Continuing its consistent rapid growth, the chain opened 57 motels in the last six months. Last year the chain opened 99 new motels.

The official opening of the 2,000th Super 8 motel was held yesterday in Cochrane, Alberta, located just northwest of Calgary.

"It's obvious that having a respected brand name means something to guests,'' said Robert N. Weller, Super 8 Motels president & chief executive officer. ``If there weren't demand for our rooms, there wouldn't be a demand for more motels amid the competition.  More than 2,000 motels means that guests can count on us no matter where they travel, from Yellowknife in the Canadian Northwest Territories to Daytona Beach, Florida.''

The growth of Super 8 Motels in Canada has been especially brisk. Through the chain's Canadian master developer, Calgary-based Superior Lodging Corp., there are now 84 Super 8 motels in six provinces.

Weller recognizes that the challenge in having a large chain is maintaining quality to protect the brand name. To do so, Super 8 Motels has added steps to maintain and tighten the standards of its unique quality assurance program. In addition to its long-standing policy of conducting four quality assurance inspections annually, the chain also has implemented a system called Operation SuperClean, under which motels can fail inspections solely on its strict cleanliness standard.

"What makes Super 8 Motels unique is that no other lodging chain has as many quality assurance inspections,'' Weller said.

Super 8 Motels Inc., founded in America's heartland in 1974, is one of the world's largest economy lodging chains with more than 2,000 motels and 120,000 rooms throughout the United States and Canada.