Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220076
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Those are basic to a good hotel, said Herman Turk, manager of Roanoke's Airport Marriott.
Turk wasn't a bit surprised to learn that a dirty tub or shower topped the list of complaints from business travelers interviewed by Wyndham Hotels.
``A clean room is probably one of the most important things to a guest,'' he said Tuesday.
After that, though, the business guest wants uncomplicated, speedy service, which is why the local Marriott always offers a buffet breakfast in addition to room service that can be scheduled the night before.
It's also why the place has different levels of breakfasts, including the cooked-to-order eggs and omelets and the ``healthy breakfast,'' Turk said.
Last year, Turk's hotel was chosen one of the top 25 among the more than 250 full-service Marriotts.
A hotel's mission is to deliver good service, but the services guests want are changing, he said. When Turk joined the hotel business 14 years ago, only about 10 percent of the rooms were designated for guests who did not smoke. Someday soon, Turk expects, that's the portion of rooms that will be set aside for smokers.
The Marriott currently classifies 68 percent of its rooms as nonsmoking.
The hotel also just completed renovating its fitness center and upgrading the exercise equipment. The fitness area is open 24 hours a day - a response to customers' requests, Turk said.
``People are traveling at stranger hours than they used to,'' he said.
One thing that never changes, however, is the need to be an alert consumer, as George and Pam Bandy of Roanoke learned recently.
If both of them hadn't been reading Fingerhut catalogs at the same time, they would not have discovered that they were part of a test.
``My wife had one magazine and I had the other. She mentioned that an item we were interested in cost $399,'' Bandy said. ``I said, no, it's $359.''
It turns out that both were correct. Fingerhut was testing its pricing, a practice of some catalogers. The Roanoke Valley couple said they counted more than 30 items, mostly electronics, that had different prices listed. The catalogs had different customer numbers on them, but otherwise appeared to be the same. Except for the prices, of course.
Bandy called the company first to get an explanation and then to complain.
``I told them it don't sound like a good test to me,'' he said.
by CNB