Today we visited the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro. Dennis and Nancy Quaintance privately own the Proximity and the hotel is operated by Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants & Hotels. The Proximity was awarded LEED Platinum status. The mission of the Proximity Hotel is to provide every customer or guest with the highest type of quality at a reasonable and appropriate price. The hotel also insures that each customer receives friendly, comfortable, attentive service, prompt, and well-maintained environment that is hospitable. Its mission is to also find a strategy that will help the company be sustainable for many years and to also help generate profit by justifying the investment. The customer of the Proximity is whoever is willing to stay at an expensive luxurious hotel. Even though the hotel tries to be very environmentally friendly to help cut costs, to stay a night still costs upwards of $250 dollars. The customers of the Proximity value the amazing serve and fantastic atmosphere.

Follow

Today’s visit to Proximity was extremely interesting.  Before the visit, I came up with a question; how does Proximity Hotel market themselves to be perceived as  a better choice than other hotels in the area.  And, what I learned answered my question.  Instead of marketing how amazing their building was to the customers such as “We are energy efficient.  Hang up your towels when you’re done with them.” Rather, they focus on more of the customer experience.

With an upmost importance placed on the individual client experience, Proximity Hotel was able to achieve a very high level of leisure and comfort for its guests.  But, what makes them unique is their ability to solve the most important processes of a Hotel (Hot water, food, electricity and A/C) with environmentally friendly ways.  For example, they have an energy efficient roof that reflects sunlight instead of having a black roof that only gets hotter with sunlight.  Also, the solar panels heat the water for the building which increases the energy efficiency.

I was very impressed by their business model and strategy.  They provide a very pleasurable and leisure filled experience while finding environmentally friendly ways to solve the biggest problems of a hotel. It is this strategy that I think will prove most unique and in turn a great way to increase the number of guests well into the future.

Overall great experience today at Proximity Hotel! I keep learning more and more from each visit and am beginning to contrast the differing business models and styles.  Not every business is the same that’s for sure.

Follow

Today our class visited Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina. Proximity Hotel is privately owned and led by Dennis and Nancy  Quaintance. Also the hotel is operated by Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants & Hotels. The Proximity Hotel seemed like a very nice and luxurious hotel with a very green operating system helping run the hotel. In fact the hotel was awarded Lead Platinum status for being such a environmentally friendly hotel. Also one interesting fact about the Proximity Hotel is that President Barrack Obama stayed in one of the suites inside the hotel.

The mission of the Proximity Hotel is to first off provide every customer or guest with the highest type of quality at a reasonable and appropriate price. Also to make sure that each customer receives friendly, comfortable, attentive service, prompt, and well-maintained environment that is hospitable. To make sure to offer state of the arc services from a very distinctive hotel.  Also the Proximity Hotel wanted to make sure to find a strategy to help the company be sustainable for many years. Last but not least generate profit by justifying the investment, generate profit ti compensate for those who have contributed, and help the company grow.

The customer of Proximity Hotel is whoever is willing and can afford to stay at the very luxurious hotel. Even though the hotel is very environmentally friendly to stay a couple nights there is very expensive. However, the service and services that is provided fits the costs that every guest must pay. At this hotel the guests or the customers value the amazing service and the fantastic atmosphere that surrounds the Proximity Hotel. It is a very welcoming to all guests and this is what each customer really values out of a stay at this hotel.

According to the employee that gave our class the tour the hotel cost 30 million dollars to build in 2007. However, he said that since then the company has reaped the benefits and the profit of the hotels results. By now the profits have paid for the large investment made into building the very luxurious hotel. Also it seems that the Proximity Hotel has been very successful with its environmentally friendly and sustainability approach, which has led to great results.

The manager of the hotel put an emphasis on sustainability and this is the center of their plan for the future. If the hotel can sustain for a very large number of years then the sky will be the limit for the hotel’s success. How can the hotel be sustainable? The environmentally friendly approach that was put in the plan while building the hotel is going to make a huge impact in helping sustain the hotel for many years to come and help it’s results get even better than now. The Proximity Hotel is very nice and interesting hotel and should definitely be modeled after in future hotels. Hopefully all hotels will be this environmentally friendly in the future.

Follow

Today’s visit to Proximity Hotel, located in Greensboro, was intriguing because we learned more in depth about what it takes for a building to be LEED certified. All of the information given was qualified since the Proximity Hotel has reached the highest level, platinum, in LEED sustainability. The presenter explained that solar panels were placed on the roof to heat water, since many hotel-goers enjoy taking long hot showers. Listening to the hotel’s initial plan, I was very impressed with how the builders didn’t get carried away with solely focusing on the hotel’s environmental impact. The main goal was to put the customer’s wants first, and to make a luxurious atmosphere that people would want to be in.

Proximity Hotel’s mission is to provide their guests with the highest quality accommodations at a good value, and to ensure that each guest receives prompt, friendly, attentive service by a well-trained staff in a clean, comfortable, well-maintained environment that is warm and hospitable. In addition, its mission is to offer an outstanding array of gracious amenities in a distinctive hotel, provide employment that is rewarding and offers education and opportunity in a fair, diverse and inclusive environment, and to generate profits that justify the investment, afford compensation to those who contribute, and allow the company to grow.

