STR announces Best Performing Hotel Award winners during second Hotel Data Conference in Nashville

The winners of the inaugural 2010 STR Best Performing Hotel Award were announced today during the 2010 Hotel Data Conference, presented by Gaylord Hotels, and hosted by HotelNewsNow.com and STR. The conference was held this week at the Loews Vanderbilt Nashville Hotel.

The seven winners were chosen based on reported performance by hotels, including occupancy, average daily rate, and revenue per available room, compared with their respective market-scale performance.

"STR is excited to honor these top-performing hotels," said Randy Smith, CEO of STR. "With the tough economic road the industry has travelled, it is nice to recognize a group of hotels that stood strong and were top performers in the industry."

The award was given to one hotel in each of the seven Chain Scale segments. The 2010 STR Best Performing Award winners:

• Luxury Segment: Four Seasons Hotel New York;
• Upper Upscale Segment: Westin Sunset Key (Florida) Guest Cottages;
• Upscale Segment: Homewood Suites Jackson (Wyoming);
• Midscale-with-Food-and-Beverage Segment: Quality Suites Oceanfront Jacksonville Beach (Florida);
• Midscale-without-Food-and-Beverage Segment: Hampton Inn Chicago Majestic Theatre District;
• Economy Segment: Days Inn & Suites Jekyll Isle Oceanfront (Jekyll Island, Georgia); and
• Independent Segment: White Elephant Hotel (Nantucket, Massachusetts)

The winners were determined based on a number of criteria, including the following metrics: occupancy, ADR and RevPAR in year-over-year comparisons (2009 vs. 2008). The 2009 performance was also compared against each property's Market Scale performance as well as percent change.