Guesthouse Franchisees Prep For Growth

NASHVILLE— The number one issue on the minds of Guesthouse International’s 2004 Franchise Owners Conference attendees was chain growth. From the very start of the two-day event, held at the Guesthouse International Inn & Suites Music Valley here, it was clear that franchisees/ owners are eager to take the budding chain to the next level. And the timing could not be better as Guesthouse is stepping off of more than a year of conversions— since ShoLodge purchased Guesthouse in mid-2002 through which all but about 20 Shoney’s hotels have been converted to the Guesthouse chain— which helped boost the chain’s presence. Giving attendees a heads up on the brand’s progress, Jim Grout, president, Guesthouse International, assured owners that there are plans on the boards for new distribution growth. “Our chain is stronger than it was one year ago. We have weeded out all of the properties in this combined system that didn’t belong, and as a result the quality of the chain is better, so we can now move forward with growth,” said Grout, who spoke in front of the chain’s ownership for the first time as president. Grout replaced former president John Buttoph this past fall, who had played a key role in growing the brand’s presence through parent company ShoLodge. Facing a sporadic distribution across the U.S. at best, Guesthouse will look to fill in the voids, initially targeting new properties in areas where the chain offers little or no presence. In particular, various markets in the Southeastern U.S. will be a primary focus, while Guesthouse’s strong unit distribution on the West Coast lends to fewer opportunities in that area. Ron Marcou, who heads up franchise efforts at Guesthouse as executive director/franchise development was joined by two new franchise development representatives last year to “step up” growth. Meanwhile, during a franchise owners council meeting held in conjunction with the owner’s conference, three other recommendations for chain improvement were identified by franchisees, and later shared with the rest of the group. “We talked about creating a frequent guest program, installing high-speed Internet access in all guestrooms and developing a signature point of difference that will set us apart from out competition,” said Baldev Bath, chairman of the franchise owner’s council, and owner of the Guesthouse in Gainesville, GA. The group, which meets every three months, will take a look at those three issues over the next few months to come up with solutions, hopefully by the next meeting, Bath said. As for a frequent guest program, Guesthouse inherited one from Shoney’s, but that chain and its program are now nearly defunct, as both are being phased out. Recommendations that resulted in recent changes included queries for training, which led to new gm and housekeeping training programs. “We asked you what you wanted over a year ago and we delivered,” said Bennett Greenberg, vp of franchise operations, Guesthouse. He encouraged franchisees that have not yet taken advantage of the new three-day and seven-day seminars to sign up for them, noting, “the better you and your property are, the more successful your business will be. We have an obligation to work with you to learn and maintain skills for good hotel operations.” Guesthouse also took the initiative in making improvements to its accounting department, reformatting monthly fee statements for easier reading and setting up a franchise account manager for each franchisee, said Greenberg. A new standards operating manual is now available as well, with standards written in “down to earth” terms, he said. The chain also made strides on the technology front, with enhancements to its central reservation system completed and new online distribution agreements signed. According to Laurie Estes, director of accounts at InnLink, Guesthouse’s reservations center, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ShoLodge, franchisees and owners have more flexibilit