ashford hospitality trust, inc., together with its subsidiaries (“ashford”), is a self-advised real estate investment trust (“reit”) focused on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and in all methods including direct real estate, securities, equity, and debt. we commenced operations in august 2003 with the acquisition of six hotels in connection with our initial public offering. we own our lodging investments and conduct our business through ashford hospitality limited partnership, our operating partnership. ashford op general partner llc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ashford, serves as the sole general partner of our operating partnership. our strategy is to invest opportunistically in the hospitality industry in upper upscale, full service hotels and at all levels of the capital structure primarily within the united states. we target assets that are anticipated to generate revpar below twice the current u.s. average revpar for all hotels as determined by smith tr