ATLANTA, Oct. 7 / With the recent opening of the 500th Holiday Inn Express hotel in Goodyear, Ariz., Holiday Inn Express has grown from zero to 500 properties in less than six years, opening a new hotel every four days on average.

In fact, if Holiday Inn Express were a stand-alone company – and not part of Holiday Inn Worldwide – it would have more properties than several major hotel chains, such as Hilton, Hyatt, ITT Sheraton, Westin and Radisson.

In suburban Phoenix, the Holiday Inn Express Goodyear has 90 guestrooms and 750 square feet of meeting space. Hotel amenities include an outdoor swimming pool and spa, an exercise room, guest laundry, and of course, a complimentary deluxe breakfast bar and guestroom dataports.

"One reason Holiday Inn Express has been so successful is that it adapted very quickly to meet travelers' primary needs and, as a result, provided an excellent value," said Carol Devine, band manager for Holiday Inn Express. "Add to this the fact that Holiday Inn is a name consumers know and trust, it makes Holiday Inn Express hotels very attractive to many value-conscious business and leisure travelers."

As further evidence of its success, Holiday Inn Express hotels outperform their market competitors by 26 percent, based on revenue per available room, according to Smith Travel Research. This is due in part to the fact that Holiday Inn Express hotels have realized a 165-percent increase in government- related business over the last year, Devine noted.

Industry experts also attribute the product's success to Holiday Inn Express entering the market at the right time with the right kind of hotel product.

"With so many employees of small-and medium-sized businesses having to travel, and yet keep costs down, this type of property is very attractive," said Echo Garrett, syndicated travel writer. "Many business travelers are in need of just a place to sleep – they are not interested in the amenities of a full-service hotel."

Designed for leisure travelers and individual business travelers, or "road warriors," Holiday Inn Express hotels offer clean, comfortable guestrooms and a complimentary continental breakfast every morning, as well as features such as a dataport in every guestroom, free local phone calls (in the United States), Priority Club frequent guest points and rapid check-out.

Using the ad tagline, "Today's Bed and Breakfast," Holiday Inn Express hotels are the fastest growing product in the Holiday Inn Worldwide family, popular not only with guests, but also with investors.

"Holiday Inn Express has created a new niche for small business investors and another investment opportunity for current investors," said Craig Hunt, executive vice president of worldwide franchising for Holiday Inn Worldwide. "Investors now have the chance to purchase this type of low-cost hotel property, as well as operate under the number one name in hotel brand awareness – Holiday Inn."

Holiday Inn Express was named the 1994 and 1995 Economy Hotel Chain of the Year by "Entrepreneur Magazine."

Like most Holiday Inn hotels, Holiday Inn Express has global ties. Currently, Holiday Inn Express has 466 properties in the U.S., 13 in Canada, 11 in Mexico/South America, seven in Europe and three properties in Asia. And by the end of 1997, at least nine additional Holiday Inn Express hotels will open in Europe, one in Africa and one in Asia.

"We began opening Holiday Inn Express hotels outside the U.S. about two years ago to satisfy the growing demand for high-quality, limited-facility hotel accommodations in major international markets," said Hunt. "We expect the Holiday Inn Express growth trends to continue around the world well into the 21st Century."

NOTE: Holiday Inn Worldwide, the hotel business of Bass PLC of the United Kingdom, operates or franchises more than 2,200 hotels and 380,000 guest rooms in more than 60 countries and territories. Holiday Inn is the world's largest single hotel brand; in September 1994, the company established Crowne Plaza as a separate brand in its Americas division.

The following service marks are owned by Holiday Inns, Inc., Bass International Holdings, N.V., their subsidiaries or affiliates: Holiday Inn(R), Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza(R), Crowne Plaza(R), Holiday Inn Express(R), Holiday Inn Select(sm), Holiday Inn Garden Court(sm), Holiday Inn SunSpree(R) Resorts, Holidex(R), Holidome(R), Priority Club(R), and Crowne Plaza Preferred(sm).

Holiday Inn Worldwide offers information and reservations capability on its pages on the World Wide Web of the Internet – www.holiday-inn.com for Holiday Inn hotels and www.crowneplaza.com for Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts.

Craig Smith, 770-604-2903
Holiday Inn Hotels Worldwide