Extended stay properties should focus on getting the basics right: friendly and helpful employees, good housekeeping and not cutting corners in offering the bare minimum for breakfast and evening reception (Monday-Wednesday with chips and salsa is not being competitive for a Residence Inn when Homewood Suites and Hyatt House offer more hot food from Monday-Thursday for an evening reception). Let me emphasize that people who travel a lot can see what properties are making the effort and which ones are not, even extended stay ones. The little things do matter. If you put out a better breakfast spread, people will notice. I am not talking about steak and eggs but having one more hot entree, more fresh fruit and more toppings for oatmeal are appreciated by me. I am not a waffle guy, but I understand the need for having waffles at breakfast due to customer demand.

Every property will have challenges. No one is going to expect perfect service all the time. I do not usually stay at extended stay properties, but I will on occasion for a night. I had a memorable stay in May at a RI in the San Diego area. I used a category 1-4 award certificate. The evening reception was okay, and I went to Costco to get more food. After eating, I decided to throw away some trash and opened a door underneath the sink to get to the trash bin. That was when I found an overflowing trash bin that smelled real bad. I was tired and flying out the next morning, so I closed the door for the night. I opened it up before checking out so housekeeping would take out the trash so the next guest would have an empty trash bin. I normally would say something to the hotel about stuff like this.

I would suggest the possibility of offering free gym passes to a local gym for hotel guests. Some RIs do this, and they are on my short list if I need to stay at an extended property.