Hotel Lodging News

Lodging Host Hotel Corp President, Kevin P. Hilchey announced today that effective December 11th 2009 Lodging Host had assumed the management of the Staybridge Suites at the Austin Airport in Austin, Texas.  The hotel opened for business earlier in 2009 and houses 161 guest suites. 

The Staybridge is the newest hotel at the Austin Airport and offers studio, one bedroom and two bedroom/two bathroom suites, all with full cooking facilities.  It also offers complementary breakfast 7 days a week,the brand’s “Sundowner” dinner 3 nights a week, free high speed Internet access, the Bridgemart, meeting space, outdoor pool, exercise facilities, complementary guest use laundry facilities and a sports court.

According to Denise Arnold, Director of Marketing for Lodging Host, “We are proud to add this sixth IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group, parent company of Holiday Inns) product to our portfolio of managed hotels.  Lodging Host Hotel Corp has been in business for over 25 years, providing quality property management services to lenders, federal agencies and private owners.  This hotel is a superb addition to 14 hotels and we look to provide the Austin Airport Market with the same exceptional guest service that has separated our hotels from our competitors.”

I just wanted to say that my family and I stayed in your hotel (Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Farmington, NM) and was very impressed with the people who were working. The first night we were there, a large group of high school aged kids arrived and made a lot of noise. The staff, even with the craziness, bent over backwards to make out stay better. The hotel was clean and the breakfast area was always full of food, even with all the teenagers. We really felt very welcome there and we will stay there again as we visit that area at least two to three times a year. Thanks.

Chris from CO Nov 2009.

Denise Arnold, Director of Marketing for Lodging Host Hotel Corp, announced today that the company signed a Management Consulting Agreement on the Candlewood Suites in Galveston, Texas.  The company also manges the Hampton Inn and Suites in Galveston.

The consulting agreement is not a full management agreement on the hotel, but is meant to satisfy the franchise requirement for professional management supervision while training the existing management and ownership to properly run a franchised hotel.  This special product is the second time that Lodging Host Hotel Corp has undertaken this mission in an IHG franchise.  The prior time was in a Staybridge Suites in Albuquerque and was successful.

Items stressed during the one year contract are Marketing and Business Plans, raising guest service scores, inventory yield management, business ramp up, human resources issues, hotel operations, extended stay business mix, local company structure. and management company operations and structure. 

Many times owners are branching out into multi unit management operations for the first time and are struggling with the growing pains.  Other times they are faced with multi brand hotel management for the first time.  They do not want to give up day to day management of their hotels but have not developed the in house management expertise to be successful.  This product helps them through this transition.

In the month of September 2009 two of the three Hampton Inns run by Lodging Host Hotel Corp, Hampton Inn Hillsboro TX and Hampton Inn Livingston TX ranked #1 and #5 in the state of Texas.  This is a fantastic accomplishment by these hotels and is based on Hilton’s SALT scores (Satisfaction and Loyalty Table) based on customer comment cards and Hilton inspections.

In addition, The Hillsboro property won the Hilton 3rd Quarter Hampton Inn Hall of Fame award for being ranked #33 in the entire Hilton system.

After completing a $1.5 million renovation in 2009 and moving the Hotel’s Overall Satisfaction Scores into the “Commendable” range recently, the Holiday Inn Express in Framington, NM recently recieved notification that it will receve it’s new signage on October 26th and officially be “Relaunched” the Holiday Inn Express & Suites.  The signage is the confirmation to the traveling public that the hotel has met the new physical and service standards of the Express brand to be recognized as part of one othe most dynamic hotel brands in the Indusrtry.

During the renovation the hotel also converted meeting and public spaces adding a Board Room, Gift Shop, Exercise Room and 17 Suites to the hotel allowing it to add “& Suites” to the Express name.  All of the 101rooms were remodeled, flat panel televisions added and the indoor pool completely remodeled.

The staff of the Residence Inn Albuquerque Airport was surprised and excited to have a beautiful and delicious sheet cake delivered to them on Wednesday.  After playing host, home, and family to William V. and his wife for the past two months, the day before the couple checked out they treated everyone to a lovely and unexpected surprise.  Janet Glynn the General Manager said “I could not be more proud of every one of this awesome staff.  I have been pulled aside by 3 different guests this week alone to be told how gracious, friendly, and helpful that every staff member they have encounted is.” 

 Great job everyone and keep it up!

Some say it is the worst economic times since the Great Depression.   Unemployment is at an all time high!  So are revenues at the Plantation Suites in Port Aransas, TX.

The hotel recently turned in it’s best month EVER.  When ask what he attributed that to, Kevin P. Hilchey, President of Lodging Host Hotel Corp, the hotel’s management company, replied “There is no doubt that it is a team effort.  Start with the on-site personnel.  From the General Manager, Geneva Peacock, to the newest employees, we have a great team.  Second, we have committed Owners, good times and bad they have done what is needed to be done to keep up the product.  Because of them our product is second to none in the market.  Give a team like that the support they need from the corporate staff… and you WIN even in the toughest of times.”

That produced a comp set REVPAR yield of 121% and a market REVPAR yield of 219% in July for this 10 year old non-franchised hotel while the comp set includes newer, franchised properties.

Recently a guest brought an addition to the Staybridge Las Cruces, NM: Goldfish!  Adding about 15 goldfish to the hotels outside pond the guest declared “I have fish in my pond at home and doing this just made the hotel feel a little bit more like home.”

Now he has to show up weekly and feed them though Catalina, the General Manager is talking about selling goldfish food in the BridgeMart!

Intercontinental Hotels Group, Parent company of Holiday Inns and Staybridge Suites, last week honored the Las Cruces location with a request for them to submit information and photographs to be considered for a Brand Design Award for 2008.  In 2008 the hotel added 28 additional long term stay suites, an additional guest use laundry area, a communal dining table in the Great Room, a Home Theater Room, “public-private meeting space” and an Internet Cafe.

The Communal dining table is a High top table that seats up to eight persons.  It has a granite top and custom pendant lighting. It has become a popular gathering point at almost any time of day for singles or groups.

For those groups that need just a little more privacy, the hotel installed “public-private meeting space”  on the 4th floor.  It is a public space that was designed so that small groups, not wishing to purchase private meeting space, could meet in a semi-private atmosphere for informal meetings.  The space is arranged with flexible seating and in separate pods.  Each of the pods has a CRT for displaying laptop presentations and a meeting board is available for brainstorming sessions.

For singles and couples the hotel designed an Internet Cafe on the third floor.  The area contains a modern coffee shop atmosphere and decor, a complimentary coffee maker that makes 25 varieties of coffee, teas and cocoas, background music, seating for singles and couples, wired and wireless Internet access and a complementary full body massage chair.  The staff even keeps the area stocked with biscotti.

The second floor contains the Home Theater.  This area is for public use and can be reserved for private showings.  The room contains plush recliner seating with drink holders, a state of the art surround sound system, special sound deadening walls, an extra large Digital High Definition screen, DVD player, Blue Ray player and a popcorn machine.

The winner of the Design award for the Staybridge Brand will be announced at the IHG Annual Investor’s Conference in the Fall of 2009 in Washington DC.