Benchmarker, developed by HRG, allows hotel owners and investors to compare their hotel�s financial performance to that of comparable properties, as a way of measuring how well (or how poorly) their hotel is doing.

�More and more hotel owners are using Benchmarker to see whether they need to make full-scale operational changes, or if they�re thinking of weeding underperformers out of a portfolio,� Woodworth says.  �Claude�s job will be to get the good word out to the hotel ownership community nationwide.�

Claude Vargo brings more than 20 years� executive experience in hospitality management in both hotels and restaurants.  He has spent six years in hotel development and has held various executive positions with Hilton Hotels, Black Angus,  and Vargo�s restaurants.  He joins HRG from Houston, where he had served as president of the Houston Restaurant Association.  He graduated magna cum laude from Hilton College of the University of Houston in 2000 with a Masters in Hospitality Management.

�Claude brings excellent dual strengths to this position - his long experience in hands-on management, together with his knowledge of computer databases and hospitality real estate,� Woodworth says.

�In the short time Benchmarker has been on the market, it�s won a lot of very satisfied users like Bass Hotels and Resorts, Winston Hotels, and Four Seasons Hotels, �Woodworth adds.

In addition to custom research for hotel companies, HRG is developing a series of proprietary research tools for the hotel real estate market.  Products currently available include Benchmarker and PriceRanger, a program for determining a hotel�s value when compared to similar properties.  HRG product development is under the supervision of Jack Corgel, Ph.D, formerly the Director of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University.

The Hospitality Research Group (HRG), headquartered in Atlanta, is the research affiliate of PKF Consulting, the international consulting and real estate firm specializing in the hospitality industry.  HRG, along with PKF Consulting and hotel brokerage affiliate Hospitality Asset Advisors Incorporated are all wholly owned subsidiaries of Hospitality Asset Advisors International, a U.S. Corporation.  HAA International has offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Singapore.