Proximity Hotel appeals to many different customers, usually from the upper-middle class since rooms cost upward of $280 a night and suites cost over $500 a night. It was interesting to learn that President Obama has stayed in one of the suites. The hotel also appeals to customers who are eco-friendly, due to the LEED rating. The customers value a clean, enjoyable environment, and high-quality service, while reveling in the fact that they are staying in a room that is better for the environment.

Proximity Hotel is only one of three hotels in North America that is LEED platinum. Therefore, the result of the hotel is that it is an extremely successful environment-friendly hotel, which is also luxurious and caters to the needs of its customers. The costs of building the hotel were over $30 million, especially high due to more investments in eco-friendly products. Yet, after being in business for over 5 years, the hotel has already earned back most of the costs of said eco-friendly products such as the solar panels on the roof.

Proximity Hotel’s plan is to continue to give high-quality service to its customers and to continue to be seen as a luxurious hotel, which is also less harmful to the environment. The hotel will continue to live up to its platinum LEED rating and perhaps even host some more presidents in the future.

Follow

The Proximity Hotel is an extremely interesting and unique building located in nearby Greensboro. Costing nearly thirty million dollars to construct in 2007, it is one of three luxury hotels in North America that has been awarded LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which is the highest rating a high performance green building can be given.

The mission the Proximity Hotel sets out to accomplish is to provide their customers with the highest level of accommodations at a reasonable value while maintaining above and beyond energy efficiency levels. Knowing that only two other hotels have been given the same LEED rating, the Proximity Hotel strives to be the most “Green” hotel out of all of them by using many advanced building techniques and systems.

The Proximity is dedicated to sustainability and to do this they originally built the hotel for the long run knowing that they would not sell the hotel after five or six years. On its roof the Proximity has numerous powerful solar panels, which are capable of heating the water for the entire building, and the hotel subsequently saves a lot of money from not having to pay the electricity bill. So much power is produced from the panels that the hotel actually sells some of it back to the city of Greensboro and receives tax credits for the energy which is an added plus. In addition, every minute the hotel pumps fresh air into its rooms to keep their clients healthy and energized to satisfy them more. Another way the hotel is different from others is the inside look of all the rooms and hallways. Normally after construction, the concrete used in buildings is covered up with paint or something else. Wanting to keep the hotel authentic looking though, the owners decided to leave the concrete pillars visible and the ceiling undecorated to create a more authentic and very pleasant feel to the building. I thought this idea was very interesting and out of the box, just like the overall hotel is.

I was not the only who found the layout of the hotel to be very interesting. Our tour guide said that besides the excellent service, clean rooms and hospitality that customers love, they love the different looks and artwork each room offers. Most customers are considered middle to upper class, and even President Obama has stayed at one of the executive suites at the hotel. In the future the hotel plans to continue to be very sustainable and efficient and to constantly improve on ways to be more efficient than before.

Follow

Today we visit the revered Proximity in Greensboro. Proximity is an environmentally friendly hotel that prides itself on its ability to have an elite hotel that can leave the environment in the same condition it is today, one hundred years from now. The hotel has a very natural and organic feel, that can be seen through the way they did not just cover everything with sheetrock, but let the concrete pillars and ceiling. The hotel uses solar panels to heat the water, so that they can be more environmentally aware and reduce cost. They also have a unique way to cool and heat the air that they pump into the rooms, at a 30% higher rate than the regulations require for a hotel to do. One of the reasons Proximity Hotel is so successful is the fact that they are a lead platinum hotel and are one of three in the country.

The mission of Proximity Hotel is to ensure that each guest receives prompt, friendly, attentive service by a well-trained staff in a clean, comfortable, well-maintained environment that is warm and hospitable, offer an outstanding array of gracious amenities in a distinctive hotel, provide employment that is rewarding and offers education and opportunity in a fair, diverse and inclusive environment, generate profits that: a) justify the investment, b) afford compensation to those who contribute, and c) allow the company to grow and to consider sustainable practices in our social & physical worlds, with all of our decisions. With these mission statements it is clear that Proximity has been doing all the right things and will continue to do so in the future.

The customers of Proximity are anyone who decides to stay at the hotel, as well as any companies or groups who want to use the hotel for a conference or business weekend. The customers are what makes Proximity so successful, because they are the ones whose money funds the hotel and is its main stream of revenue other than the restaurant.

The customer values a hotel that comes as or is better than advertised, which is exactly what Proximity Hotels does. The customer wants to leave from their stay at the hotel and immediately think that they want to come and stay again. They expect that everything will be environmentally friendly and the hospitality will be of the highest quality.

The results speak for themselves when looking at Proximity. The biggest result of the hotel is that it is lead platinum and is only one of three in the country. In 2007 it was the first and only hotel to have achieved this honor. They have successful become an incredibly environmentally friendly hotel that has found a way to cut costs and save money by doing things that in turn are not harmful to the environment.

