The 2007 Best Places to Stay

It's been quite a year for St. Regis. The upscale Starwood brand is fresh off a redesign at its flagship Manhattan property and has been busy opening additional properties, such as the May debuts of the St. Regis Resort & Residences in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the St. Regis San Francisco. The San Francisco property was recently awarded five-star status by the Mobil Travel Guide, joining the St. Regis, Monarch Beach, in Orange County, Calif., and the St. Regis Hotel, New York, on the list. Meanwhile, that Manhattan landmark has won the Mobil award 12 years running and has been a AAA Five Diamond Award Winner for the last 15 years.

Clearly, St. Regis is a brand with momentum. Globally, St. Regis is poised to plant its flag in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Tibet, China.

But last year, St. Regis didn't even crack the Top 5 on our Best Places to Stay survey. What gives? Several consultants commented on all of the upgrades going on at Starwood properties, including St. Regis. But for most consultants, it all comes down to customer service. "St. Regis is focused on making my stay exceptional every time. I feel like [the staff] knows who I am. They call me by name and treat me like a valued guest." The same consultant noted that he had been upgraded several times at his regular St. Regis without asking.

At Your Service
Of course, outstanding customer service isn't limited to St. Regis. In our survey, consultants shared several stories of staff at hotels going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure their stay was extraordinary. How about asking for – and getting – an exercise bike in your room for the duration of your stay? It happened to one consultant at the Park Hyatt (No. 8) in San Francisco. Another consultant points out how the staff at the Four Seasons (No. 3) seems to anticipate his every need—small things like remembering the preferred temperature setting for his room, having extra BlackBerry chargers on hand and delivering room service in just five minutes instead of 30.

Some hotels, however, take guest services to a whole new level. The Marriott (No. 9) in Denver recorded World Cup soccer games for a guest during the day and had them waiting for him in his room at night. Or how about dry-cleaning a suit and having it returned to the guest's room in less than 90 minutes? That happened at a Westin (No. 6). Another consultant tells the story of watching a waiter at a Ritz-Carlton (No. 2) give two parents a much needed break by carrying sleeping child up to their guest room.

But the granddaddy of them all may be the story Mitchel Levitt of Karlsberger tells about his experience when he arrived late at an overbooked Loews Hotel (No. 17) in Washington, D.C., with no room waiting for him. "The desk clerk realized that I was tired and grumpy from all of my travel delays and asked me to hold for a minute while he went in to the back. When he returned he told me he had gotten approval to put me up in [Loews' CEO] Jonathan Tisch's personal suite for the evening. It was incredible. The only request – don't touch the artwork."

The icing on the cake came the next morning when room service arrived with Mr. Tisch's regular breakfast. No matter that Mr. Tisch was actually Mr. Levitt. The staff set the table and told him to enjoy. "Needless to say, I've stayed a loyal Loews customer ever since," Levitt said.

On the road again… and again and again
It's a good thing there are so many satisfied hotel guest out there because consultants aren't seeing much of their own beds these days. Just as business has picked up over the last few years, so too, have the nights away from home. According to our survey, nearly one-third of consultants (32 percent) are spending a staggering 125 days or more on the road each year. That number is up significantly from the 21 percent from last year's survey. And 57 percent spend at least 76 nights away from home, compared to 49 percent last year.

Of course, some of those may be extended stays and when it comes to consultants spending more than a month at a time on the road, they'll most likely be putting their shoes under a Marriott bed. With three extended stay options – Residence Inn, ExecuStay and Executive Apartments – Marriott is the long-haul provider of choice for 53 percent of consultants. It's not surprising then, that consultants have the most reward points with Marriott.

Speaking of rewards, they remain top of mind for consultants and continue to build loyalty for hotel brands. Keeping the reward points from company travel is time-honored tradition, and it's still as important as ever. "Ability to keep miles and points" was listed by several consultants as the best feature of their company's travel policy.

In addition, having "freedom and flexibility" in the travel policy is crucial, consultants say. But freedom not just on what they book, but how they book it. Making their own travel arrangements is a big deal to plenty of consultants, much bigger than it was just a few years ago. Plenty of consultants shared horror stories of misinformed travel agents and bookings gone awry. "I'd rather do it myself," said one consultant. "I travel so much that I find I know more than most travel agents. I know the right hotels, flight schedules and airports, including when it makes sense to fly in or out of a secondary airport. It's all about having freedom."

Getting There
One-third of consultants said they book eight to 11 flights (or about five roundtrips) per month. Do the math, that's more than 50 roundtrip flights a year. That's a lot of time to spend with your head up in the clouds. And with the state of security the way it is these days, few are overly enthusiastic about getting on a plane. So, it isn't surprising that our survey wasn't filled with many (or any) airline-related anecdotes of excellent customer service. Perhaps the days when people expected more than Point A to Point B out of an airline are long gone. Heck, even the old airline meal jokes have gone the way of … well, the airline meal.

What consultants want is a reliable airline that delivers dependable service, including on-time flights. Today, Northwest is doing that the best, according to consultants, although a mere 9 percent of consultants have frequent-flier accounts with Northwest. American (31 percent) and Delta (22 percent), meanwhile, continue to lead in that category. And the recently merged U.S. Airways/America West (flying as U.S. Airways) is also making good on its promise to emerge from bankruptcy protection a better airline.

And when it comes to where the rubber meets the road, consultants log the most miles with Avis. Hertz, however, is winning the image war. When asked which was their favorite rental car company, 48 percent of consultant said Hertz, 34 percent said Avis, and 7 percent said National.

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