1998 Business Travel Survey Corrections

<B> 1998 Business Travel Survey Corrections</B>

In our 1998 Business Travel Survey (<I>BTN</I>, May 26), we mistakenly cited Cendant under its former name, HFS, in the top Total Number of Hotels ranking. We also erroneously published the incorrect number of franchise hotels per Cendant brand. In 1997, Days Inn had 1,761 hotels; Ramada had 922 hotels; Howard Johnson had 483 hotels; Super 8 had 1,630 hotels; Travelodge had 479 hotels; Knights Inn had 190 hotels; Villager had 82 hotels and Wingate Inn had 19 hotels.

Two figures for U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems were incorrectly listed. The number of corporate T&E card accounts for 1997 was 1,500, while the number of purchasing card accounts was not available. On the dollar volume charged on purchasing card accounts for 1997, the 5 appearing after the $7.2 billion figure should have been indicated as a footnote.

Four business travel agencies also should have been on our corporate-owned travel agency list. AAA Cincinnati, at $126 million in 1997 ARC sales, 80 percent of which was business travel, would have come in 30th on our list. Cassis Travel Services, Los Angeles, with $61 million in 1997 ARC sales, 80 percent of which was business travel, would have come in 70th on our list. Linden Travel Bureau, New York, with $33,891,000 in 1997 ARC sales, 70 percent of which was business travel, would have ranked 91st. Piedmont Travel, Greenville, S.C., a primarily corporate travel agency, reported $32,029,141 in sales for 1997, which would place them 92nd.