Motel 6 Catapults From Fourth To First In Budget Sector

<B>Motel 6 Catapults From Fourth To First In Budget Sector</B>

By Bruce Serlen

The business travelers whom hotels host may be different than those in the more high-end categories, but the need for consistency was still the same last year at the budget level of the industry. What's more, it became especially important in 1999 as this segment saw aggressive growth, thanks to the strong economy, according to this year's top budget chains.

"This means providing consistency of service across all our hotels systemwide, so that the frequent guest, who's likely to be a business traveler, knows what he or she can expect when reserving a room at any of our properties," said Carol Kirby, group executive vice president for Accor Economy Lodging, which includes Motel 6, the number-one chain in the budget category on this year's list.

The majority of Motel 6 properties are company-owned, but that is unusual. Certainly, a challenge in ensuring consistency at this level is that a typical budget property is franchised. "When you're dealing with a large number of diverse owners, understandably it becomes more difficult to impose one set of standards," said Robert Mandelbaum, director of information research services at PKF Consulting.

In the same way, these chains are growing very rapidly, entering new markets in the United States and even internationally as well as increasing their saturation in existing markets.

"It's more important than ever that properties measure up to the expected standards when they first come on line," said Tim Shuy, vice president and brand manager for Econo Lodge, which came in second in the survey's budget category.

Motel 6 moved up from fourth place in 1999 to beat its competition this year in the overall relation of price to value and for providing timely commission payments, while Econo Lodge led the field for, among other criteria, the ease in arranging individual travel.

In terms of growth, Econo Lodge presently has 727 properties in the United States and Canada and has another 80 in development. Knights Inn, which placed third in the budget category of this year's survey, has 235 units across the country.

Econo Lodge developed a promotional partnership last year with consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. Under the program, trainers from Mr. Clean, a Procter & Gamble brand, certified all the chain's housekeepers as qualified to do their jobs. Cleanliness is also an issue at Knights Inn. Though according to Bruce V. Bloom, president and CEO, concerns about cleanliness encompass everything in the guest room "working right." This includes everything from light bulbs to the television to the shower.

Budget chains are impressed with the relatively high rate of response they're getting from their Internet sites. "Reservations generated on the Web increased 230 percent over the prior year," said Marilyn McHugh, Knight Inn's vice president of marketing. "That is still a small percentage of total sales," she said. "But it's still a development worth watching.