Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index down 8.9 percent in September

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index ended September with an 8.9-percent decrease to 1,647 and is down 30.3 percent year-to-date 2011. The 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 up-to-the-minute distribution capabilities of HotelNewsNow.com, the industry's leading news website.

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index underperformed the S&P 500 but not the RMZ. The S&P was down 7.2 percent in September, and the RMZ ended the month with an 11.3-percent decrease.

"The economic uncertainties continue to make investors apprehensive in the stock market," said Randy Smith, co-founder and chairman at STR. "The U.S. hotel industry performance remained steady in August as demand continued to hold strong. We believe the hotel industry's continuous improvement will start to attract investors back to the market."

"Hotel stocks, along with the broader market, continue to remain volatile, reflecting continued macroeconomic uncertainties," said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. "We are encouraged by the relative outperformance of hotels this month as they were down somewhat less than other real-estate sectors. While the selling pressure continues, dedicated real-estate investors appear to be selling other property types more than hotels. We continue to believe that hotel stock valuations are attractive, but we expect continued volatile trading until investors have more clarity regarding the trajectory of economic growth."

As of 1 October 2011, the composition of the Index is changing, with the addition of Strategic Hotels & Resorts (BEE) and the removal of Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT). Strategic's implied market capitalization is approximately $800 million while Ashford's is about $575 million. A complete list of the stocks in the index can be found at www.hotelstockindex.com.

About the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was set to equal 1,000 on 1 January 2000, as its starting point. The Index reached its peak of 3,178 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 companies that comprise the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index: Ashford Hospitality Trust, Choice Hotels International, DiamondRock Hospitality, Hersha Hospitality Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, Host Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, LaSalle Hotel Properties, Marriott International, Orient-Express Hotels, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, 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 2,600 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients. Baird oversees and manages client assets of $89 billion. Committed to being a great place to work, Baird ranked number 14 on FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2011 – its eighth 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.