstone Hotel Investors and Wyndham Worldwide.

About Baird

Baird is an employee-owned, international wealth management, capital markets, private equity and asset management firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Established in 1919, Baird has more than 2,500 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients. Baird oversees and manages client assets of nearly $75 billion. Committed to being a great place to work, Baird ranked number 11 on FORTUNE's “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2010 - its seventh consecutive year on the list. Baird's principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd. in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird's private equity operations. For more information, please visit Baird's Web site at www.rwbaird.com.

About STR

STR provides clients—including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry—access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering North America, Mexico and Caribbean. STR provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. STR founded the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR Global, RRC Associates, STR Analytics, and HotelNewsNow.com. For more information, please visit www.str.com.