Kirby  D.  Payne,  CHA  is  President of Minneapolis based  American  Hospitality  Management Company,  a growing hotel investment, management and consulting firm.   Payne is also Secretary Elect of the American Hotel & Motel Association, and Chair of the  AH&MA's  International Council of Hotel-Hotel Management Companies.  Additional  articles can be found on the internet at www.American-Hospitality.com.

What  do  guests  want in their room?  The answer is clearly going to be more than  a  bed with sheets that have been changed since the last guest checked out!  For the purposes of this column  I am going to assume you understand the minimum furniture and bathroom fixture  requirements,  cleanliness standards and a comfortable fresh residential (or at least non-commercial) feel to the room. 

Recently  (April  1998) Lodging Hospitality (LH) Associate Editor Carlo Wolff wrote  an excellent  short column on this subject.   Apparently Lodging Hospitality which is part of  Penton Publishing  did  a  survey among travelers "culled from their Penton  Executive  Network,  which includes readers of about three dozen business publications." 

According  to  LH's  findings business travelers favorite amenity was a newspaper  at  the door  followed  by  basic cable television.   Leisure travelers'  first and  second  preferences  were basic  cable television followed by an iron and ironing board in the room.   That surprised me as I expected  people to care more about appearances when traveling on business.   The iron and ironing board ranked sixth for business travelers. 

What  else,  according  to LH,  was in the top five:  in-room coffee  maker;  premium  TV channels;  and  pay-per-view  TV.   The line up for leisure travelers was completed  by:  premium TV  channels;  in-room  coffee  maker;  and pay-per-view TV.   Pay-per-view was a  distant  fifth according  to their findings.   Surprisingly,  according to Wolff,  dataports in the telephones  were not that highly rated by either group though,  obviously, business travelers rated them higher than leisure travelers. 

USA Today was the "overwhelming newspaper of choice"  by travelers.   The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was second.   In our hotels I've found that the demand for the WSJ is a function of average daily rate and level of service.   As one might expect,  higher level hotels typically attract business  travelers who are more in need of the information in the WSJ unless the leisure  market for a particular hotel is comprised of retirees who follow the market.  Hotel chains are responding to  this  same type of information by making,  and rightfully so,  USA Today a  standard  amenity requirement. 

How  can you use this information?   Act on it!   If you don't have these amenities in your hotel  get  them  now.   Some  are obviously good for all markets.   In-room coffee  makers  is  an example  of  this.   The  cost is so minimal but the guests appreciate them and they make  a  great additional feature to compete with both for new guests and return guests.   Newspapers can easily be  delivered  to the door.   In small hotels with limited staff the night auditor can do  it.   If  USA Today  is not available early enough in your area use the local paper or one from a nearby metropolitan area.  Who knows it may be the home paper for a lot of your guests. 

If your cash is limited,  only put the iron and ironing board in the rooms you get the highest rate for.   This is also true of the in-room coffee maker, though I encourage you to reach down into  your pocket and get them for all rooms.   If those "upgraded"  rooms are about to sit  empty, upgrade people to them.  It will help repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising. 

I  mentioned  earlier that these amenities are helpful in competing for  new  guests.   Your reaction may have been to think of noting these and other amenities in advertising and that would be very important.  Possibly a more important thing to do is mention them before quoting a room rate.   Tell  people what your price includes before quoting the price.   Say something  like,  "Our price  for  that  room includes a USA Today delivered to your door early in  the  morning,  an  in - room  coffee  maker with free coffee for you to brew fresh when you get up,  and premium  cable channels  like CNN,  ESPN and HBO.  All that for only ..."  and quote the room rate unapologetically.  If you offer a free continental breakfast describe it in glowing but honest terms. 

Sell  your rooms by offering value before you offer discounts.   Remember Average Daily Rate is profit. 

In  case  you  missed  the Sunday May 10th Star Tribune Travel Section they  had  a  little sidebar from Newsday quoting American Express Travel Trends Monitor.   Here are some quotes on how vacationers choose their lodging: "Almost half (49%) look for a courteous staff, followed by  cable TV (36%,  fast check-in/checkout (33%),  complimentary breakfast (32%),  knowledgeable staff (18%)..."  Remember the telephone inquiry and reservations call is that potential guest's only opportunity to evaluate how courteous and knowledgeable the staff is.   Focus on the quality of  telephone service while small hotels must keep in mind not taking attention away from people standing right there at the reception desk. 

The  same  sidebar noted that only two percent of dissatisfied guests fill out the  comment card  placed  in  their  room.   Four percent never go back and 14%  do  nothing.   That  data  sure doesn't give one confidence that we are totally aware of our guest's problems! 

Human  nature about complaining in hotels probably hasn't changed much over the  years but  I'm old enough to remember when direct dial in-room phones,  color televisions were  sought after  amenities  and  USA Today,  guest room voice mail and pay-per-view  movies  hadn't  even been thought of.