It is my privilege to continue to serve as your president. I promise to continue ELFA’s 36 year tradition of dedication to its membership. ELFA’s primary mission is to advance the Brand and your property through a collaboration of diverse ideas brought forth by you, our members.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Annual Convention in May. ELFA and Choice worked in unison to offer numerous Convention education opportunities. I hope you learned a lot and have put this knowledge to work at your property. Thanks to all who attended our ELFA Membership meeting and congratulations to the $1500 winners. ELFA members know the main Convention attraction is the Annual ELFA-ROA Reception. The membership, venders, invited guests and the Choice team had a great time celebrating ELFA’s 36 years. Great food, drinks and music were enjoyed by all, thanks to our Executive Director; Ross Almo and his organizational skills and attention to detail. It was one of several opportunities to meet face to face and have open dialog with the Choice team. The ELFA Membership meeting and Roundtables were successful and well attended. Roundtables featured odd region Director and Vice Chair elections. I would like to congratulate all who participated and the newly elected and re-elected Directors and Vice Chairs. I would like to offer a special thanks to Gary Koester for his years of service, time and guidance as an Officer and Director. Aroon Patel takes Gary’s seat as Region 10 Director. The Roundtable participants discussed our Continental Breakfast standard, the Board is now focusing on Breakfast as one of its main topics to discuss with Choice. It’s what you asked for; it’s what we’re doing for you. The new 2010-2011 Committee assignments have been perfected to better serve you. Please visit ELFA.org for the list of Committes and their members. The Econo Lodge Brand session meeting was great; the attendees had a lot of very important question which developed into interesting and informative discussions. I am sure everyone appreciated Craig Mustard, our Econo Lodge brand leader whose thorough presentation reviewed and projected Econo Lodges position in the market and what we except in 2010-2012. Thanks to all who attended the brand session.

I would like to thank all the ELFA Allied Venders who joined the ELFA-ROA Appreciation Dinner and Annual Reception. Your continued support assists ELFA in its efforts to move forward to make a better Econo Lodge brand. On behalf of our entire Board and its members I would personally like to thank you.

Now it’s time to move ELFA by increasing its awareness, membership and to continue to nurture its strong relation with Choice Hotel International. ELFA’s goal is to assist in creating a consistent brand with top of mind consumer awareness and create guest loyalty. Please, let’s all pledge to make Econo Lodge the top brand in its segment. Our guests have changed their booking and travel behavior through the use of new technology. Choice Privileges offers us an opportunity to have our guests coming back time and time again. This summer’s $50 food Gift Card further encourages guest loyalty. I would also like to ask each of you to familiarize yourself with Choice’s Gift Card Program, log on to ChoiceCentral.com for details

ELFA and its committees have diligently worked on a multitude of projects including; ChoiceAdvantage, Choice Privileges, Rate Center, Room Condition, LRA Inspections, Breakfast, Compliance Zone, Standards, Call Centers, Rebuild Together and marketing. Our ultimate goal is to work with you to increase brand awareness, RevPAR and Occupancy. We need your support, if you’re not already an ELFA member become one today! A united ELFA membership will give us strong negotiating powers with Choice and its venders. ELFA has created a new service for its members call “ELFAHELP” Desk. It is designed to answer questions and solve member issues. I hope this service will increase memberships and enhance ELFA’s Allied Vender Program. It has already proven successful in solving challenges and has created an opportunity for our members to share concerns. The Help Desk’s ultimate goal is to assist ELFA’s members and to save you money. The project is manned by Amy, who is doing a wonderful job fulfilling her mission to help our members. You can Contact Amy Brahmbhatt at elfahelp@yahoo.com or by calling: 732-925-1864, We continue to work on LRA inspection patterns, failure rates and reinspection fees. We are also addressing the USA Today Newspaper, Breakfast, Room and Bath amenity and FF&E Standards. The Technology committee has been lobbying for a reduction in ChoiceAdvantage fees. Most of the new enhancements to the program seem to be designed for the mid-scale properties. ELFA also created its own Scholarship Program, which will be released at Fall Regional’s. The Association is monitoring Econo Lodge’s national billboard program and is involved in Convention and Fall Regions education and organization.

There have been changes, removal and additions to our Econo Lodge Standards; see the matrix on ChoiceCentral for additional details. A few of the items include mandatory internet wireless for your entire hotel by 12/31/2012. The flat screen T.V mandate set for 12/31/2012 has been changed to “at replacement” and a deferment of July’s ChoiceAdvantage fee increase to name a few.

Fall Regions dates are set and ELFA’s Board of Directors worked with Choice to create more Economy Brand centric education sessions. A prime example is Rate Center, a new ChoiceAdvatage tool to assist in optimizing rate and increase revpar and profits. Other highly requested seminars include; Social Networking, Rate Centre, Compliance Zone and Room Condition (Certification Test).

In my opinion the current economic environment will remain weak in most areas. I believe some areas will stabilize this summer or in the not too distant future. Some areas may continue to see weaker sales for another year. Financing is still hard to secure for those interested in purchasing hotels, acquire real estate, FF& E, etc. Though some banks are willing to renegotiate mortgages, do some homework, maybe you can get a lower mortgage rate. We all need Choice’s assistance to get financial institutions, the government and other private sector businesses to support the Hospitality Industry. We all know there is not a short-term fix, but together we can do it! I would like to hear from all our members, if there is anything we can do for you let anyone of the Directors or myself know. Without membership participation none of this could happen. ELFA is oldest independent association in the Hospitality Industry.

Sincerely your

Natu Patel


ELFA President