Hilton Sells Red Lion Brand

Hilton Hotels Corp. has agreed to sell its Red Lion midprice brand to WestCoast Hospitality Corp. Red Lion consists of 42 hotels with approximately 6,400 rooms located primarily in California, Washington and other Western states. Hilton acquired Red Lion in 1999 as part of its acquisition of Promus Hotel Corp.
As part of the present deal, WestCoast also acquired five Doubletree Hotels from Hilton. For Spokane, Wash.-based WestCoast, the deal almost doubles the number of hotels it has under management from 46 properties in nine states to 93 properties in 15 states. The transaction is expected to close by year-end.