Hampton Guests Are On Cloud Nine With Comfy New Bed
  
 

New Bedding Rolls Out Across All Hotels By June 2006;
New Cloud Nine Bed Features Nine New Reasons To Hit The Hay

  
     
 

MEMPHIS, Tenn., October 13, 2005 — Hampton, a leading mid-priced hotel brand, today announced that a super-comfortable new bedding package will be available in all of its more than 1,300 hotels by June 1, 2006.

The new bed represents the next phase of the Make It Hampton initiative, which since January 2004 has introduced new products and services ranging from a new complimentary On the House ™ hot breakfast and On the Run™ breakfast bags, Purity Basics® bath products and a curved shower rod, complimentary high-speed Internet access and the industry’s easiest-to-set alarm clock/radio. Make It Hampton is the single largest and fastest transformation ever undertaken by a hotel brand to dramatically enhance the guest experience at each of its hotels.

Make It Hampton will be responsible for more than nine million individual upgrades at Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites hotels designed to meet the needs of busy business and leisure travelers today.

"Revamping the bed experience is something we have been researching and testing along with our other Make It Hampton components," said Phil Cordell, senior vice-president, Hampton Brand Management. "We tested many different versions of the bed, and Cloud Nine represents the best of the best of what guests said they love. Cloud Nine takes the sleep experience to a new level with a comfy, high-quality, raised mattress and new, dramatically more comfortable products and fabrics."

 
 
   
The new Cloud Nine bed does away with the old-fashioned bedspread, featuring instead a crisp, white duvet cover, enveloping a lofty white comforter. The white sheets are 200-thread count with a fitted
bottom sheet. The bed features three or four pillows (depending on room type) providing consumers a choice in firmness (some filled with soft down, some with firmer foam),
 

a lumbar pillow in a soothing color that provides guests back support if they choose to read, watch television or enjoy the Hampton lap desk and work while resting in bed.

Hampton has been testing the new bed in approximately 50 hotels and will next roll out to another 150. Guest response has been overwhelmingly positive. Actual guest comments about the bed include:

 
 
 
"Outstanding comfort - better than home."
 
"Wonderful, very comfortable and cozy."
 
"I had no backache as I usually do from hotel beds. Love the duvet."
 
"The whole new crisp look is excellent and very comfortable."
 
 


The Nine New Attributes of the Cloud Nine Bed
The changes Hampton is making involve how the bed feels as well as how it looks.

  
 
 
1.
Crisp, white duvet
 
2.
Plush "down-like" comforter (inside the duvet cover)
 
3.
New higher thread count sheets including a fitted bottom sheet
 
4.
Lumbar pillow adding a splash of color
 
5.
Color-coordinated bedskirt
 
6.
Lap desk
 
7.
Multiple, fluffy pillows with a choice in firmness
 
8.
New quilted fitted mattress pads
 
9.
Raised bed and residential headboard
 
 

"The new Cloud Nine bed represents Hampton’s commitment to continually improving our guests’ experiences, providing unexpected delights and being an innovator in the hotel industry," Cordell said.

Interesting Facts About The Cloud Nine Bed Experience:

 
 
 
Hampton will use approximately 3.3 million linear yards of fabric for the new duvets alone. Lined end to end, this fabric would span 1,875 miles — more than the distance from Chicago to Los Angeles.
 
The duvets are being manufactured on approximately 680 looms around the world. To complete the duvet order, the looms will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for seven months.
 
All the different Cloud Nine bed test items were shipped to hotel test sites, logging enough frequent flier miles to circle the earth five times.
 
10,000 room attendant labor hours were used in fine tuning the process of making up the new bed in the same amount of time as before.
 
To date, more than 100,000 guests have slept in the new beds giving rave reviews.
 
     
  Hampton®, which includes Hampton Inn® and Hampton Inn & Suites® hotels, is part of Hilton Hotels Corporation, recognized internationally as a preeminent hospitality company. Hilton Hotels Corporation develops, owns, manages or franchises more than 2,300 hotels, resorts and vacation ownership properties. Its portfolio includes many of the world’s best known and most highly regarded hotel brands, including Hilton®, Conrad®, Doubletree®, Embassy Suites Hotels®, Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, Hilton Garden Inn®, Hilton Grand Vacations Club® and Homewood Suites by Hilton®.  
     
 
 
 
 
 
Contact:
        
Bonnie Cameron/Kendra Walker

Dawn Verhulst
Jerry and Chris Daly
Hampton Brand Communications
Cohn & Wolfe
Daly Gray Public Relations
901.374.6462 / 310.205.4545

310.967.2904
703.435.6293
 
     
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