The news surfaced at yesterday's opening session of La Quinta'snational conference, which is being held this year in the GaylordTexas Resort & Convention Center. "They want us to own morereal estate," Wayne Goldberg, president of day-to-day operationsand CEO, said during a press conference. But, he adds, "thephilosophy's changed. We want to be a single-brand operator."

La Quinta bought the Milwaukee-based Baymont about two yearsago. Goldberg says the upfront changes resulted in Baymont's bestperformance in its history last year, but still it failed tooutperform the La Quinta brand for any industry metrics. In fact,he says, the performances were "dramatically" different.

LQ will re-brand 84 corporate-owned Baymonts and effectivelybecome a franchisee for 16 Baymont properties that can't bere-flagged for a variety of reasons. Goldberg says a short-termagreement has been struck with the still-unidentified buyer untilLQ can decide what to do with the package.