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Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 20:51:57 -0500
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Subject: DOJ Settlement: Days Inn
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Below please find a press release and fact sheet about a recent case
settled by the Department of Justice regarding Days Inn.  Congratulations
to everyone at DOJ for their work on this case.


                ===========================================


DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CR
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1999(202) 353-8584
WWW.USDOJ.GOVTDD (202) 514-1888



              DAYS INN HOTELS TO BECOME MORE ACCESSIBLE UNDER
                 AGREEMENT REACHED WITH JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The world's largest hotel chain has agreed to
implement a nationwide initiative designed to make hundreds of its new
hotels across the country more accessible to persons with disabilities,
under an agreement reached today with the Justice Department.

     The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Pikeville, Kentucky,
resolves five lawsuits filed by the Justice Department in February 1996.
The suits allege that Days Inns of America, Inc, and its parent company,
Cendant Corporation (formerly HFS, Inc), violated the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) by constructing new Days Inn hotels that denied
equal access to persons with disabilities.  The ADA requires that those
participating in the design and construction of places of public
accommodation and commercial facilities, including hotels, motels, inns,
and other lodging facilities, to comply with specific architectural
guidelines known as the ADA Standards for Accessible Design to ensure that
the facilities are readily accessible to and usable by persons with
disabilities.

      "We are pleased that Days Inns will initiate a program to make its
recently-built hotels across the country accessible," said Attorney General
Janet Reno.  "I hope that other hotels and hotel franchises follow Days
Inns' example and implement systemwide changes to make each of their
facilities fully accessible to persons with disabilities."

     Under the agreement, Days Inns will:

+          require new hotels to certify that they are in compliance with
     the ADA Standards before they open for business as Days Inns;

+          pay for an independent survey program designed to identify ADA
     problems at newly constructed hotels;

+          establish a $4.75 million revolving fund to provide
     interest-free loans to franchisees of newly constructed hotels to
     finance repairs and renovations required for ADA compliance; and,

+          pay $50,000 to the United States.

     The cases against Days Inns were part of groundbreaking litigation
brought by the Justice Department to challenge the failure of some
companies to design and construct places of public accommodation and
commercial facilities to be readily accessible to and usable by individuals
with disabilities, as required by law.  Today's agreement ends four years
of litigation that followed an 18-month investigation of newly constructed
Days Inn hotels across the country.

     The investigation revealed that the hotels did not meet the ADA's
accessibility requirements.  Similar accessibility problems existed
throughout the chain, including, for example, insufficient accessible
parking, inaccessible entrances and walkways at the facilities; inadequate
space for persons who use wheelchairs to maneuver in guestrooms and
bathrooms; insufficient visual alarm systems for persons who are deaf or
hard of hearing; inadequate signage for persons who are blind or have low
vision; inaccessible routes throughout the hotels; and guestroom and
bathroom doors that are not wide enough to allow wheelchairs to pass
inside.

     "Everyone who participates in the design and construction of a
building shares  responsibility to follow the law," added Bill Lann Lee,
Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  "Today's
agreement is the result of more than a year of mediation and is an
excellent example of how the Civil Rights Division is using mediation to
resolve civil rights disputes."

     The owners, contractors and all but one architect for each of the five
hotels named in the lawsuits have already entered into Consent Decrees or
settlement agreements with the Department. The agreement announced today
resolves the remaining claims against Days Inns of America and Cendant
Corporation.

     To help hotels and hotel chains comply with the ADA, the Department
has published three new documents designed to assist hotel owners,
franchisors, architects and contractors gain a better understanding of ADA
requirements for newly constructed hotels.  The publications are: Common
ADA Problems at Newly Constructed Lodging Facilities, the  ADA Checklist
for New Lodging Facilities, and Five Steps to Make New Lodging Facilities
Comply with the ADA.

