BETHESDA, Md., April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:HST) the nation’s largest lodging real estate investment trust, today announced a first-of-its-kind joint development agreement with IBM Research, designed to enhance the company’s predictive analytics capabilities.
James F. Risoleo, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “I am thrilled to announce this collaboration, which will combine Host’s industry-leading Enterprise Analytics platform with IBM’s unparalleled expertise in AI and machine learning, to seek to maximize investment value across the portfolio.”
The two companies will collaborate to develop predictive models designed to improve investment decisions by leveraging IBM Watson APIs (application programming interface) and research expertise in natural language processing and machine learning to extract predictive insights from structured and unstructured data.
“Host’s unparalleled scale and access to information affords us many unique opportunities,” said Sourav Ghosh, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Analytics. “This leading-edge collaboration is one of those incredible opportunities to leverage technology in the rapidly evolving field of predictive analytics, and we want to extract all the benefits that it has to offer. The more we can predict the future, the better our investment decisions, which we expect will deliver significant value to our stockholders."
“We are excited to launch this research collaboration with the nation’s leader in lodging real estate,” said Sophie Vandebroek, Chief Operating Officer of IBM Research. “We look forward to applying the deep expertise of IBM Research in AI and predictive analytics to help Host work to unlock and connect insights from millions of data points, both qualitative and quantitative, giving them a better picture of the future.”
About Host Hotels & Resorts
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is an S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company and is the largest lodging real estate investment trust and one of the largest owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. The Company currently owns 87 properties in the United States and 6 properties internationally totaling approximately 52,000 rooms. The Company also holds non-controlling interests in seven domestic and international joint ventures. Guided by a disciplined approach to capital allocation and aggressive asset management, the Company partners with premium brands in the operation of properties in over 50 major markets. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.hosthotels.com.
About IBM Research
For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.
