Days Inn
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| Privately held company (subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide) | |
| Industry | Hotel |
| Founded | August 1970 |
| Founder | Cecil B. Day |
| Headquarters | Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S. |
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Key people
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Clyde Guinn (President) |
| Parent | Wyndham Worldwide |
| Website | www |
Days Inn is a hotel chain headquartered in the United States. It was founded in 1970 by Cecil B. Day, with the first location opening in Tybee Island, Georgia. The brand is now a part of the Wyndham Hotel Group, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, which used to be a part of Cendant. It is described by its president, Clyde Guinn, as striving to provide the "best value under the sun". Days Inn includes locations worldwide.
Founder Cecil B. Day, before creating Days Inn, had worked in real estate in Atlanta, Georgia, where he built and developed apartment complexes. He also owned several locations of the fast food chains Jiffy Drive-In and Carrols in Atlanta. Day sold his holdings to Phipps Land Company for $14 million in 1969, the largest real estate transaction in the state of Georgia at the time.
Day founded Days Inn on Tybee Island, Georgia in 1970. He proposed the idea as a means of using a piece of land he owned on the island. When the first Days Inn opened, Day could not find maid service, so he had his children make up the rooms' beds. Also, a truck that delivered furniture was too heavy for the bridge onto the island, so Day's mother hauled furniture onto the island in her station wagon. Despite the criticism that Day faced from friends for wanting to start a new lodging option on a "no-name island" with a flagging tourist economy, the first Days Inn was 100 percent occupied by April 1970. The first property featured 60 rooms and a price of $8 per room.
Within 1970, Day opened the second location, in Forsyth, Georgia. The property was constructed during a heavy rainstorm, and one family stayed at the property a week before it was completed, at Day's insistence.
Through the 1970s hotel guests could take home a paperback Bible (usually the American Bible Society Good News Bible New Testament) from their guest rooms for free.
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Wikipedia