Howard Johnson(R) Hotels Offer Free Memories Booklets, Kids Meals

To help parents and children collect the special memories created during their summer vacations, Howard Johnson hotels are offering guests free booklets that explain how to create "memory boxes" to store souvenirs from their trips.

The Celebrate Family Memories with Howard Johnson booklet, handed to guests at check-in through Sept. 4, explains how to make a memory box from a shoe box, how to decorate it and what to put inside.

The booklet includes discount coupons for Howard Johnson hotels, Budget(R) car rentals, Discovery.com(R), the CrayolaStore.com(R) and TCBY(R).  It also includes a coupon for free software, including Scrabble(R), Blue's Clues(R) and Williams Sonoma(R) Good Cooking.

Also this summer, Howard Johnson guests will receive a certificate for a free kids-menu entree for children ages 10 and younger at participating Denny's(R) restaurants in the United States and Canada with the purchase of regularly priced adult entree.  The certificates, offered as part of the chain's Drive-Inn America program, expire Oct. 4.  Some restrictions apply.

The Drive-Inn America program also offers a summer travel package featuring a National Parks Pass, pocket-sized "owner's manual" with park listings and maps, $10 Denny's gift certificate, $10 coupon for purchases made on DiscoveryTM Channel store at www.discovery.com and an Avis(R) or Budget(R) car rental deal.  To purchase a package, consumers should visit www.howardjohnson.com and click on the national parks link.

Also as part of the Drive-Inn America program, parents can help make the miles go faster for their children by entering a sweepstakes on www.howardjohnson.com for a chance to win one of five portable DVD players being given away each day throughout the summer.  No purchase is necessary to participate.  Complete rules and details are posted on www.howardjohnson.com.

For every season of the year, there's more fun for families at participating Howard Johnson hotels, where guests receive free Howard Johnson and Crayola(R) FunPacks filled with Crayola crayons, vacation scrapbook, travel poster, games, stickers and Crayola Bathtub Tints.

FunPacks include an entry form for the Howard Johnson Kids Go HoJo Sweepstakes, which will award a $50,000 college scholarship prize.  Parents can enter for their children, ages 12 and under, online at www.howardjohnson.com.  Deadline for entries is Feb. 29, 2004.  No purchase is necessary to enter the sweepstakes.  Official rules are posted at www.howardjohnson.com.

Many Howard Johnson hotels feature Crayola Kids Rooms outfitted with a Crayola lamp, Crayola clock radio, Crayola easels and accessories, videocassette player, minifridge, microwave oven, night light, child-size table and chairs, colorful bedspreads and drapes.  To find hotels offering Crayola Kids Rooms, families can visit www.howardjohnson.com

Children under 18 always stay free at all Howard Johnson locations when staying in the same room as parents.