The Westin Arlington Gateway's facilities and guest services

Westin Arlington Gateway

The company being researched is the Westin Arlington Gateway, located at 801 North Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia. The Westin Arlington Gateway is one of more than 200 hotels and resorts located worldwide owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and the company boasts in its corporate website that "everything we do is designed to help you feel your best." In fact, in 2016 the company has launched the "Westin Well-Being Movement," a smart marketing strategy for guests weary from the stress of traveling in a world where social and political conflicts are very real. The well-being movement pitches this to travelers that they will "Sleep Well, Eat Well, Move Well, Feel Well, Work Well, and Play Well" (Westin).

The Westin Arlington Gateway is just a few minutes from Washington, D.C., and access to the nation's capitol is available by train at the Ballston Metro Station (just a short walk from the hotel). Also nearby are the Arlington National Cemetery, the Artisphere, East Potomac Park and the Kettler Capitals Iceplex where the NHL Washington Capitals play hockey.

An important fact about the Westin Arlington Gateway is that it is not only close to the nation's capitol, but this upscale facility is in the midst of the epicenter of Arlington; the Ballston area is exploding with companies that conduct research, with high-rise buildings offering office space for thousands of small and medium size businesses. There are green spaces and pedestrian-friendly walkways and neighborhoods surrounding the hotel.

For the business guest, the Westin Arlington Gateway has 10,000 square feet of meeting space, 17 meeting rooms, a flexible 7,000 square foot ballroom, audiovisual services and a 24-hour business center. The hotel offers an indoor pool and whirlpool, in-room spa treatments, a "Westin Kids Club" and a workout / fitness center. Pets are welcome and there is complimentary WiFi but only for SPG Members. The parking is valet only and is $29 per night. The hotel also features easily accessible outlets on the desk of each room, which allows the guest to power digital devices; the hotel also has a "beta-testing technology check-in option" and offers "Tangent," which is a high-tech meeting room designed for " ... quick, last-minute meeting" that can be rented by the hour (prweb.com).

The business guest and the guest on vacation -- and others staying at the Westin Arlington Gateway -- have the option of getting out of their rooms and enjoying "The variety and diversity of local activity choices ... giving them much to do after a long day" in meetings or other activities (prweb.com). For guests that enjoy coffee drinks, the hotel recently underwent a multimillion dollar renovation, which provided an upgrade for the lobby, guest rooms and included a Starbucks Cafe located adjacent to the lobby. The Starbucks features over-sized comfortable chairs with "cluster seating" for chats and family moments (prweb.com).

As an important part of the new upgrade the Westin Arlington Gateway features the Pinzimini Restaurant & Lounge, that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Particulars and Positives for the Westin Arlington Gateway hotel

The Westin Arlington Gateway turned ten years old on March 20, 2016, according to www.prweb.com. While it carries the name Westin, and is part of the family of Westin hotels and resorts, this facility is actually managed by Crescent Hotels & Resorts, which operates a hundred hotels in North America, including 15 in the Washington, D.C. area (prweb.com).

When the Westin Arlington Gateway opened ten years ago it gave a pleasant shock to some of the first attendees to the opening ceremony. The smell of white tea was everywhere in the air, because "hidden vaporizers" were producing the pleasant aroma. Several dozen business people and politicians were there, and two women appeared from behind a stage " ... and covered themselves in two white drapes hanging from the ceiling ... the music came on and the women climbed the drapes and performed several soothing -- yet daunting -- acrobatic feats" (washingtonpost.com). When their acrobatics were finished, the women held up a long, light-green fabric and a few men in tuxedoes brought scissors," cut the ribbon, and the opening was official. In fact the hotel was supposed to be built in 2001, not 2015, but when the hijacked jetliners smashed into the World Trade Center, the travel industry "collapsed" and the "project hit the shelves" (washingtonpost.com).

The past ten years since its launch as a luxury hotel have seen the facility open its doors and pitch in to become involved in a number of community and charitable organizations. For example, the Westin Arlington Gateway has sponsored the "Toys for Tots" program for underserved children at Christmas time. Hotel manager Michael Broadhurst said that "Being in the service industry, it is our nature to give back to our community, especially when we can make an impact in our neighborhood" (prweb.com). Another special event that the Westin Arlington Gateway helped sponsor on its premises was the "Brides Against Breast Cancer" (BABC) held in 2009 (Goff, 2009).

The hotel welcomed the nonprofit BABC and allowed the nonprofit to put on display about 1,000 wedding gowns for future brides to review and purchase at a much-reduced price. Most of the wedding gowns displayed sell normally for upwards of $8,000, but Brides Against Breast Cancer sold the 1,000 gowns for between $400 to $800, a substantial discount (Goff, p. 2). Brides and brides-to-be were not only looking for a dress at a reasonable price, they were doing it to help the "Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation," which grants wishes (like "Make-A-Wish") to women who are battling Stage IV breast cancer (Goff, p. 2).

Problems within the Westin Arlington Gateway

Every hospitality facility no matter where it is located is going to have flaws and foibles to some degree. When a big operation is being managed and promoted by a hotel, there no doubt are going to be negative issues that occur. In the case of the Westin Arlington Gateway, security has been an issue. There has been a problem with items missing in the housekeeping department, like sheets, towels, linens and other items. Sometimes guests have reported items missing from their rooms. But subsequent to some of these events, I have been told by the director of sales and marketing that housekeeping has been responsible and those hired understand they would pay a steep price by losing their jobs and their income if they are caught stealing anything.

