Days Inn To Focus On Consistency, QA

SAVANNAH, GA— With the bulk of the lodging industry mired in an uncertain business environment, Days Inn Worldwide will strive to make its mark by raising the bar on its quality standards. By giving its guests a consistent, quality experience on a global basis helping to build a stronger foundation designed to support greater growth. Brand President Joe Kane presented a no-nonsense message to more than 1,700 attendees at the Cendant Corp. chain’s bi-annual meeting held here last month at the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center on Hutchinson Island, in the state where the brand was launched 33 years ago by Cecil B. Day. Kane gave attendees a snapshot of the economy brand’s progress, noting while Days Inn has improved and is considered “the category leader,” the economy segment overall has improved as well. Using data compiled by Smith Travel Research and D.K. Shifflet, Kane showed the economy segment tracking an improvement line in guest satisfaction of 3% since 1996; Days Inns showed a 2% gain. Service/value ratings were similar, with occupancy down for both the segment and Days Inn, with the brand still trailing. “Days Inn has not surpassed that line,” said Kane. “As the world’s largest economy brand we need to make sure we always exceed the economy segment.” Among positives, Kane cited Days Inn as “a very powerful brand name,” with D.K. Shifflet continuing to rank the chain number one in unaided brand awareness, as it leads the category in ADR, outpacing the segment. Additionally, brand RevPAR “continues to outpace the economy lodging segment,” notably in July and August 2002 by 4%, with regional alliance members showing 33% more RevPAR than their non-member counterparts, Kane said. Still, recognizing the greatest challenge for the brand is consistency, or lack of it, Kane said Days Inn is implementing tighter controls on standards, which also will be raised to reflect areas that comprise the guest experience, notably continental breakfast, landscaping and curb appeal. He cited a J.D. Power and Associates guest satisfaction study showing the brand had dropped 4% versus the overall category. “It’s not a pretty picture,” said Kane, adding the study shows Days Inn “has steadily declined over the last two years in 12 of 19 key attribute areas,” e.g. guestroom cleanliness, front desk assistance, and trailing Microtel, Super 8 and Ramada Ltd. “For Days Inn, the category leader, this finding to me is unacceptable, and it should be unacceptable to everyone in our brand,” said Kane. “The solution is quite simple: a great guest experience time after time, Days after Days,” punned Kane. “Not every once in a while, every time; not at every few Days Inns but at every Days Inn.” And not next year, either. Beginning in January, Days Inn took what Kane termed “a giant step toward the consistent quality” the brand will need to compete more aggressively. The brand is now giving owners a minimum two-day advance notice before conducting one of three annual QA inspections so franchisees can be on-premises when brand representatives arrive. Previously, all inspections were unannounced. “There’s always risk,” said Kane. “People say they’ll clean up the property [beforehand]. So what? Who benefits from that? The guest does.” Kane cited service and product delivery as key areas of concentration for improved consistency. “I have a vision of where Days Inn should be. And the vision is that we’re number one in market share in our segment. I see us outperforming the economy segment in every key performance criteria: satisfaction, value, service, occupancy, RevPAR,” Kane said. “I see a systemwide average quality assurance score of 450 points, which means all our properties are of high quality because our highest score is 500. I see us having an absolute zero failure rate— no property will be failing. I see us giving the best return on investment in any franchise business in the lodging industry for our owners. And finally,