About Knights Inn By Wyndham Smithfield
Full-limited service hotel chain Knights Inn is a recently acquired property of Red Lion Hotels Corp (RLH Corp), from Wyndham Worldwide. The hotel chain based in Denver, Colorado with 350 budget hotels under its management and 47 other hotels in the pipeline across North America was sold for $27 million in late 2018.
Knights Inn opened its first location in Columbus, Ohio in 1974 with its architecture inspired by the medieval period. It highlighted Tudor architecture and used extensive landscaping. The hotel chain was first developed by prefabricated building manufacturer Cardinal Industries, Inc. It's no surprise that the first buildings were all prefabricated and featuring only one story.
Knights Inn was performing well in the industry until it filed bankruptcy just a year after it introduced a no-frills brand called Arborgate Inn. The new brand features more modern architecture but fewer amenities which didn't appeal much to the crowd as much as its original architecture.
The following years saw different management changes transpiring as the hotel chain was sold from one company to another since 1991. The latest was the acquisition of Knights Inn by RLH Corp which is expected to boost its franchise units by more than 30%. Unfortunately, the chain no longer adopts its architecture standards under many influences.