Meantime, the director told me that housekeeping staff has been trained to be fastidious when it comes to preventing theft; in fact, all housekeeping staff persons realize there are cameras positioned throughout the hotel and the security system can track movements by all staff: the security system can reveal where any employee went, into which rooms, and all movements, hence, if any staff person had an idea of becoming a thief, that person would be identified by "big brother" security cameras.

Meantime, another issue that has become apparent to management at the Westin Arlington Gateway has to do with lost and found. Apparently there is no system or policy of what to do with items that end up in lost and found. You might say, the hotel is "lost" as to what to do with items, other than to store them in a room that is secure.

Most of the items are not expensive; I was allowed to go into the storage room where the lost and found items are kept, and there were many shirts, pants, shoes, towels, keys, sunglasses, and phone chargers for digital devices. Occasionally, the manager explained, the hotel does find phones, wallets and even laptop computers and other digital devices that are considered very valuable by guests. And yet, those items are left, and it is not always easy to locate the person to whom the items belong.

"Many times the customers never call," the manager explained.

WO Strategies

Instead of just expecting visitors to the nation's capitol to be guests, Westin could reach out to middle class families by offering special rates for weekday stays for families

Threats

Another terrorist attack could hurt the Westin; another recession could also hurt the Westin.

ST Strategies

Becoming more involved in the local nonprofit community could produce an image of corporate social caring

WT Strategies

A new marketing campaign could be launched featuring half-price admission to Washington D.C.'s most popular venues (the Smithsonian, for example).

Porter's Five Forces

Threat of Substitutes: The nearby hotels mentioned under "competition" could undercut Westin by lowering their room prices and offering more services for families and business guests.

Threat of New Entrants: If Starwood sells its hotels or merges with a big Chinese corporation, the new company must pay close attention to its competition, because newer and fancier hotels could come into the Arlington area and steal the spotlight from Westin.

Intensity of Competitive Rivalry: The competition is very stiff in Arlington due to the nation's capitol being right next door. Every hospitality company wants to assure that its rooms are sold as many nights as possible, so Westin can be smart, look ahead, and plan to have a better plan than any new rival coming into the market.

Bargaining Power of Customers: It is easy to see that customers / guests have so many other choices when it comes to lodging in the Arlington area, they can use that as leverage and try to get better rates from the Westin.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Most suppliers would like to raise the price of their services and goods from time to time, as their costs go up; but the Westin and other hotels have many choices among supplies in this vast urban Washington D.C. / Virginia region, so the suppliers have to walk a fine line before trying to raise their prices.

Identification of Alternatives

When it comes to a better system for the handling of lost and found for Westin, there are better strategies for returning lost items to customers. Doug Kennedy writes in the publication 4hoteliers.com that he often leaves items in hotels but rarely gets satisfaction when trying to retrieve the items. This story he shared involved his family taking a summer vacation at a beach resort (rather than stand in line at Disney World). The kids (7 and 8) had a great time building sand castles and running in the surf. However, his youngest (Julie) couldn't find her "special blankie"; and when it didn't turn up, Doug sent her to the front desk and begged them to find it and mail it to her. They did find it and did mail it to her.

Doug suggests hotels: a) train housekeepers to "differentiate between trash and treasures"; b) call or email when they find the item; c) express "empathy" when callers say they left an item; d) promise to search for the item; e) call the guest even if the item isn't found; and f) "promptly return found items"; mail it the cheap way and don't charge (Kennedy, 2007).

Strategic Recommendations

Two strategies come to mind immediately when it comes to helping hotels handle lost and found items more effectively. Number One: Employees of a hotel must be trained to bring any items to lost and found, and record those items in a register. There must be a safe room identified as the place for all lost items. Items should be put in a plastic bag noting the serial number that was logged into the register, along with the "place found, date, the name of the person who found the item" (setupmyhotel.com). Valuables (laptops, jewelry, iPads, etc.) must be stored in a locked locker or safe. Email or call the guest to notify the guest that the item was found. Never transfer a guest that is calling about a lost item to a voicemail; that is rude, and unacceptable. A staff person on board must be designated to take those calls Number Two: A very good system for hotels to institute is called "Chargerback.com." This is a free service; it generates "update emails to both your staff and the guest"; it makes pre-paid shipping labels to return item to guest; it becomes easy for guests to "self-report lost items"; and staff can match those reports from guests to items turned in (chargerback.com).

How I Evaluate Strategies and my Tactics

I am solidly convinced that both strategies on this page can be workable, but I especially stand behind chargerback.com. About 60,000 phones are lost annually and 46,000 items are left in hotels annually. Sadly, only about 10% of lost items in hotels are actually returned to guests. I evaluate a hotel on how well it serves customers, and since so many items are left in hotels each year, a dependable system like chargerback.com is essential.

Conclusion

This paper focused on the Westin Arlington Gateway hotel, and pointed to the positive and the negative reports from that hotel. This paper also delved deeply into the problems that hotels and guests face vis-a-vis lost items. It does seem that if a hotel is really providing the customer service its marketing campaigns assert that it is, then that hotel must go the extra mile and more to be sure guests are happy during their stay, and afterwards.