Hotel Online Special Report
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Microtel Inn & Suites Releases 
1999 Marketing Plans
Focus is on �Building Your Business with Service�
 
ATLANTA (Nov. 30, 1998) � Microtel Inn & Suites has announced an all-encompassing marketing program based on building a customer service culture at the chain�s second annual franchise conference held recently in Atlanta.  The meeting, which showcased 1999 marketing and advertising programs and recent innovations to help build brand awareness, was attended by more than 150 present and future owners/franchisees of Microtel Inn & Suites from across the country and South America. 

Among Microtel�s plans for its overall corporate strategy include a major sponsorship on CNN, an aggressive national sales effort, extensive Internet marketing and a new program known as �Minutes-Later Service� in its customer service department. 

Mike Leven, president and CEO of U.S. Franchise Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: USFS), opened the general session by introducing participants to the entire Microtel team and a look at the 1999 market outlook and plans for a new brand management system within the company.  �The theme of this meeting -- �Building Business with Customer Service� -- is not just a common phrase,� he said.  �It means listening to the customer and acting on it for both franchisor and franchisee.  Microtel owners in this room will be successful when they are true to the concept of value, consistency and smiles.�

Other conference highlights included a well-received presentation, �Selling Smart,� and a  trade show with 80 exhibitors and the latest hospitality products and services. 

Also during the meeting, attendees contributed more than $7,000 to help those left with nothing after the devastating storms which tore through Honduras last month.  The call for help came as a result of a letter written by Mark Jacobson, owner of the San Pedro Sula, Honduras Microtel, which recently broke ground.  Leven read the letter to the group:  �Miraculously, the Microtel site escaped most of the flooding and almost no damage... We were very fortunate.�  Jacobson did not attend the meeting to stay in Honduras to �help our employees who suffered great personal losses, and local relief efforts already in place.� 

U.S. Franchise Systems is the Atlanta-based franchising company which acquired the Microtel Inn & Suites brand in 1995.  Microtel is the nation�s fastest growing chain of all newly-constructed, interior corridor, budget/economy hotels with over 500 properties currently open or under development.

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Contact:
Barbara Wiener
U.S. Franchise Systems, Inc.
(404)  235-7400
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Also See: ASTON Hotels & Resorts - Marketing to the World / April 1998 
Brand Marketing in the Hospitality Industry / Arthur Andersen / Summer1996 
Microtel Inn Suites Survey Offers Insight Into What Travelers with Disabilities Want Most from Their Hotel / Oct 1997 

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