Earlier this year, Six Continents Hotels, Inc. � parent company of Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts � announced the �balanced full service� Holiday Inn hotel concept, which is designed to fit 100 to 150 rooms on sites as small as 2.5 acres, while still providing a full array of amenities such as indoor pool, restaurant, and lounge. 

�This concept is a cost-efficient alternative to the traditional larger meetings-driven Holiday Inns, while still offering the highest levels of design and service to our guests,� explained Stevan Porter, president The Americas for Six Continents Hotels. 

Added Mr. Porter, �We selected Diplomat Companies to be our development partner for the first of these �next generation� style Holiday Inn hotels because R.C. and Mike Patel have a solid reputation for blending innovative thinking with sound implementation.  The first prototype is being built in Gwinnett County because this is one of the country�s fastest-growing communities, yet the Sugarloaf Parkway area is still very underserved by quality hotels.�

For Atlanta-based Diplomat Companies � which owns and operates 11 hotels in the southeastern U.S. and has an ownership interest in seven other hotels � this is the first time the firm is building a hotel which will be owned and operated by someone else. 

For Gwinnett County, the new 143-room hotel � which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2003 � will be a valuable economic stimulus in the area immediately surrounding the civic center.

The hotel in Gwinnett County will be located on 2.5 acres within Horizon Park, a nine-acre site owned by Diplomat Companies where a four-story, 100,000 square foot Class A office building is also under construction.  Six Continents will own and operate the hotel.

Diplomat Companies was founded in 1979 when brothers R.C. and Mike Patel bought their first hotel in Pell City, Alabama.  Today, the firm�s core business is still hotels, but the Patels also own and operate companies that are strategically linked to the hospitality industry, including banking, commercial insurance, and real estate. 

�It was 50 years ago � in August of 1952 � that Kemmons Wilson opened the first Holiday Inn in Memphis, so we�re honored that our company has been selected to help create an exciting new chapter in the history and heritage of this leading hotel brand,� said R.C. Patel, chairman of Diplomat Companies. 

This is not the first experience Diplomat Companies has had with Kemmons Wilson.  Previously, the firm owned and operated Wilson World Resort in Orlando, a 450-room property that was among the first properties to recognize and promote central Florida as a major vacation destination.

�To prosper, especially in today�s turbulent economy, companies must be willing to adapt to changing market conditions � and they must be able to do it quickly,� explained Mukesh �Mike� Patel, president of Diplomat Companies.  �Development of this new hotel concept by Diplomat and Six Continents demonstrates that these companies are both willing and able to act quickly to seize market opportunities and turn them into success.� 

Six ContinentsSM Hotels, the hotel business of Six Continents PLC of the United Kingdom  [LON:SXC, NYSE:SXC (ADRs)], owns, manages, leases or franchises more than 3,320 hotels and 515,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories.