The Best Best Western Hotel: How We've Won the M.K. Guertin Award 14 Years In A Row - Michelle Duffy, Best Western Plus Novato Oaks Inn

Josiah I want you to learn from the best in hospitality, so I'm always on the hunt for outliers, people, and businesses that outperform everyone else, and then try to understand what makes them so special. Today, we're learning from Michelle Duffy, general manager of the Best Western Novato Oaks Inn. It's a property just north of San Francisco that's the only Best Western hotel out of more than 2,000 in the system that has won the M.K. Guertin Award 14 years in a row. Fourteen! This award recognizes hotels with the best guest satisfaction ratings and other key business metrics. And in this episode, you'll learn what Michelle does that has delivered this incredible performance year after year.

Josiah Tell us a little bit about this hotel. I just drove up here from San Francisco, and it's beautiful. It's filled with light. Tell me a little bit about where we are recording today for people who don't know Novato.

Michelle This is the Best Western Plus Nevada Oaks Inn. We are located on the hillside in Novato, California, in beautiful Marin County. We're about 20 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and we are very conveniently located equidistant to Napa, the wine country, Point Reyes, beaches, and of course, beautiful San Francisco.

Josiah can ask for a better spot. It's a great place to be located. I want to talk a little bit about what you've achieved here. And my understanding is that you have won the M.K. Guertin Award many, many years in a row. Tell us a little bit about what this award is.

Michelle Well, the M.K. Guertin Award, it's an award for our brand, which is Best Western. Best Western International as well. Basically, it branches back many, many years from when Best Western was created. The owner of the brand is M.K. Guertin, and he created this referral program for all Best Westerns. He came up with this idea, hey, if you loved my hotel, I'm going to call my friend in Sacramento and send him your way. And so he was just the founder of the brand. Created this wonderful Best Western family of hotels.

Josiah Best Western really stands out to me as being unique among other brands. I wonder if you could explain for our listeners who maybe don't know the differences between this and some of the other major brands what makes Best Westerns different and special?

Michelle Best Western is special because each hotel is independently owned and operated. So all the Best Westerns are family owned and most of these families, it's been passed from generation to generation and they live and breathe hospitality. They love the hotel business and they love their hotels.

Josiah I love it. And my understanding is you've won this M.K. Guertin Award 14 times.

Michelle Yes, 14 years in a row.

Josiah Which is remarkable if you think about this has been achieved by almost no one else.

Michelle Very true. Actually, I think we're the only Best Western in the brand that has won it 14 years in a row straight.

Josiah Okay, wow. So what a winning streak. Tell us a little bit more about the components that go into winning this award.

Michelle Basically, the M.K. Guertin is all based on scores. There's a survey system in the world of hospitality, Medallia, many hotels use Medallia, and it's all based on the experience score and customer service scores that come through the brand. And to be M.K. Guertin, you essentially have to be top 5% of the brand. And our scores to be eligible, you have to come in at a 92% or above for an experience score. You have to achieve a quality assessment of a 985 out of a thousand, at least minimum. You have to have a certain number of reward program enrollments. So we have Best Western Rewards and our goal is to sign up members, new members every time they're here and welcome them back as members. And all hotels have these reward programs and they're very important for everyone as they earn points for their travel and you can get free night stays, merchandise, et cetera.

Josiah Well, it's amazing. You think about all the different ways of measuring quality. There's so many ways you can do that. You talked about quality assessments. You talked about guest surveys. If we look online, sites like TripAdvisor, you're a Traveler's Choice Award winner number one in the area. So any way you slice and dice this, you're earning these incredible scores. People are so happy to stay here. What do you feel like you're doing differently? Because obviously there's brand standards and things like that, but you're doing something differently that is producing these results. What would you chalk that up to?

Michelle Well, I think it all boils down to the staff and we just really take our time when we're looking for people that are the right fit to the puzzle. It all boils down to the staff. And personally, what I do differently is I am very operationally-minded. I work with them in their departments one-on-one. I walk the property every day. I'm in the rooms every day. If I need to clean rooms with, you know, help a housekeeper out in a room, I do. I work the front desk. I have my hand in every department and we just wind up building relationships with our team and we consider ourselves a family and I think we have a lot of fun. Humor is very important that we all get along and have fun while we're here at work. And I think it just shows with the longevity that I have in the team.

Josiah You talk about being an operationally focused leader. And for me, this is interesting because you look at the awards, I mean, amazing marketing, amazing recognition. I have a marketing background, but I've become obsessed with operations because it seems it is that that drives the experience that we enjoy as travelers. And you talked about, for you, operations and being an operationally minded leader is getting involved in the details of each area of the business. Explain that a little bit more for us. What does that look like practically in terms of how you spend your days?

Michelle What it looks like is I can't spend my whole day in my office. It's interesting because there's two types of managers. You have your operations managers that are really entrenched in the physical property, the back of the house. You also have GMs that are very revenue-focused. Now, I know the ownership loves those revenue-focused managers, and I certainly do pay attention to that. I actually went through a certification program, so I have my CRME for revenue management as well. But I just think it's so important to keep the scores up and to keep our customers coming back, that we really pay attention to our guest rooms, that they're always clean, they're always well-maintained, they're always comfortable. I ask my team, spend the night here. Are the blankets warm? Are the pillows comfortable? Is the bathroom clean? Are the hallways clean? Is the breakfast area clean? And I ask them to get involved with every part of the hotel.

Josiah This is a little different. Do your staff take you up on that? Did they actually stay here? Yeah, they do. What's some of the things that you've heard coming out of that?

Michelle What we learned in a few of these trials is, I'm trying to think back, the air conditioner is really noisy. You know, some guests might say it, but if you're not really experiencing it yourself, you don't really know what that is. Sometimes we don't like the soap or this isn't comfortable or I don't understand the way the television works. So by working on all of that and understanding it, it helps us give the guest a better experience.

Josiah I love that because I feel like oftentimes folks that even when you've worked for years at a place, it's possible to never actually stay as a guest. And maybe you might have family and friends that do, but it's different when you're doing it yourself. You just see things that even if you're spending all day here working here, it's different when you're staying overnight. Exactly.

Michelle Yeah, I know I stayed the night a few, we had a winter storm and I spent the night because I had to make sure I could get here. I noticed when I was sleeping, the blackout drapes had a little hole and this light was coming through. And I'm like, if I, no one, a guest never mentioned it, but because I witnessed it myself and I witnessed it at a different time of the day, you can fix those things.

Josiah I think for me, what stands out is it's not necessarily that something wasn't set up correctly to start. It's just obviously hotels are these physical buildings and anything, you know, think about our own homes, we have to make repairs. And so there's a certain amount of constant attention to what is the current state of things, not did we just set it up right to begin with.

Michelle Right, right. I always talk with my housekeepers and they do a phenomenal job. The rooms here, you know, this month we were at 100% cleanliness score. 100%. Which is amazing. Yeah. So our guests think that our rooms are really clean and they do a fantastic job cleaning. But when you're a guest, you use the room differently. So when you're a guest, you're laying on the bed, you're looking up at the ceiling. But if you're a housekeeper, you're not looking up at the ceiling. You know, you're looking down at what you're cleaning. So it's a different perspective. And I'm always mentioning that. Think about, you know, when the guest is in the room, they're turned around, they're looking at it different than you are. So we have to look at all those things.

Josiah It's all about the perspective, right? There's one thing I'm really curious about. You mentioned something interesting around operationally focused leaders versus revenue focused leaders. I'm curious if you see a bit of a connection there, because a number of years ago, I was working in guest feedback management, and we did this study with Cornell where we tried to look at kind of a research-based approach around, as hotels improve guest satisfaction, is there more demand or more pricing power? But that was a number of years ago. I'm curious what your recent experience has been as you've achieved these phenomenal guest satisfaction scores. Do you see pricing power? What are some of the economic or revenue benefits of this?

Michelle Based on our comp set, Marin County is very expensive and we get very healthy rates here. And we price ourself exactly where we should be within our market. And the pandemic kind of messed things up a little bit. But before that, we were seeing some really nice revenue growth for average daily rate. And we're kind of hoping that we will recoup that in 2024.

Josiah Yeah, I mean, all hotels are navigating just obviously the whole practice of revenue management is so based on historicals and there's a lot of unprecedented waters we're all navigating. But it seems that there's something resilient and sort of it doesn't matter what the ups and downs are if you're delivering a good product that shows up as positive guest reviews. And it feels like there's some longevity to that.

Michelle Yes. And I think the reviews are outstanding and people do rely on those reviews. We have a competitor in the area that is a great brand, but they're not paying enough attention and the reviews are not great. And so when people are comparing, they're like, you know, the rate is close, but their scores are here and their scores are here. So that's when we convert them.

Josiah Interesting. You talk about paying attention. It sounds like you're tracking feedback from a lot of different areas. What is maybe a typical day look like in terms of how you track that? Is it all sort of funneled into one place or how does that look?

Michelle Yeah, we have that survey system I mentioned. You can track your rivals. So you can go in and actually look at their reviews, which every day, several times a day, we're very rate focused. We look at the CompStats rates, make sure we're positioned correctly. And in doing that, sometimes you wind up looking at their reviews. And when you compare the reviews with everyone in the area, it's very telling. And it actually reading those reviews, you can sometimes go, Oh, you know, I'm going to check that at my property and make sure we excel there.

Josiah I think that's where online reviews are really fascinating, because before some of these sites like TripAdvisor existed, we had comment cards, but sometimes those comment cards ended up in the trash. But it's all visible, including for other hotels in the area. Do you have any practice around sharing this with members of your team, or how do you think about sharing those insights?

Michelle We allow them, they actually can read it themselves. They can go on and track us. And it's funny, in case I didn't mention it, I'm very competitive person. And so I'm always very score focused and like, hey guys, you know, we are at 98% for the month. Let's keep it there, you know? And they go in and they look at the scores and they just give it their hardest push to keep those scores up. And it's fun, you know?

Josiah I want to get into talk about people just for a little bit, but just one final question on how you lead the team. You mentioned talking with your team. Do you have like a daily standup or how do you say would you communicate with your team that's maybe a little different from other managers?

Michelle I know that bigger hotels do have that daily standup, but we're relatively small teams. So we have a little back office and we just congregate every day and just talk all day long about what are we going to do today? Hey, did we hit our numbers today? Did we get our rewards sign up? It's just constant all day long that that's what we're talking about.

Josiah Yeah, you're just spending a lot of time with the team. Before we started recording, you told me something that I was surprised. I was taking some notes around. You have some people here that have been here a long time, and we're in a world where so many people I talk with are really challenged by staff turnover. People sometimes show up for a day or don't even show up. But you have some individuals on your team that have been here a long time. Tell me about maybe first some of the people that have been with you a while, and then I'd love to hear what you do that's different that's gotten these folks to stay around for so long.

Michelle Well, for example, my chief maintenance engineer, who is gold in the world of hospitality, he is going on his, I think it's 35 years, and he's going to retire this year, which makes us very sad, but he is amazing. He is a plumber, an electrician, a mechanic. He can fix anything. Most of my front desk agents are over 10 years, many of them. My night auditor has been 20 years. I mean, to have a consistent night auditor in a hotel who never misses a beat, it's incredible. My assistant AGM has been here, it's pushing 20 years. It's just my housekeepers, my head housekeeper, 25 years. It's amazing. More than half the staff is over 15 years.

Josiah Wow. That's wow. So amazing. Across the board, more than half of your staff has been here and you've been here at the property Helen again. 25 years. So you've hired a number of these people or most of the people.

