LODGING brings you the second installment of our three-part Possession Sequence, offering proprietor views on varied scorching matters and trade traits. For this installment, Amit Patel, managing companion for Rama Papermill Resorts, discusses his expertise as a franchisor and his firm’s conversion and renovation of the Prolonged Keep America Suites in Bristol, Virginia. The third article on this sequence, which is able to seem within the coming months, will element extra insights from the proprietor’s perspective.
Hoteliers with main branded inns of their portfolios aren’t accustomed to getting hands-on service from the franchise corporations they companion with. It’s for that purpose that Amit Patel is bullish on Prolonged Keep America (ESA), to not point out the long-term keep section generally, and is eyeing additional development with the corporate.
Patel—who’s managing companion for Rama Papermill Resorts, a Knoxville, TN-based proprietor/operator with 16 inns—in 2023 added two ESA properties to his portfolio and hasn’t appeared again. He mirrored on his optimistic expertise with the Charlotte, NC-based franchisor.
“I like working with them very a lot. They work intently with particular person house owners and operators they usually put within the time from all sides of it; principally from advertising and marketing to gross sales and direct billing,” he mentioned.
Patel went on to offer some concrete examples of the franchisor’s day-to-day involvement.
“If we have now a bunch coming their account gross sales supervisor will e-mail us personally and say, ‘hey, we have now this group coming and let’s ensure that we maintain them and the rooms must be there. Every little thing must be taken care of.’ These are all particulars that they deal with for us from a advertising and marketing standpoint and to assist get the enterprise there. Different massive franchise corporations don’t do these sorts of issues,” he mentioned.
Patel’s expertise with the model started with the conversion of a property in Bristol, Virginia, right into a 120-room Prolonged Keep America Suites, which opened in August of 2023. Seeking to capitalize on growing demand for extended-stay choices, in addition to a dearth of those properties within the area, Patel approached ESA about changing the property from a transient inns to an ESA.
He touted the corporate’s involvement all through the redo and repositioning of the resort.
“For the renovation, they got here and visited us and helped from beginning the conversion to the opening of the resort. They’d have weekly calls, do website visits and maintain all of these particulars to ease the conversion course of,” he mentioned.
A few of these particulars embody a revamped foyer, guestrooms and newly painted exterior. The scaled down foyer was enhanced with new flooring, counter tops and repainted ceilings and partitions. In the meantime, throughout the guestroom the corporate was in a position to acquire house so as to add kitchens by successfully eliminating the closets.
Mark Williams, managing director, franchise improvement, ESA, famous of Patel, “he enhanced all the pieces on the property.”
He additional touted the renovation that took near a yr because of a great deal of trial and error across the structure of the guestrooms.
“We went from an exterior hall, transient asset throughout the financial system section to a contemporary property that pulls a special [extended-stay] clientele and the property is performing extraordinarily effectively,” mentioned Williams.
In relation to efficiency, Patel identified that the influence of flying the ESA flag has been indeniable. He famous that for the reason that resort modified flags occupancy went from somewhat over 30 p.c to roughly 75 p.c. He additionally endorsed the model’s environment friendly, low-cost mannequin sustaining that working bills are “very low” for the inns with minimal staffing, workplace hours and housekeeping.
In the meantime, this previous October Patel and his firm assumed possession of the 72-room Prolonged Keep America Suites in Knoxville, Tennessee. Since that point, the resort has been working at higher than 90 p.c occupancy, in accordance with Patel.
He emphasised the model’s flexibility and private involvement as being key to fostering a great relationship. For instance, he famous when he initially purchased the Knoxville property from company in an public sale there was a problem with the sprinkler system he needed to place through which might have doubtlessly resulted in him “not getting the flag.”
Nonetheless, after getting some suggestions from the corporate on how they might wish to have it executed, Patel “introduced it to them” they usually had been in a position to work it out.
“They got here down and labored with us. We did the set up of the sprinkler [system] and all the pieces was good,” he famous.
His expertise with the property has been so good that Patel has since signed a take care of ESA to assemble one other property in Knoxville and is at present within the means of securing the land.
Having gotten his begin in hospitality in 2006 working together with his father in Lebanon, Tennessee, Patel began Rama Papermill Resorts roughly a decade in the past right here within the U.S. Along with the pair of ESA properties, the corporate’s portfolio consists of quite a lot of financial system and midscale manufacturers.
In wanting forward Patel acknowledged the apparent upside of the extended-stay section in addition to the ESA model, asserting, “I might like to develop with ESA.”