October 11, 2005

Smith Travel Research Updates Hurricane Katrina’s Impact on New Orleans and Gulf Coast Hotel Industry

Hendersonville, TN – Smith Travel Research (STR), the recognized leader in hotel benchmarking, today released its updated hotel and room count inventory of the areas hardest hit by hurricane Katrina. According to STR, as of October 10th there were 465 hotels with 43,915 rooms open to the public and emergency personnel in the affected areas. The open rooms account for roughly 54% of the hotel inventory available prior to Katrina.

CoStar

According to STR, as of October 10th there were 465 hotels with 43,915 rooms open to the public and emergency personnel in the affected areas. The open rooms account for roughly 54% of the hotel inventory available prior to Katrina. Mark Lomanno, president of STR, commented: “While it is encouraging to see that almost 44,000 rooms in the area weathered the storm, the impact of Katrina on the greater New Orleans hotel market and throughout the region will be felt for years to come.”

The detailed status and number of properties and rooms in the affected submarkets are as follows:

Source: Smith Travel Research, Inc.

STR will continue to monitor the situation and has not yet resumed the reporting of performance statistics for the reopened hotels. Randy Smith, owner and CEO remarked: “We understand the desire of the hotel community to return to business as usual. To support this we are doing our part and plan to resume publication of New Orleans numbers soon. Our clients are in weekly contact with us and we will, given increased participation levels, hopefully start distributing performance data in the coming weeks.”

Mr. Lomanno reiterated the revised Total US Performance Projections for year 2005. The revised STR projections are as follows:

Total US Percent Change Year End 2005:

Total US Absolute Figures Year-End 2005:

If you have any questions please contact Bobby Bowers, SVP; Brad Garner, VP; or Jan D. Freitag, VP at 615-824- 8664.

About SMITH TRAVEL RESEARCH (STR): STR is the recognized leader in US Lodging Industry benchmarking. For 20 years STR has collected monthly and daily operating data and reported on the state of the Lodging industry. Currently over 23,000 hotels participate in the Monthly STAR program. If you wish to learn more about The HOST Data Service, Historical TRENDS, the STAR program or other STR Services please call (615) 824-8664 or visit our web site: