In 1927, the opening of The Ritz-Carlton in Boston revolutionized the hotel business. At the time, it was widely publicized as the most luxurious hotel in America, with its most famous feature being a private bath attached to each guest room.

Of course, there was more to the Ritz-Carlton than the technological advancement of indoor plumbing. It, in fact, was the result of a vision by famed hotelier Cesar Ritz. He designated amenities that would later define the luxury hotel experience. His list, along with private bathrooms and wait staff uniformed in white tie, included explicit instructions for extensive fresh flowers to be displayed throughout.

Today, these standards are at the core of the hotel star ratings. The stars and recommendations granted by independent travel organizations such as AAA, Mobil Travel Guide, Fodor's Travel Guides and American Express, have enormous power over what hotels can charge. As every addition, renovation and new property shuffles the mix of ratings in a particular city, earning and holding on to a star rating is important to the hotel's financial success.

I interviewed executives and reviews at several of the leading travel rating agencies and asked them about the role of plants in the hotel experience. Due to the seriousness of the ratings, most people were uncomfortable commenting on specific properties or brands.

Of those I spoke with, all considered plants and flowers in a hotel's interior to be a factor in earning a star rating. True to Ritz's service standards, live plants and fresh flowers are one of the fundamental details still synonymous with luxury today.

A Serious Business
"Live plants are an asset," says Louisa Sandes, Spokesperson for Fodor's Travel Guides. She emphasized that plants enhance the ambiance and are well liked by travelers, "providing that they are well-kept and fragrances are not overwhelming."

Just like any other décor decision, the plants need to be right for the space. Inspectors are sensitive to elements that are out of scale or anything that looks spoiled. There are instances where directional lighting might make a plant's age or natural imperfections appear more noticeable.

In worst-case scenarios, "if the plants are in bad condition at a three-star property, we wouldn't necessarily down-grade [the hotel] to two-star, but we could choose to delete it from our listing," says Shane O'Flaherty, Vice President of Quality Assurance at Mobile Travel Guide.

O'Flaherty heads a team of 50 facility and five service inspectors who decide how many Mobil stars a property should receive. He says a hotel might choose to compensate for shortcomings in other areas with plants. But, he says, "The properties are rated for their overall facility and service quality, and not just one category."

If a star has been lost or new competition arrives, hotels will go through many lengths to compete. In one situation, a large resort property lost a star for multiple reasons, and plants were one item on their eight-point list. Dissatisfied with their current interior landscape contractor, the general manager contacted a vendor the hotel owner has successfully worked with in other markets.

"Eight months later, they got their star back," says Pat Heroman, President of Heroman Services Plant Company. Even though the hotel is many miles away from Herioman's corporate and branch offices, the hotel decided to retain the New Orleans-based interior landscape company to ensure the quality would be maintained.

The hotel flies in and puts up one of its supervisors every eight weeks, Heroman says. He calls that arrangement an unexpected benefit, noting that the complimentary travel is a good reward for his staff.

Consolidations in the specialized service sector have left some in the hospitality industry with fewer vendor choices. As a result, it is not uncommon for a hotel manager to request the services of favored vendors that perform well for properties in other markets to consult, fix a problem or perform work.

High-end properties want to do business with service companies where the owner can personally guarantee quality. According to one senior hotel executive who wishes to remain nameless, "Our purchasing partner tried consolidating plant vendors along with other services, and we decided to remove plants from their responsibilities due to poor quality." He noted that their national purchasing system is successful for other products and services such as linens, but "perishables are of the best quality when it is the responsibility of on-site managers to choose vendors."

Luxury Can't be Faked
In the luxury hotel segment "Mobile examines amenities that we feel are important to the customer" O'Flaherty says. "When paying $500 a night, the customers have an expectation that the luxury items be real and have a fresh feel."

The notion of real is echoed throughout the luxury marketplace. For some luxury brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, décor guidelines discourage the use of artificial foliage.

"One of the key values or attributes of luxury is authenticity," says Pam Danziger, President of Unity Marketing, a firm specializing in consulting on consumer habits for luxury goods. "The luxury consumer values authenticity of their luxury experience. They don't want faux or fake but real and authentic. The idea of presenting faux plants in a luxury hotel setting is an oxymoron."

Danziger places plants with other hotel décor decisions. She says plants "create the ambiance and feeling that communicates luxury to the consumer from the moment they walk into the door of the hotel. Even if plants are not paramount to the experience, it says something when a hotel presents beautiful bouquets of real flowers and authentic greenery. Anything less says Holiday Inn, not Four Seasons."

Live plants and flowers are listed requirements by AAA to receive a "five-diamond" rating. According to the rating criteria posted on the AAA website, the hotel is to be decorated with "an outstanding variety of live plants and fresh floral arrangements throughout."

Others echo this standard such as Mobil Travel Guides. To earn four Mobil stars, the hotel must have live plants in guest rooms, and five-star hotels are to have fresh flowers in guest rooms and all public washrooms.

AAA does have provisions in its four-star rating for "unique dried floral arrangements." Several reviewers also use the term "dried" to describe preserved foliage, which is widely accepted by the hotel industry due to its authenticity.

Some are not opposed to artificial, especially when it is mixed with live. "Artificial is okay, as long as they are realistic and not garish," says Sandes of Fodor's, but she reiterates "real is always better."

By Shane Pliska
Interiorscape Magazine
July/August 2005

Shane Pliska is an interior landscape design consultant and business development manager at Planterra Corporation, West Bloomfield, Michigan. He writes a monthly column for the trade journal Interiorscape Magazine.

Article from www.planterra.com

The lobby of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest's only five diamond hotel.

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