White Lodging expands its Marriott offerings

Company counting on branding philosophy to fill 2 Longmont hotels

LONGMONT — White Lodging Services continues to expand its hospitality empire in Colorado with the opening of two new hotels in Longmont in June.

The Residence Inn and the Courtyard by Marriott complete five separate Marriott brands in Colorado’s northwest market. White Lodging’s offerings also include the Springhill Suites in Westminster, the Courtyard in Louisville, the Renaissance Suites opening near the FlatIron Crossing Mall in September, and the Marriott full-service hotel in Boulder managed by White Lodging for a separate owner.

“Right now is a bad time, of course, but we build these hotels for 20 years, not for six to 18 months´ said Roger Aufieri, executive vice president of operations for White Lodging Services, based out of Merrillville, Ind. “We made the decision early on that we really believe in this market growing in the long term. We still believe in the area. There’s a lot of growth out that way and both of those markets, Westminster and Longmont, will be great.”

The two hotels represent the latest prototypes in hotel offerings under the Marriott brand. White Lodging partnered with the Etkin Johnson Group to build the two properties. The Etkin Johnson Group is heavily tied to the northwest real estate market in which the company has built more than 500,000 square feet of office space. White Lodging would not reveal the cost of building the two hotels.

With 78 rooms at the Courtyard and 84 suites at the Renaissance Inn, they also supply a significant increase to the existing 400-plus hotel rooms in Longmont. However, with less than 1,000 square feet of conference space in each location, larger meetings may have to go elsewhere.

While the Courtyard caters primarily to the business traveler with larger workstations and high-speed Internet access, the Renaissance Inn supplies suites to the extended-stay market that supplies more than 60 percent of its business. Neighboring each other, the two hotel products offer approximately the same rate, ranging from $140 for the midweek business traveler to $99 weekend rates.

“I think we’re very comfortable with our place in the market,´ said Bill Weiberg, general manager of Renaissance Inn. “Being the Residence Inn, we target different customers than a lot of our competition. We’re shooting for people who are here for five nights or more, either for relocation or working on a project with IBM, Maxtor or any of the other companies in the area.”

With five hotels open in the market in the past year, White Lodging is counting on its branding strategy to build success in its northwest properties.

“That’s a White Lodging philosophy. We believe it’s a chance to hit all the segments,´ said Aufieri. “We do think there are separate submarkets, but we try to be clustered and not open just one hotel in one city. This way we can minimize our costs, particularly our overhead.”

That philosophy has implications on a number of levels besides customer service, said Greg Hartmann, managing director of HVS International, a Boulder appraisal and consulting firm specializing in the hotel industry.

“From their outward perspective, they’ll say that it helps to attract different levels of customers who have different needs and interests,´ said Hartmann. “From a franchiser standpoint, the reality is that they have the ability to put out more Marriotts. They couldn’t produce three Marriotts in a row, but if you have a Marriott and a Courtyard and a Residence Inn, you can get three times the franchise fees and not necessarily affect your other hotels. They believe it’s good for the customer, sure, but it’s good for Marriott, too.”

The Residence Inn as well as the Springhill Suites opened at approximately 50 percent vacancy, and Aufieri confirms the Courtyards are “in that ballpark.”

“It’s great right out of the gates,´ said Weiberg. “A lot of our advertising is through word of mouth. It’s people who have stayed here and said what a great product we have.”

That word of mouth as well as events at the University of Colorado should help both hotels to reduce their vacancy rates in the fall.

“From what I’ve heard, that Courtyard has done OK,´ said Hartmann. “It hasn’t been felt by many of the local hotels in that they haven’t had a big impact from its opening.”

In addition to the Marriott products, other high-end hotels in the Longmont area include the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center and the Hawthorn Suites.

“There was some room to grow in terms of hotel accommodations and hotel accounts here in Longmont,´ said Weiberg. “We’re gearing up slowly but surely. With any new hotel opening, there’s certainly a ramp-up period where we’re working to let people know that we’re open, and we want their business.”

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