Randy Smith Receives HSMAI’s 2016 Albert E. Koehl Award

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association (HSMAI) has honored Mr. Randy Smith, chairman and co-founder of STR, as the 2016 Albert E. Koehl Award winner.

Smith, and his late wife Carolyn, founded STR in 1985 as a two-person, U.S. hotel census and data benchmarking company. Today, STR employs more than 300 people in 16 countries, providing data and analytics services to the global hotel industry as well as additional sectors like self storage and health clubs.

“I’ve said many times that the reach and contributions of our company have far exceeded our expectations from three decades ago,” Smith said. “I am incredibly honored to see our company recognized with such a prestigious award, and we are fortunate to be able to share this accomplishment with so many special employees, partners and clients. Many HSMAI members are active partners of STR, so to receive an award from this group of peers is especially rewarding.”

STR’s more than 32 years of service to the hotel industry have produced a number of vital benchmarking performance solutions, establishing market trend transparency and attracting investment capital to the sector.

STR’s data sample in the hotel industry comprises more than 55,000 hotels, nearly 7.5 million rooms and roughly 180 countries.

The HSMAI award is another in the long line of personal accolades that Smith has earned for his contributions to the hotel industry. His previously earned awards include being named to the Hilton Hospitality Hall of Honor and the 25 Most Influential Executives of the Business Travel Industry of 2011; Stephen W. Brener Silver Plate Award; ALIS Lifetime Achievement Award; IREFAC C. Everett Johnson Award; and 1996 Industry Pioneer Award of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC).

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