HGI To Open 200th Property

COLUMBUS, GA— Hilton Garden Inn will reach a major milestone this Thursday with the opening of its 200th property here. But with a thick development pipeline, the fast growing brand known for its “light, bright and airy” appeal is not planning to stay at this significant property mark for long. The 120-room Hilton Garden Inn in Columbus will offer all the amenities the brand is known for including free high-speed Internet access and PrinterOn secure remote printing. “We are in a great position. Our numbers are up and we continue to drive RevPAR premiums,” Adrian Kurre, senior vp/brand management for HGI, told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We are up a little over 10% year-over-year in RevPAR,” he said adding that occupancy is also up and the brand’s average daily rate is creeping higher as well. “One of the things that we’ve done to make it easy for our guests is we really pushed the envelop with complimentary high-speed Internet access,” said Mark Nogal, vp/brand marketing. “We continue to pay attention to what the technology trends are. We listen to our what our guests and customers need and determine how to drive down the costs of those elements for our franchises,” he said. In 2003, HGI opened just more than 20 properties, Kurre said, adding that it was the brand’s lowest opening year. “But now the pipeline is coming back and we will be opening 25 to 27 hotels this year, which will get us into the 225 range,” he said. Further, HGI is planning to open 40 to 45 properties in 2005 and possibly even more than that in 2006, Kurre said. “It a great opportunity because the money is available. If you look at our pipeline index, all of our brands are doing extraordinarily well,” he said. Despite this rapid growth, HGI will not stray from its targeted path of opening new properties in major areas, Kurre said. “We are in tuned with our brand segmentation. Hilton Garden Inn does not work in tertiary markets. And it is not a conversion brand,” he said, adding there will be few exceptions to this rule. Case in point, HGI plans to enter the New York City market in the later half of next year with a property in Tribeca, Kurre said. Immediately following that, HGI plans to open a location by JFK Airport, he said.