Four Seasons Sweeps Deluxe Gold

<B> Four Seasons Sweeps Deluxe Gold</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

The roller coaster drove on as long-time competitors Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton traded places once again in this year's survey. Four Seasons captured first place, breaking Ritz-Carlton's four-year winning streak--and leaping over four positions to do so.

Analysts searched for definitive answers to explain why Toronto-based Four Seasons was able to push Ritz-Carlton to a second place finish. Unable to define the exact cause of the improvement, analysts chalked it up to better overall delivery of services and the opening of a new Southern California property. "I don't know of any fundamental changes that Four Seasons has undergone," said Mandelbaum. "I don't think there's any change in management, but it could be better execution. They opened that property in Southern California, and perhaps that caused the spark."

The hotel company swept six categories, including ease in arranging group travel, facilities for resort meetings, quality of food, helpful and courteous staff, physical appearance and quality of in-room amenities.

Rather than focusing attention on Four Seasons' efforts, some analysts were more intrigued by possible reasons for Ritz-Carlton losing ground. Although the Atlanta-based company moved to second place by a narrow margin, analysts questioned whether last year's sale of four Ritz-Carlton properties impacted the survey results. "Ritz lost those properties in the middle of the year. That might have hurt them," Mandelbaum said.

The sale--which included properties in Aspen, Colo., Houston, New York and Washington, D.C.--reduced hotel distribution in key markets. The company terminated its franchise agreements with those hotels, it said, because of mounting ownership fees and increasing disparity between the quality of the four properties and other hotels in the Ritz-Carlton portfolio.

Company officials said the departure of the four hotels should improve future survey results. Furthermore, the company believes its newly intensified pursuit of "zero defects," through a program of full room refurbishment every three months, soon will begin to find a chord with business travel buyers. In the past five years, Ritz-Carlton held an average of 14 recorded problems per hotel. "Customers we spoke to understood what we did and are just waiting for us to get hotels in those markets again," said Ritz-Carlton's vice president of sales and marketing Jim Schultenover. "It seems we just need to concentrate in all arenas because there is not one glaring area that we're lacking in."

Despite slipping a notch in the overall standings, though, Ritz Carlton held onto first place for best facilities for meetings, timely commission payments and quality of business amenities.

As part of an ongoing effort to improve corporate customer relations, especially in the current industry climate, the sales and marketing staff underwent an extensive training program in the fall of 1996, and a refresher course in 1997. Costing more than $100,000, the training focused on role playing, improving pricing strategies and maintaining repeat guests during a cycle of increasing rates and high occupancies. "Everyone knows supply is tight and demand is high. Customers understand that in this economic scenario, prices will rise," Schultenover said. "So we focused on how we negotiate and how we interact."

Ritz-Carlton was not the only hotel company that slipped a rank this year. Mandarin Oriental dropped to fourth place from last year's second position. Dusit/Kempinski Hotels moved into the upper-upscale category based on analysts' recommendations, which left room for the Peninusla Group to take its place.

Previously, the Peninsula Group was excluded from the survey because of low usage rates, but it proved a worthy competitor, winning the categories covering ease in arranging individual travel and quality of its business centers.

Analysts questioned the rankings of the Asian companies, given their limited presence in the United States; the Peninsula Group, for example, has but three hotels here. Construction continues on the Peninsula Bangkok, scheduled to open this year, the Peninsula Sydney in Australia, which will open in 1999, and the Peninsula Jakarta in Indonesia, opening in 2000.

Although limited in its U.S. distribution, the Peninsula Group did see increased corporate business last year at its New York and Beverly Hills hotels. Abroad, renovations at the Peninsula Hong Kong doubled its room capacity, and the Peninsula Manila also drew more business travelers.

In the business service category, the Kowloon Hotel in Hong Kong was one of the first hotels to install personalized Internet e-mail in all its guest rooms, integrated with a telecentre. The technology acted simultaneously as a television set and a personal computer.

Mandarin Oriental has hotels in Hawaii and San Francisco, with a new hotel slated to open in Kuala Lumpur this year and another in Miami in 2001. Mandarin won third place in ease of arranging group travel and facilities for resort meetings, perhaps due to a new meetings and conference program launched in August. The program guaranteed a response within 24 hours of every inquiry in eight areas of operations, personal planning and the appointment of a specialized meeting team, "well-equipped" meeting rooms and technical assistance, menu planning and prompt, accurate billing. Individual properties also can add their own upgrades to the meeting program.

Mandarin's slip into fourth place overall created a chain reaction, forcing the Sheraton Luxury Collection into fifth place. Established in 1995, the brand added nine new hotels to its portfolio last year. Receiving the third largest usage rate among managers polled, the Sheraton Luxury Collection won first place in the corporate rate and frequent traveler program categories. Guest information from the ITT Sheraton Club International frequent traveler program was used in the Luxury Guest Recognition Initiative. The initiative will deliver guest information throughout the Luxury Collection portfolio.

To ease the process for travel agents and meeting planners, the brand also launched a CD-ROM directory. The CD allows planners to search for hotels based on region, city or size, including number of rooms and total meeting space capacity. Each hotel provides its own interactive menu for closer analysis of the property.

Some analysts questioned whether the Sheraton Luxury Collection, which is undergoing intensive brand advertising efforts, is a consistent enough brand to maintain its top five positioning. Ted Mandigo, of Chicago-based T.R. Mandigo & Co., speculated the Luxury Collection reached its ranking in part on the strength of the Sheraton name.