HOLLYWOOD, FL— At the 2003 Villager “Commitment To Success” conference, newly appointed Knights Inn and Villager President Rajiv Bhatia expressed how important it was for hotel owners and operators to take Cendant’s lead and embrace its new TripRewards program being rolled out in December. The brands are well represented at the event being held here at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa— along with Cendants Ramada, Travelodge and Knights Inn conferences— with approximately 140 to 150 Knights Inn and Villager owners present, according to Bhatia. Overall, there are 208 Knights Inn hotels and 75 Villager properties in the United States and Canada. “We, the smaller brands, stand to benefit the most from Cendant’s TripRewards program,” Bhatia told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We get such a marketing impact from such a huge program,” he said. Bhatia estimates Knights Inn and Villager will receive about $10 million to $12 million in marketing exposure as a result of the strong customer-loyalty program push. “We could not do that on our own,” he said. Cendant’s TripRewards consumer-loyalty program was recently rolled out with Wingate hotels and Howard Johnson properties are getting ready for a November implementation. The program is expected to be rolled out across the Ramada, Villager, Knights Inn and Travelodge brands in December, according to company executives attending the event. Bhatia has been on the job for about two weeks; however, he has been with the Cendant organization for approximately nine years— an added benefit, he said, because he knows the communication structure of the company. “I want to align our strategic plan with that of Cendant’s. I am not new to this company. I know practically everyone who works in the hotel division and I can bring that value to our franchisees,” he said. Bhatia said he’s looking at this event to get to know and to meet with as many franchisees as possible, a process that would have originally taken the executive months to achieve. And although Bhatia said he has no plans to dramatically change anything about the Knights Inn and Villager brands, one immediate push he is making is on increasing the properties’ curb appeal. “Landscaping is important,” Bhatia said. “We are first looking at curb appeal and then in time will take look at the interiors and public spaces [at these brands],” he said. Much like other hospitality executives as of late, Bhatia said he has also seen in his brands an uptick in business and expects the fourth quarter and 2004 to be stronger than in the past year. “We have also started to see the increases in ADR and occupancy levels. Our overall numbers are much higher. If things keep moving in this direction the good times will be coming back mid-2004,” he said.
Curb appeal is new target for Villager and Knights Inn brands.