Hersha Hospitality Trust Purchases Sheraton JFK Airport

New, Upper Upscale Hotel at the Preeminent Gateway Airport on the
East Coast
PHILADELPHIA--(Business Wire)--
Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE: HT), owner of nationally
franchised premium select service and full service hotels, announced
today that it has purchased the Sheraton JFK Airport Hotel, a brand
new 150-room hotel located near the JFK Airport in Jamaica, New York
for $33.98 million. The property, which also has approximately 2,300
square feet of meeting space, will be managed by Hersha Hospitality
Management, L.P.

Jay H. Shah, Chief Executive Officer commented, "We are excited to
add another newly built hotel to our already young portfolio. New
properties provide us solid growth opportunities, as they mature, and
have been one of the catalysts for our industry leading revenue per
available room (RevPAR) and growth in funds from operations. This
property, located approximately one-half mile from JFK International
Airport, is the first and only upper upscale asset at one of the
world's most recognized and busiest airports. We now own 15 properties
in the New York-New Jersey area, including the NU Hotel being
developed in Brooklyn. The transaction is a direct result of the
success of our development loan program, which affords us the right to
earn strong cash returns on our investment in high barrier to entry
markets while avoiding many of the risks associated with construction
in these central business districts. An added benefit of the program
is our right to purchase these difficult to source properties, on an
off-market basis. Most of the properties currently financed through
our development loan program are in the vibrant New York City market,
which continues to have solid RevPAR trends from strong domestic and
increased international demand."

In connection with the purchase, the Company assumed a floating
rate loan for $23.8 million at LIBOR plus 2.0% and issued 1,177,306
Hersha Hospitality Limited Partnership Units to a third party
developer, and to Hersha Conduit Associates, LLC, a related party
entity comprised of certain members of the Company's management team
and trustees.

About Hersha Hospitality

Hersha Hospitality Trust is a self-advised real estate investment
trust, which owns interests in 75 hotels, totaling 9,524 rooms,
primarily along the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington D.C.
The Company also owns hotels in Northern California and Scottsdale,
Arizona. Hersha focuses on high quality upscale hotels in high barrier
to entry markets. For additional information, visit www.hersha.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain matters within this press release are discussed using
forward-looking language as specified in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and, as such, may involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
actual results or performance to differ from those projected in the
forward-looking statement. For a description of these factors, please
review the information under the heading "Risk Factors" included in
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007,
filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Hersha Hospitality Trust
Ashish Parikh, CFO, 215-238-1046

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