"It's going to be a challenge, but that's the objective," Mark Williams, Best Western's vice president of North American Development, tells GlobeSt.com of the company's goals.The lodging giant, which has more than 4,000 hotels in 80 countries, expects to add 155 North American properties to its roster along with 245 hotels internationally by the end of 2003.

Among the hotels that will take on the Best Western brand name in 2003 are the 125-room Phoenix West Inn, in Phoenix; the Marina Inn, a 137-room facility in Dana Point, CA; Fort Lauderdale's Oakland Park Inn with 106 rooms and the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, NJ, which has 169 rooms. Also slated for re-branding is the 132-room Albany hotel in Albany, NY, the Country Squire Resort in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada with 68 rooms and the Clermont hotel in Cincinnati with 128 rooms.

Williams said the firm will target about 50 North American cities where the Best Western brand is under represented and hopes to double its five Hawaiian and seven Caribbean properties within the next few years.