Ashford Hospitality Trust believes it is in good shape to weather the current economic downturn. The Dallas-based REIT, which owns more than 100 hotels, has in recent weeks pursued a number of strategies to help it conserve cash, trim operations and position itself for an uptick in business whenever it comes.

"Certain fundamental features of our company position us to better withstand these challenging markets," said President & CEO Monty Bennett in a company statement. "These include our full- and select-service hotel mix, geographic diversity, industry-leading brand representation and an affiliated property manager (Remington Hotels) that is capable of being more proactive in cost-saving measures."

Beyond these built-in advantages the company believes it has, company management took some specific steps to gird itself for tough times:

• The company "executed aggressive cost-saving measures" at the property level, including payroll freezes, vendor contract renegotiations and adjustments to service levels. Corporate-level belt tightening included staff layoffs and salary freezes.

• Although Bennett deferred his 2008 salary, the board of directors voted to make a one-time $32,125 contribution to his employee savings plan. That's the maximum amount the company would have matched had Bennett drawn his salary and made a maximum 10-percent contribution to the plan.

• The board of directors suspended the company's common stock dividend. Sometime this year, probably in the fourth quarter, it will distribute the minimum dividend required to maintain its status as a REIT.

• The company negotiated an amendment with the 11 banks funding its $300-million line of credit. The amendment included reducing the fund to $250 million and adjusting some of the terms.

Ashford says it has $200 million of unrestricted cash on hand, $100 million of which is invested in U.S. Treasuries. It says it has $29 million in debt coming due next year and $75 million due in 2010. Ashford stock (symbol: AHT) has been trading below $2 a share since mid-November, well off its 52-week high of $7.50.