Thayer Lodging Partners with UniFocus for Higher Return

SERVICEScope® Ensures Perception Matches Dazzling Experience

Dallas—July 30, 2008 —UniFocus, a global pioneer in the hospitality industry for performance, workforce management and feedback solutions, announced a partnership with Thayer Lodging Group to realize a higher return on its properties by increasing the “wow” factor in the guest experience. Thayer is working with UniFocus and its SERVICEScope system to achieve more widespread utilization of premier accommodations offered by their properties—such as allergy-friendly, PURE-designated rooms and conference centers.

The Annapolis-based real estate investment company has a portfolio of 14 hotels and over 2,800 guest rooms; Thayer’s mission is to realize exceptional returns through value-add business plans. Thayer has teamed up with UniFocus to ensure service levels exceed customer expectations.

“Our partnership with UniFocus is a great match because of the value we put on relationships that drive results and return on investment—more acutely so in today’s market environment,” said Carroll Warfield, Managing Director of Thayer. “Now more than ever it is critical to gain actionable knowledge about what drives guest loyalty and how to re-engage employees to maximize return. We were most impressed by UniFocus’ Susan Perrin’s personal touch, her thoroughness to detail, tenacity and customer-savvy skills.”

SERVICEScope is a relational system developed by UniFocus to put the “wow” factor back into hospitality. Utilizing the industry’s most qualified certified evaluators and technologies, organizations can now find out how service standards relate to perceptions and how employee attitudes impact service delivery. By correlating all known variables, companies can produce meaningful knowledge for bottom-line results.

Thayer properties offer PURE-designated hotel accommodations and meeting space that are treated with the latest technologies for indoor air quality available. In-room filtration systems remove harmful allergens in the air and kill 99.9% of all viruses and bacteria that exist in the environment.

“We are very excited about partnering with UniFocus to ensure that our guests know and experience the upscale accommodations our properties offer,” remarked Tom Kammerer, Managing Director of Thayer. “Our objective is to measure how well we’re doing in this respect, correlate this information with guest and employee perceptions and gain actionable knowledge to better serve our guests and meeting planners.”

According to a recent survey conducted by Cornell University’s Survey Research Institute, general interest for allergy-friendly rooms was very high with the vast majority (83%) saying they would prefer to stay in a hotel room to remove airborne allergens, if they had the option. Business travelers were slightly more likely to say that they would prefer an allergy-friendly room (90% vs. 82%).

“Our partnership with Thayer Lodging is emblematic of how successful hospitality-related organizations are responding to today’s unpredictable market conditions,” said Mark Heymann, President and CEO of UniFocus. “In order to stay ahead of the curve, our clients are finding out if service standards are in sync with today’s changing perceptions; stand-alone random assessments cannot provide this information. Multi-dimensional reporting relates evaluation results with guest perception so that organizations can concentrate on what really matters, and then fully engage their staff for excellence to deliver services that meet expectations.”

SERVICEScope helps bring together the full scope of meaningful knowledge required to drive profitability and increased asset value. This enables hospitality organizations to see the big picture, and find out how service standard attainment relates to guest and employee perceptions. When mystery shopping evaluation results are correlated with guest perception and employee feedback, the insight is revealing.