Historic Omaha

y providing their residents with an on-site
workout facility complete with treadmills,
exercise bikes, stepping machines and weights.
Candlewood hasn’t forgotten those
residents who just want to relax after a
grueling day on the road. Each resident’s room
is provided with a CD player and a twentyfive-inch
television. Residents can enjoy their
favorite CDs or videos they brought with
them or select something from Candlewood’s
free library of CDs and videos.
A studio suite is 350 square feet and the onebedroom
suite is 525 square feet with separate
living and sleeping rooms. To protect resident’s
privacy, housekeeping is performed once a week
and the suite is kept stocked with an extra
supply of towels and face cloths. Security has
become an important issue, especially with so
many female executives now traveling, so
Candlewood has installed monitors above
outside doors and in the hallways.
It’s precisely this customer-oriented
approach that fuels the success of
Candlewood. Customer surveys show that
high levels of service, and attention to detail,
are what separate them from other hotel
chains. DeBoer says his company puts an
emphasis on screening recruits at the hiring
stage. “If you spend 80 percent of your effort
and time on hiring good people, you only
have to spend twenty percent of your time
training them.” This emphasis pays off in
other ways as well. According to DeBoer,
Candlewood’s turnover rate among line-level
and mid-level management employees, is half
that of the industry norms.
The attention to detail is evident in
everything that Candlewood does. James
Roos, the company’s president and chief
operating officer, says there are no $2 candy
bars in the room’s refrigerators. “Doesn’t that
just drive you nuts to find those,” he said. In
contrast, Candlewood offers its guests “The
Cupboard” a small convenience store that’s
open twenty-four-hours a day and operates on
the honor system. Residents can find anything
from an inexpensively priced candy bar and
soda pop that costs only twenty-five cents, to
frozen dinners, toothbrushes and soap. You
can either pay cash or charge it to your room.
Founder Jack DeBoer considers “The
Cupboard” a great example of the trust that
permeates his business philosophy. “We’ve seen
three of our competitors copy it, and all three
have locked it up,” he said. “Nobody gets any
atta-boys for making profit in ‘The Cupboard.’”
We want to break even. We are not in the grocery
business. We are in the lodging business.”
DeBoer says the extended stay concept boils
down to sales and service. “We know who our
customer is. We know what our customer will
pay. We know what our customer wants. And
the neat thing is, our customers need a room
for the night, they need a suite for thirteen
days, and they want to stay.”
Including franchisees, there are currently
more than one hundred Candlewood Suites
Hotels, each operating under the simple
premise of customer service above all else.
✧
Above: An interior shot of one of
Candlewood’s “Executive Suites.”
Below: The main entrance to
Candlewood Suites.
THE MARKETPLACE
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