Interstate Hotels & Resorts, the largest independent hotel management company in the U.S, has reported strong operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2005. The company’s quarterly results exceeded its earnings guidance for the fourth consecutive quarter.

“We continued to deliver exceptional hotel operating results for our owners, significantly exceeding the industry average for both the quarter and full year,” said Thomas F. Hewitt, chief executive officer.  “Our operating efficiencies and economies of scale allowed us to enhance owner profits by increasing room rates during the quarter and full year while continuing to carefully control costs.  As a result, we earned record-level incentive fees, which are reported in the fourth quarter, of $14.3 million, up 40.2 percent from $10.2 million in the prior year.
“In addition to achieving outstanding results for our shareholders and our owners in our hotel management business, we have continued to execute and remain focused on our growth strategy of selective whole ownership, joint venture and sliver investments in hotels.  We acquired the 195-room Hilton Durham near Duke University, our second wholly-owned property, during the fourth quarter,” he noted.  “While we owned the hotel for only slightly more than a month in the historically slowest quarter of the year, the property was modestly accretive to fourth-quarter earnings.  We will invest $2.9 million to upgrade the hotel and look forward to strong returns on an annualized basis.
“This property is an excellent example of our ability to capitalize on strategic investments in whole ownership.  Because of our knowledge of this property and the market in which it operates, we believe we can maximize returns on this hotel by making a smart, limited-capital investment to reposition it within the market.  We will continue to invest in properties where we believe we can realize significant value for our shareholders.” 
——-