La Quinta reduces complaints, management turnover

Hotel & Motel Management, May 2, 2005 by Bruce Adams

Orlando -- La Quinta executives congratulated general managers for several achievements in 2004 and challenged them to continue to improve during the La Quinta annual business conference in March.

The number of complaints per 1,000 rooms sold was reduced from 1.44 several years ago to 0.37 at the end of 2003 and to 0.31 at the end of 2004, according to Wayne Goldberg, executive v.p. of operations. While complaints were down, the number of compliments went up almost 17 percent. The hotels' satisfied intent to return rate increased from 83.4 percent in 2003 to 84.5 percent in 2004, exceeding the goal by one-tenth of a point.

"During 2005, I expect that we will achieve at least 83.7 percent satisfied intent to return to both La Quinta and Baymont," Goldberg said. "I also expect that our La Quinta Inn & Suites and our Woodfield Suites will deliver a satisfied intent to return above 88 percent."

Management turnover was less than 20 percent for year-end 2004, down from almost 34 percent four years ago, he said.

"I believe we can maintain management turnover at 20 percent," Goldberg said. "Very honestly however, we need to do much better retaining employees at all levels."

He attributed the reduction to allowing managers more latitude to manage.

"Five years ago when I joined the company, the philosophy was that the corporate office made all the tough decisions and people in the field did what they were told," Goldberg said in an interview. "Many decisions were made in Dallas. But we decentralized by moving regional vice presidents and managers to the field. We also took out several layers of managers."

There currently are 16 La Quinta regions and seven Baymont regions.

Costs per rented room were $28.24 in 2004, and almost 192,000 more rooms were sold than were budgeted to be sold, Goldberg said.

The hotels exceeded the budgeted revenue by almost $15 million and beat competitors in revenue per available room index change by 0.5 percent, he said.

Goldberg said he expects that the percent of properties that meet corporate standards will increase from 75 percent to more than 80 percent.

"Our average audit score must remain above 80 percent and the pass rate must remain above 88 percent," he said. "Absolutely everything we do should revolve around our customers and more specifically serving our customers better."

Other news from the conference included:

* High-speed Internet access will be added to all La Quinta Inns guestrooms in 2005. It will be a free-to-guest, wireless system, but 10 percent of the rooms will be wired to accommodate guest preferences, Goldberg said.

* Linens and towels will be upgraded at La Quinta Inns & Suites.

* Company-owned La Quinta Inns & Suites will receive new showerheads and rounded shower curtains by the end of the year. Franchisees will have more time to install those items. There are 76 corporate-owned La Quinta Inns & Suites and 58 franchised properties.

* The company will upgrade the work desks and bedding in king rooms in La Quinta Inns & Suites properties.

badams@advanstar.com