The chain is owned by hotelier Mark Hemstreet and operated by Hemstreet's Shilo Management Corp. Hemstreet is attempting to reorganize following a six-month lull in the industry that began Sept. 11 and created quite a cash crunch for many hotel operators. It is not yet know how many hotels, if any, will be sold off in order to meet creditors' demands, whose lawsuits forced the filings.

Hemstreet operates 46 Shilo Inns in nine western states. Twenty of the hotels are located in Oregon, with another 21 divided evenly among Washington, California and Idaho. The remaining five locations are located in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Arizona. For the hotels not in Chapter 11 it is believed Hemstreet was able to come to a repayment agreement with their lenders. Lenders for some of the other hotels have filed complaints in court claiming they have not received mortgage payments for several months.

The signatory on each of the initial six hotel filings last week is John Kneeland, who runs the day-to-day operations of the chain on behalf of Shilo Management Corp. The firm's lawyer is listed as Ball Janik attorney Brad Summers, who according to court records was paid between $50,000 and $150,000 to handle each of the cases filed last week. Neither Hemstreet nor Summers returned phone calls seeking comment. Also unavailable was attorney Charles Markley, who is also speaking on the issue on Hemstreet's behalf.