Comforts of Home: Extended-stay concept enjoys dramatic growth.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: Hotels & Resorts - Extended StayAmerica

"Most of our customers don't want bars, restaurants and room service," says Allison Hall, corporate communications manager for Extended StayAmerica, which operates nine Indiana sites. "They want a place to stay that's more like home."

"We call ourselves the hotel alternative," says Wes Gilbert, director of sales and marketing for Canterbury Green Executive Suites in Fort Wayne. "This is like your own little home, completely furnished, with maid service and a continental breakfast."

Homey touches range from cookies baked for guests by the staff at TownePlace Suites in Bloomington to the free book-exchange library at Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn Properties in Fishers. The ambience, too, is more home-like, says Gary Miller, manager at Staybridge. "It's a unique atmosphere, more laid-back than the hustle and bustle of a hotel, and more personal. We get to know people."

The extended-stay concept debuted nationally in 1975, with the Residence Inn chain, and took off in force about 1994. In Indiana, one of the first was Canterbury Green, which first offered the option in 1983. Others built new in the last year or two.

The market has been growing rapidly, the American Hotel and Lodging Association reports. A 2001 study by Atlanta-based Highland Group reports that the extended-stay room supply jumped 360 percent from 1995 to 2000, when there were more than 212,000 rooms available in the U.S. Occupancy in 2000 was about 80 percent, prompting more extended-stay properties to be constructed.

The group projects that extended-stay will be capturing 9 percent of the hotel market by year-end 2001, up from 5 percent just a year ago, with growth continuing.

The average extended-stay client is a business traveler checking in for five nights or longer, and many stay several weeks. Per-night rates generally drop the longer you stay. Extended-stay properties offer housekeeping service, but usually not every day.

A sampling of Indiana's offerings, which cover the state, reflect that Indiana, too, is part of this growing trend.

HOME FOR "ROAD WARRIORS"

Billing properties such as its Merrillville inn--one of nine in Indiana--as

home for "road warriors," Extended StayAmerica features 300-square-foot living spaces. They include a kitchen with full-size refrigerator, two-burner cooktop, coffee maker, microwave and cooking utensils. Other standards are a recliner, dining table and chairs, free local phone calls, computer data port and queen-sized beds. Rates start...