WestCoast Hospitality
Corporation today announced that its Red Lion brand was ranked first by
respondents in the 2005 Business Travel News’ Top U.S. Hotel Chains Survey
with the best corporate rate programs. “We’re pleased that the marketplace
has acknowledged some of the innovative corporate rate initiatives we’ve
introduced over the past year,” said Bill Heaney, Vice President, Sales.
“For large and medium sized companies, our negotiated rate programs are
flexible and provide last room availability, attributes our customers have
told us are important to them,” added Heaney. In the Business Travel News survey, 6,000 corporate travel managers and
business travel agents were asked to rank the hotels with which they do
business across multiple price point segments. In the “mid-price with food
and beverage” segment, Red Lion ranked in the top-five overall based on
survey responders’ rankings of eleven criteria deemed critical in the
hotel purchase decision and ranked first in corporate rate programs.
“We’re pleased that the corporate market has responded so favorably to the
initiatives we’ve launched over the past eighteen months,” said John
Taffin, Executive Vice President, Hotel Operations. “Our free Net4Guests
high speed Internet access, ‘Stay Comfortable’ plush pillow top
mattresses, and ‘We Promise or We Pay’ rate parity program are resonating
in the marketplace,” added Taffin.

In 2004, Red Lion also introduced two new corporate rate programs aimed at
both large and small businesses. Its “Pride Rate” program allows companies
and individuals who would not normally qualify for volume discounts to
obtain favorable pricing based on their preferred usage of Red Lion
hotels. In addition, and as an example of a business-to-business
partnership, members of Alaska Airlines’ and Horizon Air’s “EasyBiz”
online corporate booking tool are automatically provided with preferential
EasyBiz corporate rates at all Red Lion hotels. “We’re proud to partner
with Red Lion as our single EasyBiz hotel partner and know that our
EasyBiz members appreciate the additional hotel savings our relationship
provides,” said Bob Derse, Manager - Corporate Internet Sales for Alaska
Airlines.

In late 2004, WestCoast Hospitality Corporation announced it will invest
$40 million to revitalize all of the Red Lion Hotels it owns—one of the
most significant facility improvement programs in company history. The
investment will enhance 31 hotels, accelerating the company’s ongoing
program to improve hotel quality by increasing customer comfort,
freshening decor and modernizing with technology. It also builds on the
$11 million the company invested during 2004 on such hotel improvements.
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