The plans for Proximity Hotel is to continue to be a lead platinum hotel that offers the greatest experience that they possibly can. Another area is to continue to evolve and stay as environmentally friendly as possible. Proximity Hotel has it all going on and knows exactly what they need to keep doing to be such an amazing hotel, and be one of a kind.

Follow

Ben Doster

From the start, it was clear that the mission of the Proximity Hotel was to create a hotel that was Leed Platinum certified.  It was very important to the owners that they create not only a “green” hotel but also one that was still considered to be four star luxury.  This meant that the hotel management could not rely on the guests to make the hotel green by doing things like turning off lights and using less water, but instead by making the building more efficient in order to save resources.

Being a luxury hotel, the average guest to the proximity is for the most part pretty wealthy.  This apparently was one of the challenges in marketing the hotel due to the fact that people who are willing to pay upwards of $350 a night for a room are not usually looking of an environmentally friendly hotel but instead a luxurious one.  The average customer to the proximity values the luxuries and environmentally friendly practices that the hotel conducts.  According to our tour guide, the guests also value the fresh food that is served at the Print Works Bistro that is attached to the hotel.  The local meats and produce that are served in the bistro go right along with the sustainability theme seen all throughout the hotel by cutting down on the shipment cost of transporting foreign food to the restaurant.  Guests also seem to enjoy the health benefits of dining locally and eating meats and produce that they know come from a safe and reputable source.

The results of all these effects are a very nice, luxury hotel that guests are willing to pay an average of $350 to stay in every night.  Personally, I think that this hotel is a great idea because despite the $30 million price tag, the hotel has remained very profitable.  Our tour guide was explaining how many of the expensive, eco friendly parts used in the hotel have already paid them selves off in just seven years.  On top of saving money, they are also saving resources which is a cool thing to do now.  This attracts many people including our current president among other distinguished guests to stay at this great hotel.

I would only imagine that the plan for the Proximity at this point would be to continue doing what they are currently doing.  They built the hotel with the mindset that they would maintain family ownership of it for at least a hundred years, which at that point one can only assume that it will already be payed for.  All that would leave is for the management to keep it up to current environmental standards in order to continue attracting people to this environmentally friendly facility.  Due to the new technology used in this hotel just seven years ago, it will not be due for renovations for quite a long time.

I feel like the general manager that gave us our tour and more so the family who owns this great hotel really enjoy what they are doing.  It would be hard to not enjoy your job when you get to work in such a luxurious space where you have an opportunity to interact with  guests who enjoy the hotel and all of its features.  The solar panels on the roof alone were enough to start a great conversation with the many guests of your hotel. I believe the people there have a very nice work environment that many would love to be around.

Follow

The Proximity Hotel was a very impressive hotel along with expensive. It is $289 per nights stay at the hotel, which is very far out of my league, but seemed appropriate after hearing what went into the building design and monetary values that were considered. This is exactly what the mission of proximity hotel is, to provide our guests with the highest quality accommodations at a good value. They refer to themselves as a luxury hotel and that took priority over the LEED platinum certification. So, the Proximity Hotel has a very strong focus on their customers and their needs, which is very similar to the other businesses we have visited.

The customer of the Proximity Hotel is mainly the upper to middle class of people in terms of income. For example, president Barack Obama stayed in one of their suites when he was in North Carolina. That shows what type of customers the hotel is designed for. Also, customers that value luxury and high quality accommodations while traveling is who the Proximity Hotel is focused on. Since the hotel is LEED certified it also focuses on people who care about the environment would stay in the hotel to see what it is that they do to make them LEED certified.

The customer of the Proximity Hotel values the luxury of the hotel and the services that they provide while staying at the hotel. They also must value the environment if they know that the building is LEED certified. The sustainability of the hotel and efficient use of resources would also be a topic that the customer would consider because they are paying money to the hotel for them to stay there. Knowing that their money is going into a building where they value the environment and are trying to be efficient as possible would be a thing that I would personally consider and I am sure that is what their regular customers value.

The results that the Proximity Hotel is looking for and providing is a very well accommodated stay for the customer along with high quality services making sure that there is absolutely nothing that goes wrong while having a stay at the hotel. Also, a result is that they are making a solid amount of profit because of their efficient use of resources in making the building along with maintaining the building in the most energy and environmentally beneficial way. This is what the presenter stressed, is that the Proximity Hotel wants to be economically efficient with the resources they have in order to generate the maximum amount of profit for their business.

The plan for the future for the Proximity Hotel is to continue to provide the best high quality service and accommodations for their customers. This is the number one thing that a hotel has to do because they need to maintain a good standing in the public’s eyes. They also plan to continue to try to find new ways of saving money but also being environmentally friendly. The tour guide told us that light bulbs used to be very expensive a few years ago because the light bulbs they were using had just been invented. So, their overall plan is to continue to provide customer satisfaction and be more economically efficient.

Follow