sdsearch

In the last few weeks (specifically on the morning of 1/19), suddenly several Comfort Inn / Comfort Inn & Suites properties that used to offer only USA Today switched to offering either Wall Street Journal alone at room doors (1 CI&S), Wall Street Journal or USA Today at front desk (1 CI&S), or Wall Street Journal or local paper at front desk (1 CI). These were all in Orange County CA.

I haven't stayed at (or gone to look inside) any non-Comfort properties nearby to see if this is Choice-wide or Comfort-specific. I also haven't been staying lately anywhere except Orange County CA so don't know if this is regional only or nationwide.

I did ask about it at the Comfort Inn I was checking out of this morning, and they told me it was Choice corporate (not the hotel itself) that made the change.

Have others seen a similar change elsewhere?

mclee19

I normally don't pay too much attention, but now that you've mentioned it, the Comfort Suites in Haverhill is doing the WSJ now, too.

I'll have to keep my eyes open.

czj48

Yes.

A newspaper-like product has been replaced by an actual newspaper.

sdsearch

Ok, I understand there are quite a few people who feel that way.

I just wonder if there isn't an even greater number who feel that this has happened at a hotel-like product but they prefer to only stay in actual hotels.

IOTW, if this is indeed a chainwide change (but not enough data yet to know whether it's Choice-wide or only Comfort-wide), will Choice promote it and be able to gain new business customers as a result, or will people who have avoided Comfort Inns to date be unable to be swayed by a "superior" morning newspaper offering?

(Note that this change has happened at virtually the same time that Best Western has started promoting its Business Plus subchain. At which the newspaper is still only USA Today from my one experience last week.)

And Choice has often in the recent past run color banner ads at the bottom of page 1 of USA Today (thus you see the ad when the newspaper is still unfolded but upside down on the rack, at the counter, on your table etc). Will that stop? Will they get WSJ to do some color so they can run their yellow-heavy ads there?

mjcewl1284

I found this interesting too. Stayed at a Comfort Inn in Atlantic City and surprised they did away with USA Today

Drummer

Almost the opposite at Quality Inn, College Park, MD. I've been staying there about 35 weeks a year for 9 years. They used to offer USA Today and Washington Post in the main lobby. But about a year ago, they got rid of Washington Post. Just USA Today now (to my great disappointment).

scruffy

read the rest at:
http://www.dowjones.com/pressroom/re...otels-0092.asp
read the rest at:
http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/201...ll-street.html

sdsearch

By "now", how recent was your last stay there?

I just stayed at two different Quality Suites locations in Orange County, CA, this week, and one had a choice of WSJ and the local paper at the desk, while the other only had WSJ (behind the desk; you had to request it to get it).

Drummer

By "now" I mean now. When University of Maryland is in session, I stay there every week, Monday-Thursday. Most recent stay ended yesterday. Just USA Today, no other newspapers.

Firewind

I remember reading that since Mr. Murdoch's NewsCorp took the Wall Street Journal, it would embark on an aggressive marketing campaign to include this kind of promotion, so that they can get their message out. I'm pretty sure that it was a NewsCorp feed, but written with a different central point. Come to think of it, Dow Jones is owned by NewsCorp, as well.

So, does this put ChoiceHotels, and us, on another front in the news war?

Firewind

USA Today on the counters at EconoLodges and Rodeways in recent days. Maybe the WSJ is just for the big kids of the Choice group -- e.g., Quality, Comfort etc.?

BigLar

Perhaps Rupert Murdoch isn't interested in the type of folks who stay at Econolodges and Rodeways.

Firewind

sdsearch

At the Comfort's I've been at lately where I've been many times before, I notice way fewer people taking the paper and reading it at breakfast than when it was USA Today. So if the goal was to get more people to sample WSJ, I'm not sure that it's working. If the goal was to create bigger stacks of newspapers that no one reads, and to stop complaints about running out of USA Today copies, then that is working.

Not surprising, since one thing people would read at breakfast a lot is the sports pages, at which WSJ sucks. Or check the TV lisstings, at which WSJ sucks even more.

In those locaitons where the newspapers are at the front counter and there are two stacks, one with the local paper, the local paper is at least getting picked up. But those places where it's WSJ only, newspaper reading has dropped to a trickle, at least in the breakfast areas.

Firewind

Still finding USA Today at Rodeways and WSJ at Comforts. And, as noted, Comforts often have the local paper, too.

Pondering sdsearch's observation @14, perhaps the usual Choice customer isn't a WSJ customer. OK, that's a syllogism. But I've also pondered if the same is the case between Choice and FlyerTalk customers, at least in the main. (Likewise between Southwest and FlyerTalk, though that may be changing.) I digress.