U.S.

NAACP: Hotels Need Improvement

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 9, 2000 / 5:36 PM EDT / CBS

The hotel industry has not lived up to promises to improve its treatment of blacks in hiring, contracting and marketing, the NAACP said Monday.

The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization gave the 11 major hotel chains a grade of C-minus in its fourth annual report card. Last year, the NAACP had said the hotel chains improved somewhat.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume urged people "to avoid spending dollars in failing or underperforming hotel chains."

"What we've seen is a one-way relationship. Over the last three years, after our first report ended, the hotel industry has changed very, very little," Mfume said. "Sustained progress has not been as fast as we had hoped, nor has it been as fast as it has been promised."

Marriott International earned a B from the NAACP; Cendant Hotels, B-minus; Hilton Hotels Corp., C-plus; and Hyatt Hotels Corp., C-plus.

Rooms For Improvement

The NAACP's 2000 hotel rankings:

1) Marriot…B
2) Cendant…B
3) Hyatt…C+
4) Hilton…C+
5) Best Western…C
6) Bass/Holiday Inn…C
7) Choice…C
8) Starwood…C-
9) Radisson…D+
10) Omni…D+
11) Wyndham…D

(Rankings by NAACP)

size>

But the NAACP issued grades below C to four hotel chains: Starwood, C-minus; Radisson Hospitality Worldwide, D-plus; Omni, D-plus; and Wyndham, D.

Last year, no chain earned lower than a C.

"We are disappointed with the grade and we pledge to do better," said Fred Stern, a spokesman for Wyndham. "We don't have a question with the survey. We think it is a valuable service that is helpful to the industry as a whole."

Stern also said their grade suffered because their performancbar had been raised by other chains.

Spokesmen for other low-rated chains either were not immediately available or had no immediate comment.

An executive with Marriott, which is based in Bethesda, Md., acknowledged that the chain still has "more work to do" in this area, even though it scored the highest in this report card.

"We're pleased with the B, but we're still striving for an A," Marriott vice president David Sampson said.

The NAACP based the grades on the hotels' hiring practices, charitable donations and advertising. Hotels were also graded on whether franchise opportunities are offered to blacks and whether the hotels use black contractors.

The report found that that hotel industry had begun "to explore incentives and to establish programs to increase the number of African-American franchisees" but few African-Americans have actually taken ownership of hotels.

Only three of the 11 companies used African American-owned advertising agencies.

When it came to charitable spending, one chain got an A and two received Bs.

When the first survey was conducted in 1997, the NAACP and 55 other black organizations urged a boycott of 10 national hotel chains because of their hiring and promotion practices, and gave several chains an "F" for not participating in the survey.