WINGATE INN HOTEL CHAIN HITS MILESTONE AS 100TH HOTEL OPENS IN CONCORD, NC (3/01)

Wingate Inns International, Inc. today announced the opening of its 100th franchised Wingate Inn hotel as franchisee Doug Stafford opened the doors to his 93-room property at 7841 Gateway Lane NW in Concord, NC.

"The opening of the 100th Wingate Inn hotel in Concord is a major achievement for the brand as it pushes the chain past a significant landmark in terms of open hotels and national presence," says Keith J. Pierce, president and chief executive officer of Wingate Inns International. "Reaching this crucial open hotel total is an exceptional accomplishment considering that every open Wingate Inn hotel had to be built from the ground up. This is a testament to the outstanding group of franchisees, such as Doug Stafford, who make up the Wingate Inn hotel system."

Doug Stafford, owner of the Wingate Inn hotel in Concord, adds, "We're very excited to be the 100th open Wingate Inn hotel. It's a wonderful achievement for the hotel chain that we expect to dominate the upper mid-market hotel segment for years to come. Additionally, business travelers annually flock to the Concord area and now they have a place to stay that's built primarily for them."

Stafford Continues, "The new Wingate hotel in Concord is located near offices for a variety of major corporations such as IBM, Phillip Morris, First Union, Allstate and Verbatim, meaning business travelers to those and other surrounding companies will now have a business-traveler friendly hotel at which to stay. The hotel will also be great for leisure travelers to the Concord Mills Shopping Mall, Sam Bass Gallery and Pro Shops, Hendrick Motorsports Museum and the Lowes Motor Speedway, which is only one quarter mile from the hotel."

As a part of the Wingate Inn chain, this franchised Wingate Inn hotel features high-speed Internet access connections in every guestroom, as well as in the meeting room and boardroom. Guests with a standard Ethernet card and RJ45 connector can enjoy free access to the Internet from guestrooms at speeds up to 50 times faster than conventional 56K modems. Meeting room and boardroom high-speed Internet access is rentable on a half-day and full day basis.

The hotel also features standard amenities such as express, automated check-in and check-out, as well as in-room cordless phones and two-line desk phones with dataport, speaker, conference call and voice mail capabilities. Wingate Inn hotels also offer meeting rooms, 24-hour access to a business center with free usage of fax, printing and copying equipment, and wireless phones that can be checked out from the front desk and used anywhere within the hotel for both incoming and outgoing calls.

Although focused on providing efficient working conditions for the business traveler, Wingate Inn hotels also provide amenities for leisure travelers such as an in-room entertainment system featuring pay-per-view movies and Nintendo 64 games. Guests can also benefit from larger-than-average guestrooms (12' x 28'), an expanded continental breakfast, a whirlpool, exercise facilities, free accommodations for children 18 and under accompanied by adults, the Wingate Inn 100% gest satisfaction guarantee and in-room safes, coffee makers, hair dryers and ironing boards with irons. In addition, the Wingate Inn hotel in Concord features an outdoor pool, in-room microwaves and refrigerators, whirlpool suites and a Monday - Thursday evening reception. Room rates begin at $89 for a single, $95 for a double and $109 for a whirlpool suite.

Wingate Inns is an all-new construction hotel chain that opened its first franchised hotel in July 1996. Its focused service, upper mid-market franchised hotels feature sophisticated, consumer-based technology and comfortable, oversized rooms that were created in response to business travelers' needs. All Wingate Inn hotels are independently owned and operated under Franchise agreements with Wingate Inns International, Inc.