<B> Biz Class Rooms Roll Out</B>
<I>Marriott Ups The Ante In Adding Office Amenities</I>
By Maria P. Vallejo
Travel buyers won't need to specify the inclusion of business class rooms in their contracts with Marriott hotels in 2000 when the brand completes a full inventory rollout of in-room business amenities. Marriott is responding to the demands of corporate buyers and guests by installing dataports, voice mail and task lighting--which consolidates dataports and electrical outlets in a lamp's base--in all of its guestrooms.
With travelers demanding more in-room business amenities and hotel chains competing with one another to provide the latest technology, many upscale hotel chains are expanding their inventory of business class rooms, and there has been a marked increase in the number of rooms in which midprice and limited-service companies are providing a higher level services and amenities.
Business class rooms "are becoming more and more a principal component of hotels. It's more critical now," said Shelley Hanson, manager of RFP operations for JBH Travel Audit Inc., a Denver-based hotel bidding outsourcing company.
Agreed Bill Fisher, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Motel Association in Washington, D.C., "The business traveler is becoming more demanding, and hotels are being proactive in developing those communication facilities and marketing the fact that they have them."
While Marriott's design changes may satisfy the needs of most business travelers, the chain will continue developing its "Room That Works," already installed in 20 percent of its non-resort, full-service hotels. At no extra charge, guests receive standardized in-room business amenities along with a large console table, mobile writing desk and ergonomic chair.
Renaissance, Marriott's deluxe sister brand, also will mandate dataports and voicemail in all guestrooms.
For individual hotel companies, insiders said, the key to developing these products is to create a standardized chainwide design, as Marriott is doing. Standardization provides property-by-property consistency, raises the brand's value to the consumer and holds down costs.
"Travelers count on certain amenities and services," said Lalia Rach, associate dean of New York University's Center of Hospitality, Tourism and Travel Administration. "They don't want to guess what's going to be in there. Some hotels are noticing this expectation and providing these standards, and they're being noticed."
In the upscale sector, Marriott, Nikko, Peabody, Radisson, Sheraton and Westin all are expanding their inventory of business class rooms and improving their products. At Radisson, for example, guests can stay in a business class room for an additional $20 per night, and get a full breakfast, daily newspaper, in-room movie, free telephone and computer line access for local, toll-free and credit card calls, free fax services and a work area with a dataport.
Peabody Hotels is installing task lighting in all its newly renovated guestrooms, said vice president Alan Villaverde.
Even foreign-based brands are joining the act. During the past year, Nikko Hotels International of Tokyo added fax machines to every guestroom that underwent a renovation, said director of marketing support Evelyne Sansaricq. The company also plans to install ISDN lines in all guestrooms within the next two years.
Midprice and limited-service hotel chains have adopted similar room models with a smaller scale of inventory. Business class rooms now are available at AmeriSuites, Baymont, Best Western, Clarion, Country Inns & Suites, Days Inn, Extended Stay America, Holiday Inn and La Quinta.
The dramatic growth of this market segment, with its new construction and renovation projects, allows it to easily redesign its room types. "Many of the lower priced properties were built in the '90s and are continuing to be built, and many have the faster phone lines, dataports and king-sized beds," Rach said. "They build it into the design of the work space, not as an afterthought."
Among the greater proponents of business class rooms in this segment is the Clarion brand by Choice Hotels. With 55 percent of its inventory dedicated to Clarion Class Business Rooms, the brand expects a full-inventory rollout within three years. "The upgrades are relatively easy and are extremely well received by business customers," said Anne Curtis, a Choice spokesperson. "It behooves the properties to increase their amount of inventory."
AmeriSuites, which introduced its "Taking Care of Business" suites in 1997, charges a $10 premium for rooms which include a large desk, task lighting, two-line phones, voicemail, T-1 lines, snacks and breakfast. Twenty percent of the inventory at most of its 91 properties is dedicated to TCB Suites, while high demand areas, such as Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas, set aside more than 35 percent of their inventory, said senior vice president of marketing John Leavitt.
Best Western offers its Business Plus rooms, which include dual phone lines, dataports, ergonmic chair and larger desk, free local calls and 800 number access and breakfast, at 350 of its 2,300 North American properties.
Baymont Inns & Suites assigns 10 percent of each property's inventory to BusinessFirst Rooms, for which it charges an additional $50 a night, said senior vice president of development Dan Daniele.
La Quinta Inns has spent about $275 million renovating 233 properties and $600 million building new hotels during the past five years, said president Ezzat Coutry. Targeting the business market, La Quinta added two-line phones, speaker phones and refrigerators to every guestroom.
Carlson has changed its room design for Country Inns & Suites during the past few years as it expanded its portfolio, raising the locations of telephone and electrical outlets to better accommodate laptop users and offering free local phone calls, larger work table, coffee makers and irons. "There are increased opportunities in the U.S. to provide people with amenities and facilities to do business in their rooms," brand president Paul Kirwin said.