Business description of PEBBLEBROOK-HOTEL-TRUST from last 10-k form

General

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is an internally managed hotel investment company, organized in October 2009 to opportunistically acquire and invest in hotel properties located primarily in major U.S. cities, with an emphasis on urban markets in major gateway cities, which we believe present significant barriers-to-entry for new hotel supply and provide diverse sources of meeting and room night demand generators. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned interests in 20 hotels, including 14 wholly owned hotels with a total of 3,812 guest rooms and a 49% joint venture interest in six hotels with 1,733 guest rooms (the “Manhattan Collection joint venture”).

Substantially all of our assets are held by, and all of our operations are conducted through, Pebblebrook Hotel, L.P. (our “Operating Partnership”). We are the sole general partner of our Operating Partnership. At December 31, 2011, we owned 98.2 percent of the common limited partnership interests issued by the Operating Partnership (“common units”). The remaining 1.8 percent of the common units issued by the Operating Partnership were owned by the other limited partners of the Operating Partnership. We operate as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. For us to qualify as a REIT under the Code, we cannot operate the hotels we own. Therefore, our Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries lease our hotel properties to our taxable REIT subsidiary (“TRS”), Pebblebrook Hotel Lessee, Inc. (“PHL”), and its subsidiary lessees (collectively, “TRS lessees”). Our TRS lessees engage third-party eligible independent contractors to manage our hotels. PHL is treated as a TRS for federal income tax purposes and is subject to taxation like other regular C corporations. PHL and its wholly owned subsidiaries are consolidated into our financial statements.

Business Objectives and Strategies

Acquisitions/Investments

We invest in hotel properties located primarily in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Santa Monica, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and West Hollywood, California, with an emphasis on major gateway metropolitan markets. We believe these markets have significant barriers-to-entry and provide diverse sources of meeting and room night demand generators. In addition, we also target investments in resort properties located near our primary urban target markets, as well as in select destination resort markets such as Hawaii, south Florida and southern California. We focus on both branded and independent full-service hotels in the “upper upscale” segment of the lodging industry. The full-service hotels on which we focus our investment activity generally have one or more restaurants, lounges, meeting facilities and other amenities, as well as high customer service levels. We believe that our target markets, including the major gateway markets, are characterized by significant barriers-to-entry and that room-night demand and average daily rate (“ADR”) growth of these types of hotels will likely continue to outperform the national average, as they have in past cyclical recoveries and growth periods.

We utilize extensive research to evaluate any target market and property, including a detailed review of the long-term economic outlook, trends in local demand generators, competitive environment, property systems, physical condition and property financial performance. Specific acquisition criteria may include, but are not limited to, the following: