ATLANTA—The new president and CEO of America’s Best Franchising said he plans to leverage technology to improve the value proposition for guests and add profitability for franchisees.
Sterling F. Stoudenmire IV, who last month was named to lead the five-brand franchising company, said during a phone interview that he plans to enhance the company’s use of technology in several areas.
“To improve the productivity of a workforce, you absolutely have to apply technology, especially in the segments we serve,” he said. “You’ve got a very small employee base within these organizations, with people wearing many hats. So to the extent we can leverage technology to make them more productive and to get more value out of the properties, that’s a big value proposition, and one that’s generally overlooked, particularly in this segment.”
Stoudenmire succeeded company founder Doug Collins as president and CEO. Collins left the company “to pursue new opportunities,” according to a company statement.
The 22-year-old company has more than 225 hotels under five franchise brands: America’s Best Inns & Suites, Budgetel Inns & Suites, Country Hearth Inns & Suites, Jameson Inns & Suites and 3 Palms Hotels & Resorts. The company bought the Jameson Inn brand in December 2012, which included the rights to the Jameson brand as well as 12 properties under Jameson license agreements.
The 3 Palms brand has two properties in India and one in Belize. Last July, ABF signed a deal with Cygnett Hotels & Resorts, based in Kolkata, India, to become the master licensee for Jameson Inns in India.
Marketing is another area where Stoudenmire plans to help franchisees apply technology to generate additional room revenue.
“Most smaller franchisees have less exposure to that and less skill sets, so we can provide this as a service to them and make it so they don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out,” he said.
He also spoke of deploying technology in operational areas of hotels in the system to lower costs and improve guest experience.
“In the maintenance and operation of the property, there are probably a lot of opportunities that don’t get a lot of attention because they’re not sexy,” Stoudenmire said. “But from a franchisee standpoint, they’re likely things that will improve their profitability.”
Franchisee Alkesh Patel echoed Stoudenmire’s call for increased use of technology within the America’s Best Franchising System. Patel, who is president and CEO of Pacific Northwest Hotels Management, said technology hasn’t been a priority at the company.
“Given the way technology is moving forward, this is an area in which they are lacking,” Patel said. “They need to work on (information technology), plus it needs to create its own (property management system).”
Consulting and timeshare background
Stoudenmire joined America’s Best Franchising from Island One Resorts, an Orlando-based timeshare company with more than 50,000 owners and 1,500 units. Before Island One, he was an associate partner with consulting firm Accenture.
He said his stint as CEO of Island One provided him with skills and expertise he can use at America’s Best.
“Timeshare is probably the most complicated business of the 10 or so industries I’ve seen in my consulting career. It has aspects of five or six industries, one of which is hospitality,” he said. “The ability to import best practices from other industries and put them to work there was pretty substantial.”
Stoudenmire also said the Island One job gave him an appreciation for the operational challenges of owning and operating a hospitality property.
“I believe I have a good perspective on what our franchisees are dealing with and the trade-offs in how they spend their time,” he said. “They might say, ‘I’ve got a problem right here in front of me I’ve got to deal with. I don’t have time to figure out (search engine optimization) on my website.’”
Near- and long-term plans
Stoudenmire said in 90 to 120 days he hopes to deliver to the company’s board of directors a roadmap of what directions the company needs to take. That, he said, will evolve into a more detailed strategy and timeline.
In the immediate term, he said he wants to better operations and service levels to franchisees to help them improve profitability. From there, he will turn his attention to product innovation.
“We’ve got to come to the market with a product that has a unique value proposition that ultimately starts with guests: What are they looking for and what part of the market is not being served today?” he said. “Product innovation is a big opportunity, and we’re well positioned to do it because we’re small and nimble enough to launch these things in short order and get them up and running, fail fast, recover quickly and get it right.”
Patel agreed the company needs to clarify its position in the hotel marketplace.
“Being a limited-service franchise at the lower end, they need to clearly identify themselves with what segments they’re competing with,” he said. “Then they need to develop a plan to compete with the right segment.”