Variety in brand standards

Customers buy products and services they trust and know to be good expecting both consistency and high quality. While pursuing those elements, hotel brands, particularly US majors, are known for their rigorous application of QA standards. Yet ever so often – usually in Europe – there seem to be incredible lapses in judgment when accepting hostelry to the fold. More often than not, the dilution in standards occurs when an old dowager or grande dame hotel is hastily enrolled before the full complement of renovations is done. One such hotel is the Sheraton Mencey in Tenerife, Spain.

Built nearly a century ago, the facade and lobby are truly imposing with its angular architecture and a colonnaded lobby that looks into a charming garden. Once past the lobby the charm quickly wears out. While Starwood’s description of the hotel includes the following “Comfortable and classic, our guest rooms feature beautiful colonial architecture and the comforts of home.”, for most folks the comforts of home do not include an arm-wrestling contest with the faucets to have a shower, a carpet that wouldn’t pass muster in a college dorm, a TV the power button was missing etc. The list is endless.. The saving grace is that hotel’s staff more than makes up for the physical obsolescence. Nevertheless, it is nothing short of outrageous that Starwood affixes its moniker to a facility that would certainly fail a Super 8 motel inspection.

Published by

Vijay Dandapani

Co-founder and president of a New York based hotel company for 24 years. Grew the firm to five hotels in Manhattan and also developed a greenfield project at MacArthur airport, New York. Speaker at numerous prestigious forums including Economy Hotels World Asia, Lodging Conference, NYU, Columbia University Real Estate Roundtable, Baruch College's Zicklin School and ALIS. President and ceo of New York City Hotel Association since January 2017.