Homewood, TownePlace Take Two Extended Stay Titles

Homewood Suites by Hilton for the second year in a row withstood a challenge from Residence Inn by Marriott for the number-one position in the upper upscale extended stay category of the Business Travel News annual Top U.S Hotel Chain Survey. Summerfield Suites by Wyndham displaced Staybridge Suites, last year's third-place winner, to round out this year's top three spots. Staybridge, which is part of InterContinental Hotels Group, this year finished in fifth place.

By comparison, there were no reversals this year in the smaller upscale extended stay category. TownePlace Suites, Marriott's other extended stay offering, again captured the category's top spot, followed by Candlewood Suites. One year ago, however, InterContinental acquired Candlewood, giving the multi-brand company a second extended stay chain of its own, a distinction that only it and Marriott share.

The survey's midprice extended stay category also reflects mergers and acquisitions. Homestead Studio Suites, Wellesley Inns & Suites and Extended Stay America, which placed first, second and third, respectively, in the survey, each started out 2004 as separately owned and managed brands. By year-end, they all had become part of Extended Stay Hotels, an umbrella brand owned by the Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity firm. In last year's survey, the three chains also shared the winner's circle, though in different order. Wellesley, which was part of Prime Hospitality at the time, led, followed by ESA and Homestead.

In the upper upscale voting, survey respondents selected Homewood as the top chain on six of the nine criteria that they were asked to judge, including its corporate rate programs, the physical appearance of its hotels and its overall value in relation to price. In the upscale voting, TownePlace scored even more highly with voters, sweeping each of the nine criteria. In the midprice contest, Homestead performed almost as well, scoring highest in six of the seven criteria that respondents were asked to consider.

Given the growing number of extended stay brands and the growth in distribution the category has seen in recent years, competition in 2004 remained intense. Chains sought to update facilities and develop more specialized services in efforts to distinguish themselves in the minds of their target business traveler audience, who tend to be on long-term consulting or training assignments or in the midst of a corporate relocation.

"In many cases, travelers at our hotels are living away from their families, which can be very stressful," said Calvin Stovall, Homewood vice president of brand marketing. "So, in November, we introduced a program called Homewood Connections at each of our 140 hotels to try to ease some of this stress." Homewood began providing travelers with complimentary two-way messaging devices to enable them to communicate more easily with family members, assuming they have the necessary wireless service. "Teenagers especially like to instant message, so it's a way for their parents, who are on the road for extended stays, to stay in touch," according to Stovall.

Homewood also began encouraging families to visit. "We developed grocery lists with items popular with children," Stovall said. "Guests leave their requests at the front desk and the hotel staff does the shopping. The service is complimentary, though guests pay for the groceries."

Both Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites in 2005 will focus on the physical plant, upgrading the comfort and style of guest rooms, with special attention to the bed. While the industry has moved quickly to upgrade beds in light of Starwood Hotels & Resorts' Westin brand's success with the Heavenly Bed, this marks the first time a new bedding program has reached the extended stay tier.

"For both brands, we're launching bedding packages that feature enhanced mattresses, crisp white sheeting and down comforters," said Laura Bates, Marriott senior vice president for extended stay lodging. "Like all the changes we plan in our décor package this year, the goal is to give guests much more of a feeling of home, which is appropriate considering extended stay guests' length of stay is so much longer than traditional transient guests."

The new bedding at Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites is part of a larger Marriott-wide effort in 2005. All brands, however, will not receive the same linen upgrades. Especially ambitious is the timeframe in which the bedding is to be introduced. Because of budgeting and logistics, these kinds of rollouts can take two or three years to complete, given the 457 Residence Inns and 113 TownePlace Suites in the system at the end of September 2004. "Our intention is to have every hotel installed by the end of 2005, regardless of when the property may have last gone through its normal renovation cycle," Bates said.

Residence Inn also will introduce a new breakfast program in 2005. "Guest expectation at Residence Inn's price point continues to rise, so we've upgraded the complimentary hot breakfast accordingly," Bates said. "This has meant adding items that guests can customize, including build-your-own breakfast sandwiches, burritos and parfaits."

As part of the transition to IHG, Candlewood Suites has undertaken a systemwide renovation of rooms. "Consumer research indicated that guests felt the existing room décor was dated and not really homelike, unlike how they viewed the rest of the hotel," said Gina LaBarre, Candlewood vice president of brand management. "The new décor packages allow us to provide guests a better quality product and allows operators to push a little on rate."

New properties will get the upgraded décor package from the beginning, while it will be phased in at existing properties depending on the renovation schedule. "We review all hotels at the five-year point and, depending on how they come through the review, work up a schedule," Candlewood's LaBarre said. All properties will be updated by the beginning of 2008.

At Candlewood's price point, a full, complimentary breakfast is not necessarily part of the price-value equation. "We call the people who stay in our hotels 'self-sufficient travelers,' " LaBarre said. "They don't need a free breakfast. Nor are they interested in daily housekeeping. They need access to the things that will allow them to be comfortable where they're staying for a long period of time."

By contrast, IHG's other extended stay brand, Staybridge Suites, competes against Residence Inn and continues to provide breakfast. "The staffing levels are higher, it's more of a hotel apartment than Candlewood," LaBarre said.

As Extended Stay Hotels absorbs its acquisitions, president and CEO Gary DeLapp said some properties will be rebranded and that it made sense to simultaneously renovate re-flagged hotels.

Specifically, 37 of the Wellesley Inns & Suites nationwide that were part of Prime Hospitality are being converted to the Extended Stay America brand, one of three brands that constituted ESA. "We're upgrading the 37 to ensure they're consistent with the décor at the existing ESAs, which has proven popular with travelers," DeLapp said.

In addition to the core Extended Stay America brand, ESA had been comprised of Crossland Suites and Studio Plus. In 2005, ESH expects to also rebrand the 39 Crossland properties as Extended Stay America hotels. "Again, we'll be making the appropriate capital investment to make sure the décor is of the same standard," DeLapp said.