Staybridge hits milestone

I had the pleasure of attending the Staybridge Suites 10th anniversary event this week — another fine celebration organized by the media team at InterContinental Hotels Group.
The event was held at the first Staybridge property, which opened in December 1998 in Alpharetta, Ga., about 35 minutes north of Atlanta. Many IHG executives were on hand to celebrate the success of Staybridge, an extended-stay brand with 142 properties open currently.

The extended-stay segment intrigues me. I understand the concept: target those travelers who, for one reason or another, need to spend a significant amount of time on the road. But are there really that many travelers that fit the bill? Who spends weeks at a time in a hotel?
I sat down with Rob Radomski, VP of brand management, extended-stay brands, and asked him these very questions.
"Certain types of demand generators provide the business to extended stay," Radomski said, "and it's corporate training, government and military, education — you look for large universities ... large medical centers will provide some of that extended stay as well."
Radomski said IHG has good relationships with many global corporations, so the hotel giant is able to determine where those companies do their training with a phone call.
The Alpharetta Staybridge Suites is located in a corporate market, smack dab in the middle of an office park. Radomski said a nearby medical facility provides a significant amount of extended-stay business.
"For example, even in individual medical offices, they're becoming more technology-based where doctors and nurses will keep their patients' records in the examining room on a portable laptop," Radomski said. "So when this software and all this equipment is installed into an office, there's installation, training, maintenance and refreshing courses that come out. So that has created a whole new set of opportunities for extended stay because you have these individuals that go around and install all this equipment and train on it and support it. It's a new source for extended stay."
At Staybridge, Radomski said the average guest stays eight nights. Twenty-five percent of the business stays more than 30 nights, he said. Therefore, if someone were spending a month in a hotel room, they would need more space and different amenities than the typical transient hotel room.

Also, as part of the celebration, IHG organized an hour-long panel on the state of the extended-stay industry, featuring Staybridge owners and executives who track the success of the extended-stay market. For coverage of that panel, click here.