Reaching for the stars
Stunned by a lower rating, a hotel rethinks its whole approach - and guests reap the rewards
The Boston Harbor Hotel's general manager, Paul Jacques, gathered his 430 employees in the four-star hotel soon after he got the letter from Mobil Travel Guide in November 2004. The hotel was being demoted to three stars.
The workers were devastated. "It was hitting rock bottom," said Gary Sloper, director of rooms.
This year, after an $11 million renovation and a major culture shift, the 230-room hotel on Rowes Wharf has earned five stars.
The hotel's three-year quest to join an elite class of 41 properties in the United States and Canada with five stars offers a behind-the-scenes look at how challenging it is to top North America's most prestigious lodging list. About 8,000 hotels are evaluated annually.
Mobil's five-star status can take years to achieve, but it gives hotels bragging rights and can boost business.
The 20-year-old Boston Harbor Hotel reached five stars in unusually short order. No other property has captured two more stars so quickly in the past decade, said Shane O'Flaherty, CEO of Mobil Travel Guide.
This year's rating makes Boston one of only five cities with multiple five-star hotels - which speaks to the intensifying competition in the Hub's luxury hotel market, which has long been led by the Four Seasons Hotel Boston and in October will be enhanced by the opening of the upscale Mandarin Oriental.
Mobil rates hotels after expert inspectors check in anonymously for a two-night, three-day stay, during which they grade the hotel on 525 customer service standards and 225 facility standards across 16 departments.
Seventy-five percent of the score is based on the overall service experience, while 25 percent is based on the quality of the facility.
Scores in the 90th percentile translate into five stars, while the 80th percentile results in four stars.
After the fateful letter from Mobil, Jacques, who had held the top two positions at Boston Harbor for 12 years, blamed himself for creating an environment that rewarded employees for following procedures rather than for going the extra mile for customers.
He launched a transformation of the company culture and garnered the owners' support for the renovation - refurbishing guest rooms with amenities like recessed lighting, marble bathrooms, and flat-panel plasma TVs.
"I could have easily said, 'We've got a great hotel; they don't know what they're talking about. They just came in on a bad day,' " Jacques said. "Had I said that, we'd still be a three-star hotel today."
Initially, Jacques simply wanted to reclaim the fourth star, which the hotel had displayed since the late 1980s.
That effort began with a 10-hour executive retreat at the Four Seasons. Jacques and his eight hotel operations directors didn't cross town to observe how the competitor added its special touch, but rather to avoid the daily distractions of staying on site. The setting was meant to be inspirational.
"We went there because they were the best - a subliminal mindset that we're going to where we want to finish," Jacques said.
But the Boston Harbor Hotel had a long way to go. After filling more than 75 flip-chart pages with the hotel's problems and potential solutions, the team boiled things down to five standards all employees must meet.
Employees now had to do things like use guests' names when talking to them, answer phones by the third ring, and escort guests rather than point when asked for directions.
Jacques called it Hotel 101. But sometimes it felt like nit-picking. A committee of managers would meet every Thursday to scrutinize hotel operations, a process that swiftly led to infighting.
"The executive housekeeper would do his inspections and write, 'The room service trays were out in the halls too long.' So when it was the director of rooms' turn, he slammed housekeeping," Jacques said. "It was like we were attacking each other. For the first several months, I had to sit down and tell them it's not about who's right and who's wrong. It's about consistency."
The hard work paid off.
In fall 2006, Boston Harbor Hotel regained its fourth star, for the 2007 travel guide. Jacques was thrilled - but he wanted more.
"When he said at the meeting we're going to try to attain five stars here, a lot of eyes were rolling in the room," said doorman David Marr, who's ushered guests into the hotel for 20 years. "I didn't know what a five-star was like."
Some employees who felt that way found work elsewhere. But Marr stayed. So did bellhop Billy Ferullo, who said the difference is noticeable.
"Before, if a guest looked like they needed help, if a waiter or someone walked through, they would just expect the bellman would get it," he said. Now, "everyone does everybody else's job."
As the staff improved its teamwork, the hotel owners improved the property. They poured $11 million into renovations in early 2007.
"That was the final piece of the puzzle," Mobil's O'Flaherty said. Now, guests will notice creature comforts like higher, softer mattresses, Bose Wave clock radios/CD players, fabric wall treatments, and custom-made leather desk accessories.
And guests may find small bathrobes monogrammed with their children's initials hanging in their closets. That's one of the touches the hotel can offer because it created a full-time position for a "guest historian" shortly after losing its fourth star.
The day before guests check in, the historian Googles them to dig up birthdays, anniversaries, children's names, professional affiliations, hobbies, food preferences, and any other information that could help the hotel customize their experience. The historian may even make a few phone calls to find out middle initials, so monograms will be correct.
No one went to any great lengths when a reporter discreetly checked in on four hours' notice Wednesday night. The hotel did upgrade us to a larger room without our asking - which made us happy. And there were plenty of special touches, like our room's Bose radio softly playing classical music upon our 7:50 p.m. arrival and the doorman offering a bottle of water when we returned from our 8:15 a.m. jog.
But several things were amiss, based on the hotel's own housekeeping standards. Those were minor discrepancies few guests would mind.
We were more concerned with the inconsistent service. Hotel managers boast their staff will run to a convenience store - without ever mentioning it - to satisfy a guest's request. But our 7:15 a.m. call for a curling iron and a Schick Intuition Plus razor refill was unanswered after five rings. Five phone calls and 40 minutes later, several hotel employees said they couldn't accommodate our request. Apparently, they didn't know curling irons were available from housekeeping. And they weren't willing to fetch the razor refill without charging a $10 errand fee.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay, as did Manuella De Barros, a UBS Investment Bank associate from New York. She was upgraded to a room with a good view. "It's one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at," she said.
And this is the only hotel her colleague Nick Malas stays at when he comes to Boston. "The service is impeccable," said Malas, a UBS director. "It's right there with the Four Seasons."
Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com. 