The exterior of the Spokane FairBridge Express.

Two years after opening its first hotel in Spokane, WA, FairBridge Hotels International, a new brand based on the membership model, is gearing up to go national. Owned by Hotel Marketing Solutions, a management firm with offices in Spokane and Seattle, the “flex-concept” brand consists of full-service FairBridge Hotels; select-service FairBridge Inn Express and FairBridge Inn & Suites; and the budget offering, Loyalty Inns.

“The lag between opening and selling the concept was technical… and dependent upon the brand's need to refine and adjust some components of the program during the implementation phase with the early adopters in order to feel it was ready to deliver responsibly to a wider base,” says Sumi Kohli, director of membership development.

According to Fredrick Schoener, director of brand operations, FairBridge Hotels are a minimum 100 rooms and require an on-site restaurant and at least 1,000 square feet of meeting space; the Express version is at least 50 rooms and must feature complimentary breakfast and an exercise room; Inn & Suites is the same as Express, but with 20% suites; and the 25-room-minimum Loyalty, “the economy segment,” is for roadside locations and won’t offer “a lot of frills.” High-speed Internet is free to guests at all FairBridge properties.

A FairBridge Inn & Suites in the Bavarian-styled resort town of Leavenworth.

Following its Express debut in Spokane, FairBridge opened an Inn & Suites in Leavenworth, WA a year ago, and a Loyalty Inn opened in Pasco, WA just last month. There are also Expresses in Grayville, IL and Benton Harbor, MI. By the end of 2011, Schoener says, HMS plans to open a full-service FairBridge Hotel, either in Alabama or Indiana.

Kohli says a new-construction FairBridge project linked to a retail-educational complex is “pending” in Allenburg in central Washington State; altogether, 10 FairBridges are “under contract,” he says.

“Starting with conversions is the model we’re following,” says Schoener. “We’re working with some builders to get estimated costs on building a new FairBridge.” Projections are $55,000 to $65,000 a key for these, he says.

HMS plans to develop FairBridges in major metropolitan areas all over the country, he says. “We’re not a franchise; we feel the franchise model is outdated. If you look at where res contribution is coming from today, there are three major places: location, your operations and your online presence.” With InnLink handling “our back end as our GDS provider,” FairBridge feels confident it will do well.

From left, FairBridge executives Sumi Kohli, Sumeet Kals and Fred Schoener. Kals is systems integration director.

Plans call for 35 FairBridges to be open and operating this year—and another 50 per year starting in 2012.

FairBridge members pay $28 per room per month for a hotel smaller than 70 rooms, $1 less for larger ones. The Loyalty segment has a separate fee structure of $15 per room per month, Schoener says. FairBridge is seeing interest from franchisees tired of paying high fees and eager to “drive interest in their particular property,” Schoener says, suggesting prospective members check out the FairBridge website to compare costs.

“Our technology costs are coming down to the point it’s unreasonable for a hotel owner or operator to be frightened,” he says. FairBridge also offers training for general managers at its Spokane facility.

Is Spokane becoming a hospitality hub with Magnuson Hotels and now, FairBridge? Magnuson is a competitor, he says, but it’s “more of a reservation network.” FairBridge is more like Best Western than Magnuson or another competitor, Vantage Hospitality Group, with Americas Best Value Inns. While Schoener called ABVI “a fantastic company,” Schoener notes FairBridge offers something unique: “revenue relationship managers,” or RRMs, so dedicated to a property they monitor it on a weekly basis.