ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The NAACP called for a boycott of Holiday Inn, Best Western and other leading hotel chains Wednesday, assailing the lodging industry's record in the hiring and promoting of blacks.
The boycott is the first step in a broader effort to maximize black buying power in corporate America, said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume.
``African Americans spend more than $4 billion annually on travel and lodging, with much of this going to the lodging industry,'' Mfume said.
Mfume urged people ``to immediately exercise personal responsibility and use our consumer guide'' when planning business trips and vacations. Without prompting, he added: ``A selective boycott - yes. It means exactly that. Punish, quite frankly, our enemies.''
Some hotel representatives defended their record on black hiring, and said they were not enemies of the NAACP. A majority of the 10 targeted chains had declined to cooperate with the group's survey of black employees and managers.
``We support the work and spirit of the NAACP but politely declined to give them that data,'' said Craig Smith, a vice president for Holiday Inn public relations. `` We don't provide data on our operations to anyone.''
``We have a good story to tell,'' said Anne Curtis of the Choice Hotels International.
``The NAACP is hurting people they say they want to help,'' said Ann Rhodes of Doubletree Hotels Inc., which operates Hotel Roanoke.
Sixteen national companies were sent a four-page questionnaire seeking general information such as number of properties, number of rooms, and number of black employees in executive, managerial and professional positions.
Of the 16 companies, none answered the entire survey and just six received passing grades.
Marriott International and Hilton Hotels Corp. both received C's, the highest grade awarded; Hyatt Hotels Corp., Adam's Mark Hotels and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Corp. were graded C-minus; HFS Inc., operators of Days Inns, got a D.
Ten firms with lower grades were targeted by the boycott. Two of them, ITT Sheraton Corp. and Promus Hotel Corp., which runs the Embassy Suites chain, received a D-minus.
Mfume said seven firms notified the NAACP that they would not participate and got F's: Westin Hotels, Best Western International, Radisson Hospitality Worldwide, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Choice Hotels International, Holiday Inn Worldwide and Omni Hotels.
Doubletree gave no answer at all. In response, the NAACP notified a Doubletree hotel in Little Rock, Ark., that a March regional conference would be moved elsewhere. Doubletree's Rhodes said NAACP officials had agreed to give the company until early 1997 to get the requested information because of an impending merger.
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