Ramada International Hotels & Resorts, a division of Whitbread Group’s Marriott International, has announced its expansion into The Netherlands through an operational agreement with AMS Hotel Group.

The deal will include the conversion over the next two years of 10 existing hotels in Amsterdam’s city centre and the creation of two new hotels to be built in Amsterdam Southeast and at Lijnden near Schipol Airport.

The two new hotels are scheduled to open by 2005.

Ramada and AMS have signed an operational services agreement which will see Ramada providing management support to assist AMS in establishing an international operation and brand.

Reas Kondraschow, senior vice president and managing director of Ramada International, said: “We are happy to bring the Ramada brand to The Netherlands. We feel Ramada fills a gap in northern Europe’s hospitality market.”

He added: “We look forward to working closely with AMS through our agreement, which will allow AMS more control over its hotel operations than the usual management agreement.” Details: www.ramadainternational.com