Doubletree Brand Expands Presence in Tennessee Through Agreement with Cooper Companies.

Business Editors/Travel Writers

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 2003

Hilton Hotels Corporation and Memphis-based Cooper Companies announced that they are in final negotiations for five of their Tennessee hotels to become members of the Doubletree(R) hotel portfolio.

As part of the agreement, Cooper will re-brand its 265-room Hilton East Memphis to a Doubletree, which is also a member of the Hilton Family of Hotels. This hotel underwent a multi-million dollar hotel wide renovation in 2002. The other four Tennessee properties will be conversions from the Cooper Companies independent brand, Garden Plaza Hotels, which are located in Jackson, Johnson City, Murfreesboro and Oak Ridge.

"We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with the Hilton Family of Hotels, which began more than 20 years ago in 1982," said Pace Cooper, president and CEO of Cooper Companies. "With this Doubletree move, 11 of our 22 hotels are now affiliated with a Hilton Family brand."

Cooper noted that Doubletree Hotels strongly emphasize superior customer service, guest satisfaction and personal service. He said the conversion process will be easily achieved in the next few months, pointing out that the Hilton East Memphis was recently awarded a hotel performance award from Hilton and that the four Garden Plaza Hotels have long been recognized for their outstanding service.

"We are very pleased to have the opportunity to reinforce Doubletree's presence in Tennessee with such an experienced and superb owner and operator," said Dave Horton, Doubletree's senior vice president of brand management. "Guests who stay at the former Garden Plaza Hotels will now have the opportunity as Doubletree guests to earn Hilton HHonors points and airline miles with one of the best travel reward programs available today. And each hotel will also benefit from the backing of one of the most powerful national sales organizations and worldwide reservation networks in the industry."

Furthermore, Horton said, "The Cooper Companies have done a great job positioning Garden Plaza to the commercial and leisure traveler across the state, and now with this new Doubletree affiliation and planned renovations, these hotels, makes this new opportunity a win-win situation for their customers, Cooper Companies and gives Doubletree a very significant and positive footing in this state."

The East Memphis hotel is expected to become one of Doubletree's flagship hotels in North America. The other four properties are scheduled to be converted by mid-summer. All five of the properties converting to the Doubletree brand were constructed with oversized guestrooms providing 20% more floor space than conventional hotel rooms. Each property offers restaurants, recreational facilities and substantial meeting space.

Cooper is recognized as one of the Hilton Family's highest-quality franchisees in the southeastern U.S., with Hilton brand properties located in Knoxville, Tenn.; Naples, Fla.; Detroit; Fort Myers, Fla.; Charlotte and Atlanta. In additional to its portfolio of 22 hotels in nine states, Cooper Companies also has real estate, insurance and construction divisions.

For more information about the Doubletree collection of hotels, please visit the brand's website at www.doubletree.com.