The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index, which reported a decrease in May, reported a 2.9 percent increase in June to 2,414, and is up 19.2 percent year-to-date. The index ended 2011 at 2,025.

Robert W. Baird & Company and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index, the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry. The index combines Baird’s financial markets expertise, the data processing of STR and the up-to-the-minute distribution capabilities of HotelNewsNow.com, the industry’s leading hotel news website. Both the MSCI REIT (RMZ) (up 5.2 percent) and the S&P 500 (up 4 percent) outperformed the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index in June.

“The continuing uncertainty in the global economies stifled growth this month,” said Randy Smith, co-founder and chairman at STR. “However, the industry fundamentals continue to hold up, and we believe they will continue to do so throughout the summer months. With fuel prices remaining relatively benign, the demand outlook for the summer is positive, and we are seeing steady improvement in pricing, which should translate into revenue-per-available-room gains for the next several months.”

“Continued fears of euro-related contagion and the lack of positive economic news domestically resulted in the second-straight month of underperformance for hotel stocks, particularly in the first week of the month,” said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. “Investors continue to struggle to find a near-term catalyst to push shares higher. While hotel fundamentals remain strong, we believe this sentiment is largely priced into valuation, particularly in light of persistent uncertainty in the global macroeconomic landscape.”