measures should be considered along with, but not as alternatives to, net income or loss, operating profit, cash from operations, or any other operating performance measure as prescribed per GAAP.

# EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

EBITDA is a commonly used measure of performance in many industries and is defined as net income or loss (calculated in accordance with GAAP) excluding interest expense, provision for income taxes (including income taxes applicable to sale of assets) and depreciation and amortization. We consider EBITDA useful to an investor regarding our results of operations, in evaluating and facilitating comparisons of our operating performance between periods and between REITs by removing the impact of our capital structure (primarily interest expense) and asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization) from our operating results, even though EBITDA does not represent an amount that accrues directly to common stockholders. In addition, EBITDA is used as one measure in determining the value of hotel acquisitions and dispositions and along with FFO and Adjusted FFO, it is used by management in the annual budget process for compensation programs.

We further adjust EBITDA for certain additional items such as hotel property acquisitions and pursuit costs, amortization of share-based compensation, equity investment adjustments, the cumulative effect of changes in accounting principles, impairment of real estate assets, operating results from properties sold and other costs we believe do not represent recurring operations and are not indicative of the performance of our underlying hotel property entities. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides investors with another financial measure in evaluating and facilitating comparison of operating performance between periods and between REITs that report similar measures.

# FFO and Adjusted FFO

We calculate FFO in accordance with standards established by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), which defines FFO as net income or loss (calculated in accordance with GAAP), excluding real estate-related depreciation, amortization and impairments, gains (losses) from sales of real estate, the cumulative effect of changes in accounting principles, similar adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships andj oint ventures, and items classified by GAAP as extraordinary. Historical cost accounting for real estate assets implicitly assumes that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time. Since real estate values instead have historically risen or fallen with market conditions, most industry investors consider presentations of operating results for real estate companies that use historical cost accounting to be insufficient by themselves. We believe that the presentation of FFO provides useful supplemental information to investors regarding our operating performance by excluding the effect of real estate depreciation and amortization, gains (losses) from sales for real estate, impairments of real estate assets, extraordinary items and the portion of these items related to unconsolidated entities, all of which are based on historical cost accounting and which may be of lesser significance in evaluating current performance. We believe that the presentation of FFO can facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and between REITs, even though FFO does not represent an amount that accrues directly to common stockholders. Our calculation of FFO may not be comparable to measures calculated by other companies who do not use the NAREIT definition of FFO or do not calculate FFO per diluted share in accordance with NAREIT guidance. Additionally, FFO may not be helpful when comparing us to non-REITs.

We further adjust FFO for certain additional items that are not in NAREIT’s definition of FFO such as hotel property acquisition and pursuit costs, amortization of debt origination costs and share-based compensation, operating results from properties that are sold and other expenses we believe do not represent recurring operations. We believe that Adjusted FFO provides investors with useful supplemental information that may facilitate comparisons of ongoing operating performance between periods and between REITs that make similar adjustments to FFO and is beneficial to investors’ complete understanding of our operating performance.