Press Release: Wingate Inns International
August 2, 2002
PARSIPPANY, NJ -- Developer Pravin Patel didn't just open the second franchised Wingate Inn hotel in Maryland,
he opened it as the Official Team Hotel of the Aberdeen IronBirds, Cal Ripken's Class A Baltimore Orioles minor
league affiliate in the NY-Penn League. Patel signed a three-year contract to house all teams that come to play
the Aberdeen IronBirds.
Patel's three-story, 107-room hotel at 1326 Policy Drive in Riverside is located only five miles from the Aberdeen
Baseball Complex, home of the Aberdeen IronBirds, 5,900-seat Ripken Stadium, Ripken Professional Baseball LLC and
state-of-the-art youth baseball academy. Hotel guests can enjoy an indoor pool, seven whirlpool suites, free guestroom
high-speed Internet access, a free 24-hour business center and a variety of other guest-friendly amenities.
"Being affiliated with Cal Ripken is a wonderful accomplishment for our newly opened hotel," said owner
Patel. "The Ripken family name is synonymous with respect, hard work and dedication to excellence, which is
exactly what we plan to provide guests who stay at the hotel. We feel that our property should be a great asset
to this wonderful community."
Keith J. Pierce, Wingate Inn president & chief executive officer, said the opening of the hotel and the agreement
with Aberdeen IronBirds "is excellent for both Pravin and the brand. We're not only adding another open Wingate
Inn hotel to the state of Maryland, we're affiliating the Wingate Inn name with the Ripken name, one of the most
recognizable and respected in the United States."
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 available to rent 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 and 24-hour access to a business center with free usage of fax, printing and
copying equipment.
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 by 28 feet), an expanded continental
breakfast, a whirlpool, exercise facilities, free accommodations for children 18 and under when accompanied by
adults, the Wingate Inn 100 percent guest satisfaction guarantee and in-room safes, coffee makers, microwave ovens,
refrigerators, hair dryers and ironing boards with irons. Room rates start at $99 and suite rates begin at $129.
Wingate Inns International 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. Reservations can
be made by calling the Wingate Inn toll-free reservation center at (800) 228-1000 or through the company's Web
site at http://www.wingateinns.com. Wingate Inns International is a subsidiary
of Cendant Corporation (NYSE: CD).
SOURCE: Wingate Inns International