   
New hotel opens with flag raising ceremony
By RACHEL PARKER DICKERSON
LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER
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 A new Conway hotel welcomed guests with a flag raising ceremony Tuesday.
Microtel Inn and Suites officially opened for business on Monday night and had 11 guests, according to owner John Baxter of Boulder Ridge Hotels of Fort Smith. The hotel is located at 2475 Sanders Street. This is his company's first venture into hotels, he said.
"We're apartment guys. This is a new endeavor for us," he said, adding the company has purchased a site to build a hotel in Russellville and plans to open that hotel next summer.
Microtel is new to Arkansas, Baxter said, and it is owned by Windham Group, one of the largest hotel operators in the world. He said the Microtel that just opened in Conway is different from others located around the country.
"This concept is a fairly new standard for Microtel," Baxter said. "We've raised the bar with the stucco and the dry stacked rock. We try to give customers a first class hotel at a budget class price."
Asked why he chose Conway for his first hotel location, Baxter said, "Conway is probably one of the hottest markets in the U.S. for business and the business traveler. The oil and gas play is definitely drawing a lot of attention, but the Conway Chamber folks have got to be doing a great job to attract Hewlett-Packard to the area. With all the doom and gloom in the economy, I don't think anyone told Conway, because it sure is a bright spot."
TriBuilt Construction Group of Fort Smith built the hotel, Baxter said, adding the company is now working on the Fairfield Inn and Suites nearby and will also build the Country Inn and Suites at the Interstate 40 Exit 127.
The Microtel staff, as well as members of TriBuilt Construction, gathered outside for a flag raising ceremony on Tuesday morning. Lance Cpl. Zachary Truemper of the U.S. Marine Corps, who has served one tour in Iraq, raised the American flag.
Microtel Inn and Suites has 71 guest rooms. Among the amenities are 32-inch flat panel televisions in all rooms, free wired and wireless high speed Internet, a meeting room, guest laundry, fitness center, and ironing boards, hair dryers and coffee makers in all rooms. Suites have microwaves and refrigerators. Handicapped accessible rooms are available.
For more information, go to www.microtelinn.com.
(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
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