Embassy’s ‘Suite’ Design: Mogul Ups Investment for Rogers Locale

Most Embassy Suites hotels have only one specialty suite. The Embassy Suites in Rogers has four.

Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas, a 248-room hotel that opened in May at the Pinnacle Hills business park, is owned by publicly traded John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc. of Springfield, Mo.

In addition to quadrupling the number of luxury suites it typically puts in a single property, the firm also spent about $195,000 ($40,040 more than average) per specialty suite to turn its ninth floor into a VIP’s paradise.

The specialty suites are double accommodations of at least 1,300 SF that include dining rooms, full wet bars, 32-inch TVs, Jacuzzi tubs and the biggest and best of everything else. One luxury suite at the Rogers hotel, the Frisco, is actually 1,500 SF.

The company was willing to invest 26 percent more on its poshest local products, executives said, to try to capture a chunk of the corporate travelers who flock to Benton County.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville alone gets 95,000 visitors annually, the firm said, about 90,000 of which are believed to be vendors to the world’s largest company.

“John Q. Hammons builds in these types of towns because he fills a need that is sought out and not served,” said Bruce Ford, vice president of sales and marketing for Lodging Econometrics, a hotel real estate research firm based in Portsmouth, N.H.

The $45 million Rogers facility also has 20,000 SF of meeting space, one of the largest offerings in Benton and Washington counties. Hammons Hotels will greatly increase that volume in the next two years, however.

The chain recently announced plans for a 100,000-SF convention center that will be connected via climate-controlled sky bridge to Embassy Suites and another luxury hotel it’s building in Pinnacle Hills — a $30 million, 250-room Marriott.

Construction on the convention center and Marriott is scheduled to begin in 2004 and be completed in 2006. The convention center will have 10,000 SF of meeting space, and the Marriott will mark Hammons Hotels’ sixth Arkansas property.

John Q. Hammons, who operates 17 Embassy Suites nationwide and 57 total hotel properties, said going first class in Northwest Arkansas was simply a must. He is Hammons Hotels chairman and CEO.

“When you look at the marketplace and you look at the heavy hitters that are there, you see that they might want a specialty suite,” Hammons said. “You play to the capabilities of the big companies. That is just necessary.”

Hammons said adding convention space was a matter of “survival” in his industry, and he predicts Northwest Arkansas will eventually become saturated and price wars will follow.

The four Embassy specialty suites in Rogers go for $349 to $499 per night. A popular item, they have been booked more than 75 percent of the time since the hotel’s opening in May.

If those suites were booked for an average of $400 per night for a year, that would generate $584,000 worth of revenue. Of course, there are another 244 rooms at the inn.

The hotel’s management would not divulge the names of guests but said that they range from celebrities to CEOs of major companies to local businesspeople who choose to the use the space to hold a meeting.

Exceeding Standards

Scott Tarwater, Hammons Hotels’ vice president of marketing and sales, said John Q. Hammons has a “sixth sense” when it comes to gathering data and picking a location for a new hotel. Tarwater said the firm is considerably ahead of the hotel industry overall, estimating that Hammons hotels’ sales are 15 to 20 percent better than the national average.

“If you are going to fill a 100-gallon barrel, well then you better have enough water,” Hammons said.

According to industry researcher Smith Travel Research of Hendersonville, Tenn., hotel room supply jumped more than 7 percent from 1.65 million rooms in 2001 to 1.77 million in 2002. Room revenue went from $60 million to $67 million, and demands for rooms grew 8.1 percent.

Robert Kisabeth, general manager of Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas said that 40 to 50 percent of that hotel’s business comes from local events.

“Our goal is to bring in group business,” Kisabeth said.

Kisabeth came to Northwest Arkansas in January from the No. 3-ranked Embassy Suites for customer service in Charleston, S.C. Fourteen of 17 managers at the Rogers facility came from other John Q. Hammons hotels.

“We are raising the bar of service,” Kisabeth said. “Hiring and training the right staff is important.”

Raising the bar apparently also includes the décor inside the Embassy’s four specialty suites in Rogers. Juli Russel, interior designer for Hammons Hotels, would not give specifics on what she got to spend on furnishings, but the hotel’s “exceeding standards” mantra definitely trickled down to her decorating budget.

“This [Rogers] Embassy Suites definitely exceeds the standards that we have to follow,” Russel said. “It exceeds that by far.”

Book ’em Don-o

Don DeSpain, Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas’ director of sales, said the hotel was 12.5 percent ahead of projected sales through its first 12 weeks of operation.

“For only being open a short time, it’s amazing to us how many major meetings we’ve hosted and how many major names have stayed here,” DeSpain said.

He said fall bookings have also exceeded expectations.

The hotel has booked more than 22 weddings so far, and Kisabeth estimates it will have 30 to 35 bookings by the end of the year. Weddings can range from $25 to $50 per person for banquet space and catering. Meetings can range from $15 per person for a lunch event to $45 per person and up for an all-day event.

“We have packages that include breaks with snacks in addition to the meal,” De Spain said.

All event catering is provided in-house. The hotel will host the Mortar Health national sales meeting in a few weeks. DeSpain said the meeting could not previously have been held in Northwest Arkansas because there was not enough meeting space. DeSpain thinks that the market can hold additional convention and meeting space and isn’t worried about the existing competition.

“Our target isn’t to get their new business, our goal is to get business,” DeSpain said.

Tarwater, the Hammons marketing exec, said the Rogers location is “certainly on a nice rocket ride” because of his boss’s foresight.

“[John Q. Hammons] doesn’t pick bad locations,” Tarwater said. “He might hold onto a location for 20 years until the market calls for it.”