DALLAS-Over the past several months, Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. has been a net seller, as evidenced by its recent $96 million disposition of the JW Marriott San Francisco. However, the REIT plans to focus on acquisitions in the future, despite the competitive environment for quality assets, according to CEO Monty Bennett.

“I’d say that we had been more of a seller than a buyer,” Bennett said during the REIT’s fourth quarter 2010 earnings conference call. “That will probably start to move the other way. But… we view our cost to capital is pretty expensive… When you're buying assets you’ve got to raise equity at current prices in order to achieve incredible returns to make it accretive.”

At the end of 2010, Ashford’s portfolio consisted of 97 hotels with 20,458 rooms. The overwhelming majority of the REIT’s assets are located in the Southeast or on the West Coast.