Super 8 Motels

Super 8
Subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide
Industry Hotels
Predecessor Main Street inn
Founded 1974, Aberdeen, South Dakota
Founder Ron Rivett
Headquarters Parsippany, New Jersey, United States
Number of locations
 2,392 as of May 2014
Area served
 United States, Canada, China, Brasil
Owner Wyndham Worldwide
Website https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/super-8
The former Super 8 Motels logo, used from April 1982 to March 31, 2008, and still in use at some smaller locations
A Super 8 in Kingdom City, Missouri, representative of the style built by franchisee Supertel Hospitality

Super 8 Worldwide, formerly Super 8 Motels, is the world's largest budget hotel chain, with hotels in the United States, Canada and China. The company is a subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide, formerly a part of Cendant.[1]

History

Super 8 has its roots in a marketing association for individually owned hotels that were already in business started by Dennis Brown in 1972. After one year, in 1973 Ron Rivett and Dennis Brown canceled the association and created their new Super 8 Motel corporation with each of them owning 50% of the stock in the new company.[2] The original room rate was US$8.88, hence the numeric brand name.[3] The first Super 8, with 60 rooms, opened in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1974.[2] The first Super 8 was built near a Holiday Inn with just some drawings made by Rivett as blueprints. The stucco exterior with an English Tudor style was inspired by Rivett's father-in-law, who was a stuccoer; the English Tudor style and placing of Super 8's near Holiday Inns was an established procedure for setting up new Super 8's for years to come. The first franchise was sold in 1976 and established in Gillette, Wyoming. By 1978, Super 8 expanded from the state of New York to the state of Washington and was no longer just a Midwestern company.[2]

Super 8 had a frequent traveler program, the VIP club, which was introduced in 1976; it grew to over 7.6 million members. The program was purchased by Hospitality Franchise Systems, which later became Cendant, in 1993. The VIP program was dissolved in December 2003 and replaced with the TripRewards program, which was renamed Wyndham Rewards in 2008.

In 1981, groundbreaking for the 100th Super 8 Location began in Aberdeen, South Dakota; the birthplace of Super 8.[4] In 1993, Super 8 opened its 1,000th property in Mount Vernon, Ohio.[4] By 2001, Super 8 Motels had more than 2,000 motels worldwide.[4]

As of May 2014, the company website listed 2,392 hotels worldwide.[5] As per the 2006 company reports, Super 8 had 2,039 properties open with 123,982 rooms in the US and Canada.

Super 8 today

Super 8 now offers guests standard amenities at every motel, including a continental breakfast, wireless Internet access, hair dryers, coffee makers, and a lobby area. Some locations have pools and meeting rooms. A few of the larger Super 8's have restaurants.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About Super 8". Super 8 official website. Accessed May 2010
  2. 1 2 3 El-Hai, Jack (1999). Clean and Friendly for More Than 25 Years. Greenwich Publishing Group. ISBN 0-944641-37-7.
  3. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=W0a6PFMAxGYC&pg=PA10&dq=%22super+8%22+%22$8.88%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-mv3T5nXGqSa0QHTgYnQBg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ
  4. 1 2 3 About Super 8
  5. ↑ Super 8 Hotel Properties Retrieved May 21, 2014.
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