Extended-stay hotel opening in West Valley

A new extended-stay hotel will open Wednesday in West Valley City, the second property opened in Utah this year by Liberty Lodging LLC.

The company is opening a 121-room Value Place hotel at 1650 W. 3500 South. It will charge a weekly rate of $199, or an average of $28 per day, said Liberty Lodging President Mike Mikkelson.

Based in Orlando, Fla., Liberty Lodging has opened 22 Value Place hotels in eight states in the past 25 months. The new properties include a 45,000-square-foot, 124-room hotel in the Ogden suburb of West Haven.

"It has maintained occupancies of well over 90 percent since then," Mikkelson said.

Utah now has three Value Place hotels. The first opened in American Fork.

Value Place was founded by Jack DeBoer, who claims to be the industry's originator of extended-stay lodging through his development of the Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites and Candlewood Suites brands.

Its first hotel opened in Wichita in October of 2003. Since then, about 140 have been opened, some company owned, others as franchises.

Mikkelson said the brand is thriving because it fills a "niche between apartment rentals that require long-term lease commitments and the flexible, yet costly alternative of short-term hotel stays."  Original Article