Directors of sales and marketing need not apply at Value Place. A one-time cost of $100,000 has replaced what would be your annual salary. The money instead employs a hard-to-miss 50-foot-high pole sign, with a 250-square-foot face, in front of most Value Place properties and four other similar building signs. They display an outrageously low weekly rate—$159 in some markets—and usually also flash the brand’s mantra: “Cleaner, Safer, Simpler.”

The unique business model driving Jack DeBoer’s latest offering focuses on nuts and bolts instead of bells and whistles. There’s no free breakfast here, not even free toilet paper beyond the first roll. The new budget hotel/apartment hybrid is the latest innovation from DeBoer, the creator—or “grandfather,” jokes the 78-year-old entrepreneur—of the extended-stay hotel.

DeBoer opened the first Value Place six years ago in the his hometown of Wichita, KS, the same place he debuted Residence Inn (1975) and Candlewood Suites (1995). His first Summerfield Suites (1988) opened in Atlanta. Those extended-stay brands still are thriving under the ownership of Marriott, InterContinental and Hyatt.

While the rest of the industry has struggled through one of its deepest downturns, Value Place has continued to grow. Occupancy is up, tipping 80 percent, and development has continued despite the financial-market meltdown. The brand will soon open its 158^th property, in Sacramento, the first on the West Coast, and the portfolio should reach 170 by year’s end. Forty-three are corporate owned by DeBoer and co-owners Greg Kossover (CEO) and investment firm Perry Capital.The pipeline is even stronger: Forty-seven franchise groups have committed to have 500 properties open by 2015.

The secret for DeBoer, the company’s chairman and founder, was turning traditional hotel thinking upside down. Value Place brings DeBoer back to his apartment roots, when he was one of the largest multi-family developers in the U.S. during the 1970s.

“People are looking for safe, clean, affordable and simple,” says Gina McKee, Value Place’s vice president of development. “They don’t want to sign a long-term lease, but they don’t want to pay the high price of $159 a night. They need a clean, safe place to live and that’s what we offer. Jack has created this brilliant business model, whether you’re a guest or an owner.”

APARTMENT LIVING

Guests are often referred to as residents, and they’re treated as just that. The minimum stay at a Value Place is one week, but at many properties the average stay is three months or more. When residents check in, they must sign an occupancy agreement, which in many ways looks like a lease. It lists the rates and rules, explains the $100 damage deposit and 24-hour checkout notice and also authorizes a background check on the National Sex Offender Database. Value Place, as part of its stringent safety and security standards, will immediately evict sex offenders.

Residents get only the basics as part of the weekly rate. Extras, like daily linen exchanges ($7/week), housekeeping service ($25) and Internet access ($10/week), are offered, but with an extra charge. Standard housekeeping service is provided every two weeks. A kitchen dish pack can be purchased for $50. “We took everything out that everyone doesn’t use,” DeBoer says. “That was one way to reduce cost. Everyone doesn’t use a pool or a free breakfast; everyone doesn’t use all the fancy crap we put in the room.”

Rates for a single studio room range from $159 to $359 (in the upcoming Fort Lauderdale property) for a week’s stay and are around $199 in most markets. The single room is 264 square feet, while the double and studio with sleeper options offer 319 square feet at slightly higher rates. All come with expanded cable TV and a kitchen with two-burner stove, microwave, full-size refrigerator and one roll of toilet paper.

Like living in an apartment, residents don’t get— or expect— daily services and supplies. They’re self-sufficient; many wash their own linens in the hotel’s laundry room, which offers machines with similar rates to a laundromat. They borrow available vacuums from behind the front desk to clean. They purchase snacks and sundries from vending machines the hotel owns and stocks through trips to bulk merchandisers and dollar stores—yet another revenue stream for the owner. They also understand a wakeup call, or even a live person, isn’t always a phone call away.

The main office and front desk are only open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and not at all on Sunday. Early and late checkins and checkouts are possible through the property’s safety attendant, who lives on site and is on call at all times when the main office is closed.