RANDELL A. SMITH

Randy Smith is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Smith Travel Research (STR), the leading authority on current trends in occupancy, room rate and supply/demand data for the Global lodging industry. Each month, STR obtains revenue data from over 30,000 properties around the world accounting for over 4.0 million rooms. In addition, STR collects daily lodging performance data from over 18,000 U. S. hotels with over 2.3 million rooms as part of its daySTAR program. Through daySTAR PLUS, STR tracks daily customer segmentation data for upscale properties in all major US markets. STR Global, based in London, maintains extensive databases on lodging industry performance throughout Europe and the rest of the world. STR also has offices in Cleveland, Boulder and Singapore.

STR tracks market share performance for virtually every major global hotel chain and most major management companies through its various STAR programs. Clients rely on STR’s data quality and absolute data confidentiality to make strategic and operational decisions in the areas of sales and marketing, development, revenue management, reservation forecasting, internal audit and virtually all other departments.

STR maintains a significant Web presence through HotelNewsNow.com, on online news publication for the lodging industry. STR also publishes Lodging Review, a weekly newsletter endorsed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association that tracks occupancy and room rates for the U.S., all fifty states, and the top 25 metropolitan markets and Global Hotel Review, a monthly newsletter that covers lodging performance data for most major international markets. Data from these publications is frequently published in Hotel & Motel Management, Hotels, Lodging Hospitality, Lodging Magazine, The Cornell Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It is also used extensively by Investment bankers, lodging equity analysts and hospitality consultants. STR data is used as the official source of lodging statistics for the U.S. Travel Data Center's Travel Printout and by over 300 convention and visitors bureaus, state tourism departments and government entities.

Mr. Smith was a 2007 inductee to the Florida State University College of Business Hall of Fame. He is a member and past co-chairman of the Industry Real Estate Financing Advisory Council (IREFAC) and the 2002 recipient of the prestigious IREFAC C. Everett Johnson Award. He is also vice-chair of the American Hotel Foundation Funding Committee. Mr. Smith is a charter member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants and a former member of the board of directors. He is the recipient of the 1996 Industry Pioneer Award of the ISHC for outstanding contribution to the lodging industry. Mr. Smith is a regular keynote speaker at the major industry conferences.

Prior to starting STR, Mr. Smith was Director of Research for Laventhol & Horwath and has over 30 years experience in lodging industry research. He resides in Nashville, TN, with his wife and son. Mr. Smith is an avid fisherman and hiker.