Hotel Online Special Report 
Smith Travel Research’s Chuck Ross Joins PricewaterhouseCoopers Hospitality Leisure Practice NEW YORK – Feb. 2, 2000–Chuck Ross joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as lodging research manager, Hospitality Leisure Practice.
Mr. Ross, who served as vice president of Smith Travel Research for five years, will coordinate the alliance between Smith Travel Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers to collect and publish hotel industry performance data for all major markets outside North America. This alliance will launch its WW*STAR program this month, making lodging performance data available throughout the world.
Mr. Ross’ responsibilities will also include oversight of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ lodging industry Web site, LodgingResearch.com. The new WW*STAR lodging market summary reports will be available online exclusively through this Web site, along with all of PricewaterhouseCoopers other lodging research and data.
Mr. Ross joins PricewaterhouseCoopers after a distinguished career in the lodging industry. At Smith Travel Research, Ross was responsible for all Smith Travel Research publications, including the monthly newsletter, Lodging Outlook, and annual Hotel Operating Statistics Study. Ross also helped develop and managed the content of STR’s Web site. Before joining Smith Travel Research, Ross served as a senior principal at Laventhol Horwath from 1979 to 1991, and was one of the founders of the consulting practice at Coopers Lybrand LLP prior to the merger of Coopers Lybrand and Pricewaterhouse.
“In my new role at PricewaterhouseCoopers I will be able to leverage the knowledge and the relationships I developed at Smith Travel Research; further to develop the WW*STAR program which will have a monumental impact on the lodging industry,” said Mr. Ross. “In addition I am eager to work with my colleagues to make LodgingResearch.com the clear leader in distributing worldwide lodging industry research and information.”
“We’re very enthusiastic about Chuck’s role in our practice,” said Bjorn Hanson, Ph.D. global industry leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with him again and to welcome him into our new global practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers is the industry’s leader in providing reliable lodging forecasts that offer true industry-wide samples based on solid econometric models.
Contact: 
Wendy Determan 212/596-5079 [email protected] www.pwcglobal.com Also See: Detroit and Anaheim Lead US Top 25 Markets in Occupancy % Growth for First 9 Months of 1999 / Smith Travel Research / October 1999 A Slowing in U.S. Lodging Industry’s Rate of Profit Growth Brings Constriction in Investor Interest; Initial Public Offerings Come to a Standstill / Nov 1999