WILLIAMSBURG, Va., Oct. 21, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoTHERLY Hotels Inc. (Nasdaq:SOHO) (the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a 10-year franchise agreement with Hilton Worldwide to rebrand its Laurel, Maryland hotel as the DoubleTree by Hilton Laurel. The Company currently operates the hotel under IHG's Holiday Inn brand.

The conversion is scheduled to take place on or before October 31, 2015, subject to the completion of certain product improvement requirements.

The 207-room, full-service hotel is centrally located in the high traffic Interstate-95 corridor between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, adjacent to strong demand generators such as Fort Meade, the FDA, UPS, and Lockheed Martin.

Drew Sims, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, "We are pleased to partner with Hilton Worldwide in converting another hotel in our portfolio to its DoubleTree by Hilton brand. We believe we have identified another market opportunity where a hotel can benefit from an upbranding and superior reservation system thereby driving growth over historic performance and creating additional value for our shareholders."

About SoTHERLY Hotels Inc.

SoTHERLY Hotels Inc. is a self-managed and self-administered lodging REIT focused on the acquisition, renovation, upbranding and repositioning of upscale and upper upscale full-service hotels in the Southern United States. Currently, the Company's portfolio consists of investments in twelve hotel properties, eleven of which are wholly-owned and comprise 2,698 rooms. The Company also has a 25.0 percent interest in the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach Resort. Most of the Company's properties operate under the Hilton Worldwide, InterContinental Hotels Group and Starwood Hotels and Resorts brands. SoTHERLY Hotels Inc.was organized in 2004 and is headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia. For more information, please visit www.sotherlyhotels.com. 

CONTACT:  Scott Kucinski
          SoTHERLY Hotels Inc.
          410 West Francis Street
          Williamsburg, Virginia 23185
          (757) 229-5648