     Individuals and businesses who are interested in learning more about
the Americans with Disabilities Act or obtaining the documents listed above
are encouraged to call the Justice Department's toll-free ADA hotline at
1-800-514-0301 (voice) or 800-514-0383 (TDD) and visit the ADA home page
at: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm

                                    ###
99-579




          FACT SHEET: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SETTLEMENT WITH DAYS INN

     After a year of alternative dispute resolution, the Days Inns of
America chain of hotels has agreed to resolve lawsuits brought by the
Justice Department alleging that the company violated the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) by not building newly constructed hotels that were
accessible to persons with disabilities.

     As a result of the mediation, Days Inns will:

+          require new hotels to certify that they are in compliance with
     the ADA before permitting them to open for business using the Days Inn
     name;

+          pay for a survey program in which an independent consultant will
     survey Days Inn hotels constructed after January 26, 1993 and identify
     ADA problems that must be fixed;

+          establish a $4.75 million revolving fund that will be used to
     provide interest-free loans to franchisees of Days Inn hotels built
     after January 26, 1993  to finance repairs and renovations required
     for ADA compliance; and

+          pay $50,000 to the United States.

History
     In 1994, the Justice Department began investigating the Days Inns
hotel chain after receiving numerous complaints from persons with
disabilities alleging lack of accessibility at Days Inn facilities around
the country.  Days Inns of America, Inc., (DIA) is the largest franchisor
of  hotels in the U.S., with 1900 lodging facilities in its system.  DIA is
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cendant Corporation (formerly HFS
Incorporated).  In addition to the Days Inn system, Cendant owns the
Ramada, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Super 8, Villager Inn,
Wingate Inn.

     In 1994 and 1995, the Department conducted compliance reviews of 30
Days Inn facilities across the country that the Department had identified
as "newly constructed" facilities -- facilities designed and constructed
for first occupancy after January 26, 1993.   All facilities designed and
constructed after that date are required to be readily accessible to and
usable by individuals with disabilities and must fully comply with the ADA
Standards for Accessible Design.  The compliance reviews revealed numerous
violations throughout every part of every facility reviewed by the
Department, including:

+          Parking areas -- Violations included an insufficient number of
     accessible parking spaces and access aisles, including van accessible
     spaces;

+          Pedestrian walkways -- Violations included abrupt level changes,
     with no ramps and insufficient curb cuts, which prevent persons who
     use wheelchairs and other mobility aids from entering the facility
     safely without having to use the vehicular way;

+          Entrances -- Violations included inadequate lobby entrances and
     insufficient maneuvering space;

+          Signage ? Violations included inadequate signage, and signage
     that was not placed in the proper location, preventing persons who are
     blind or have low vision from locating their rooms;

+          Alarm systems -- Violations included insufficient visual alarms
     throughout the facilities, which prevent persons who are deaf or hard
     of hearing from receiving notification of emergencies;

+          Guestrooms.  Violations included a lack of accessible
     guestrooms, including guestrooms with roll-in showers for wheelchair
     users, failures to provide different types of guestrooms for people
     with disabilities so that they have the same range of choices that is
     available others, and failures to ensure that all doors into and
     within all guestrooms have 32 inches of clear opening width to allow
     persons with disabilities to pass through.

     Following unsuccessful negotiations, the Department filed 5 separate
lawsuits regarding Days Inn hotels that failed to comply with the Standards
in Willows, California; Champaign, Illinois; Evansville, Indiana; Hazard,
Kentucky; and Wall, South Dakota.  The lawsuits were filed against the
various owners, architects, and contractors for each facility and  DIA and
Cendant. The Justice Department alleged that each named party was involved
in the design and construction of the Days Inns facility in question and
each party had liability for the ADA violations present.  The owners,
contractors and all but one architect named in the five lawsuits have
resolved the Department's claims against them.

     After three years of litigation, the Department, DIA and Cendant
mutually agreed to mediate the cases in an effort to bring about a global
settlement of all matters.  After 13 months of mediation,  the agreement
was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Kentucky.