Michelle Most of them. A few of them, a couple of people that I mentioned, we all kind of came together when the property was built. So I didn't hire them, but everyone, you know, in the 25 years I've hired.

Josiah That's amazing. What would you say has been helpful in keeping people around? Again, so many hotels can't even keep people around for a few months, it seems. How do you keep people, these folks around for long?

Michelle You know, I think it's just about our culture. It's a culture of caring. It's a family culture. And we just enjoy each other's company and we laugh and have fun.

Josiah How would you define culture? Because it's interesting. I sometimes struggle with what would be your definition of it?

Michelle You know, I guess it's it's how we treat people. You know, it's it's Best Western talks a lot about the culture of caring and it's how we treat our customers, how we treat our staff and how we want to be treated.

Josiah Can you give me an example of maybe an interaction you had with one of your staff members that you think made a, that was meaningful to them?

Michelle Just today, in fact, I have a new housekeeper. She's, today was her four month anniversary. We recently hired her and she stopped me in the hallway and said, I just want to tell you that I absolutely love it here. You have given me an incredible job and I love everyone I work with and I love being part of this team. It like hit me. I was like, I'm like, I'm so happy to hear that. And she's amazing. And I love having her with us.

Josiah It feels like success and hospitality really does come down to the people. Of course, there's many different elements of it. But as the leader of this place, it seems like that's a big part of your job is recruiting, attracting, hiring, then retaining that talent that helps you put up these kind of numbers and earn these kind of rewards or awards, rather.

Michelle I wear a lot of hats. I mean, sometimes I'm a therapist, you know, we have some conversations. I've gotten to know all the team members really well and they can be maybe having a bad day and we talk about it and I try and make sure that they know I'm here to support them. It's important. Like I said, it is like a family, so we all care about each other.

Josiah How do you stay recharged? Because a lot of people I talk with are doing good work, but I sense a fair amount of burnout, especially obviously over the last couple of years. And I think as a leader, you know, as you mentioned, there's a big piece of this of building into others and coaching others, but it's a lot of kind of outflow of energy. And so what sort of fills your battery that allows you to do that?

Michelle I'm one of those people that just files it away and just try and manage it. In an earlier life, I was a hairdresser and that has a lot to do with it. You just listen and I don't let it wear me down. And yeah, all managers, we have those days where too much comes at us. And so I just try, I love to exercise. So that's, working out is a great thing to balance.

Josiah Yeah, it seems like we got to take care of ourselves because it's demanding on every level to do this job. What are you most excited about as you kind of look forward? You have an incredible line of awards and recognition. What keeps you in the game and keep moving forward?

Michelle What I'm most excited about in this, as this is a hospitality communication here, is that I'm just most proud of the success we've had in the brand and the success the hotel has had. My team does an amazing job. We're fortunate too, we have our own sales manager who really helps keep us in the game and helps me. That's another level of how I can manage is because I do have Just support from a independent sales manager who really helps out, my front office manager. They really help keep, allow me to do what's important for the hotel by keeping track of their departments. That really makes a big difference.

Josiah It makes a lot of sense. We covered a lot. Is there anything else on your mind?

Michelle I think what I think I do differently, I did touch on it that, you know, I pick up garbage in the parking lot and sometimes someone will say to me, well, that's not your job. And I say, no, it is my job. Or if someone is walking down a hallway and they walk by some towels that are on the floor, I look at them and they say, oh, well, I'll page Houseman. I'm like, no, just pick it up or I'll pick it up. You know, yesterday I we had a snake at the pool and I said, oh, I will get it. So and the team is looking at me like, really? I'm like, yeah, it's OK.

Josiah What's that message to the team when you're leading this place and you're not above taking care of these little details?

Michelle Exactly. Yeah. And I think in some hotels, maybe smaller hotels, that's a GM isn't always willing to do something like that or leave their office. They want to just stay in their office and work on reports and things like that. But I think that's maybe what makes me a little unique.

Josiah Well, I mean, the results speak for themselves. So it's been really fun hearing your story. Appreciate you taking the time to share it.