America's Best Franchising Continues Growth In China

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. January 12, 2011

January 11, 2011 - The international growth of America's Best Franchising continues with a master license agreement for China which will have 23 hotels opening in the world's most populous country during this 15-year contract, including eight properties in the next five years.

Atlanta-based America's Best Franchising operates the upscale 3 Palms Hotels & Resorts brand plus four upper economy brands - America's Best Inns, & Suites, Budgetel Inns & Suites, Country Hearth Inns & Suites, and Vagabond Inns & Suites.

In January of 2010, a partnership of investors and experienced hotel professionals opened a 107-room Budgetel Inn and a 103-room America's Best Hotel in Yiwu, which is a city of about two million people about 190 miles southwest of Shanghai.

This same partnership - America's Best Hotels China Limited - has now signed the master license agreement for all of China, which entitles them to either operate properties themselves or to grant franchise rights to qualified local hoteliers.

The first three of the group's new properties are expected to be an America's Best Hotel in the cities of Wuxi and Yiwu, plus a 3 Palms Hotel in Wuyi. All three cities are within 200 miles of Shanghai.

America's Best Hotel in Wuxi, to be located in the city's new financial district, will feature 168 rooms including signature suites and deluxe rooms, plus a lobby lounge, cafe, meeting rooms, and a Chinese seafood restaurant. It is scheduled to open in October of 2011.

America's Best Hotel in Yiwu, expected to open in 2013, will be a 280-room 5-star property with meeting rooms, lobby lounge, cafe, restaurant, swimming pool, health club, and a ballroom of almost 3,500 sq. ft. for weddings and conferences.

“As China grows and modernizes, it is embracing all things Western from food to music, from clothing to architecture,” said Doug Collins, Chairman and CEO of America's Best Franchising. “Now the country's growing hotel industry will be enhanced by our dynamic brands, solid infrastructure support, and strategic internet reservations strategies.”

China has a population four times the size of the United States, with one in 10 Chinese jobs being in the travel and tourism business - and the industry is expected to grow about 10% annually.

“There is a strong demand for quality accommodations in China among both international and domestic travelers - as the country's middle class becomes more prosperous, as workers go to where the jobs are, and as people travel to more remote locations,” added Thomas Tiang, the Shanghai-based representative of America's Best Hotel China. “The varied brand offerings of America's Best Franchising will help us capitalize on and cater to these various market segments.”

America's Best Franchising operates more than 250 properties in the United States, Canada, China, India, and Argentina. It also has properties under development in Nigeria.