Ashford Hospitality Trust Selects
Aptech for 54-Property REIT
.
Execuvue business intelligence tool to automate consolidation
of financial data from all Ashford hotels for faster, 
better decision making 

June 7, 2005 � Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania � Ashford Hospitality Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust (NYSE:AHT), selected the Execuvue® Business Intelligence system from Aptech Computer Systems Inc.  Ashford will use Execuvue to automate consolidation of property operating data from all its hotels for performance analysis, ownership reporting, and Smith Travel Research benchmarking to enable faster, more accurate decision making, Aptech announced today.  Installation will take place in June, 2005.
  
Mark Nunneley, chief accounting officer for Ashford said, �Ashford currently operates 54 properties, most with dissimilar general ledgers and property management systems.  We will use Execuvue to automate gathering of operating data from our present hotels and future acquisitions.  Property information will be consolidated in a centralized database for flexible ownership reporting and performance-to-plan evaluation which will result in stronger asset management.�  Nunneley noted Ashford will also be using Execuvue to track projects in development and analyze performance by region, franchise, manager and other criteria.  �Execuvue will streamline our entire data gathering and reporting process, allowing our executives much more time for analysis.�

Aptech President, Jay Troutman said, �To take advantage of current ADR increases, quick analysis of costs and benchmarking of key data is crucial; we anticipate Ashford Hospitality�s use of Execuvue will yield measurable benefits across their entire operation.  Manual data entry is error-prone and labor intensive; even the best Excel spreadsheet cannot provide the instant data analysis and rollup across properties, flags, markets, seasons, and ownership required to adapt business strategies to rapidly changing demand.  Execuvue is designed specifically for hospitality companies like Ashford, and this is what it does best.�  

Execuvue is an Internet-enabled enterprise business intelligence application for large and small hotel companies that consolidates data from various front office, general ledger, and third party systems like Smith Travel Research, into accessible, actionable information with easy-to-use Windows simplicity.  Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Concord Hospitality, Innkeepers Hospitality, Winston Hotels, Inc., Peabody Hotel Group, Sandals Resorts, Hershey Entertainment and other successful companies use Execuvue business intelligence.  Aptech also provides Profitvue®, a widely used thin-client, Web-enabled hospitality back office solution that easily handles single or multi-property and multi-company accounting.  Profitvue incorporates accounts payable, general ledger, budgeting, forecasting, and financials in an open database compliance application (ODBC) within a scaleable, client/server, open systems architecture.  Profitvue is available as an ASP service or on a licensed basis.

About Ashford

Ashford Hospitality Trust is a self-administered real estate investment trust focused on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and at all levels of the capital structure, including direct hotel investments, first mortgages, mezzanine loans and sale-leaseback transactions. The Company's management team has extensive experience in sourcing, underwriting, operating, repositioning, developing, selling and financing a wide variety of lodging investments.

Ashford Hospitality Trust seeks to maximize shareholder returns throughout all lodging business cycles. Ashford's strategy is to make diversified equity and debt investments across capital structure, hotel property type, market, and brand. The Company's ongoing asset allocation strategy proactively adjusts the investment portfolio mix to capitalize on yield and appreciation opportunities based upon changing trends within the hotel and financial markets.

About Aptech

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., a leading provider of financial and operational software and services, is known for evolving technology offerings as the market dictates, a commitment that has earned the company 100% customer loyalty of its more than 700 users.   For 30 years Aptech has led the hospitality market in leveraging change by valuing human relationships and applying technology to solve business problems for people.  All of its applications are supported seven days a week, 24 hours each day by experienced hotel industry professionals.  For more information about Aptech and its products, please call (800) 245-0720 or email [email protected].


 
Contact:

Ashford Hospitality Trust
14185 Dallas Parkway, Suite 1100
Dallas, TX  75254
www.ahtreit.com

Aptech Computer Systems
135 Delta Drive 
Pittsburgh, PA 15238 
Sales: (800) 245-0720 or (412) 963-7440
Email:  [email protected]
Website:  www.aptech-inc.com

Media Contact
Julie Squires
Softscribe Inc.
Phone: 404-256-5512
Email: [email protected] 
Website: www.softscribeinc.com
 


 
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