PARSIPPANY, N.J., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Cendant Hotel Group today announced it will bolster its commitment to limited-service, midscale lodging by acquiring the Baymont(R) Inn & Suites brand and system of 115 franchised properties.
Cendant Hotel Group will acquire worldwide rights to the Baymont Inn & Suites brand from affiliates of The Blackstone Group, a private investment firm based in New York. Cendant will not acquire any properties as part of this transaction.
"The Baymont Inn & Suites acquisition will make us an even stronger competitor in the limited-service, midscale lodging segment as we prepare to spin off our new hospitality company from Cendant Corporation later this year," said Stephen P. Holmes, Cendant Corporation vice chairman.
Steven A. Rudnitsky, Cendant Hotel Group chairman and chief executive officer, said the Baymont Inn & Suites brand will be "a strategic fit for our existing portfolio, adding a large number of guests to our already significant consumer marketing database, bringing even more members to our TripRewards(R) loyalty program and offering our franchisees and the traveling public even more options to do business with us."
"We look forward to welcoming Baymont franchisees into our family of brands and demonstrating our superior value proposition," he said. "As the world's largest lodging franchise company, we intend to leverage our scale to strengthen the Baymont Inn & Suites system and grow the brand both domestically and internationally."
Rudnitsky said Cendant Hotel Group is committed to enhancing the support provided to Baymont Inn & Suites franchisees and ensuring that their hotels "receive maximum benefit from Cendant Hotel Group's comprehensive distribution platform, information technology capabilities, field services and sales and marketing functions."
The transaction is not material to Cendant, and it is scheduled to close next month, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
As previously announced, New York-based Cendant Corporation will spin off its businesses later this year into four independent, publicly traded, pure-play companies, one each for its hospitality, real estate, travel distribution and vehicle rental businesses.
Cendant Hotel Group, which will become part of the new hospitality company based in Parsippany, N.J., is one of the world's largest integrated lodging franchise and management companies with more than 6,300* hotels on six continents franchised under the Wyndham(R), Ramada(R), Days Inn(R), Super 8(R), Wingate Inn(R), Howard Johnson(R), Travelodge(R), Knights Inn(R) and AmeriHost Inn(R) brands. All hotels are owned individually and operated independently or by a Cendant subsidiary. Cendant Hotel Group's TripRewards(R) loyalty program is the largest in the industry, based on the number of participating hotels.
Statements about future results made in this release constitute forward- looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations and the current economic environment. Cendant cautions that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Important assumptions and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are specified in Cendant's Form 10-K for the period ended Dec. 31, 2005.
* System size as of Dec. 31, 2005.
