FORT LEE, Va. (Nov. 27, 2013) -- The first year of business at the Fort Lee Lodging facility has been successful, but not without its issues.
The new facility provided 389,816 bed nights during fiscal year 2013, said Cynthia Moinette, general manager. That's an exceptional number, she also noted, considering the facility didn't officially have guests until January.
"The lodge has been very successful," said Moinette. "Keeping Soldiers on post rather than downtown is a big benefit because it makes it easier for them to get back and forth to school. It's also saved money for the Army travel account."
The facility has been well-received, especially by the students assigned to the Army Logistics University, said Moinette.
"We've gotten a lot of feedback about how nice the hotel is," she said. "A lot of them are young lieutenants coming into the Army for the first time, so the hotel is very impressive to them."
Something guests are looking forward to is the new restaurant, which will be operated by Centerplate, the same organization contracted to run the ALU Cafeteria.
Construction workers began pouring concrete for the cafeteria flooring this week, said Moinette, and are on track to complete the project in the first half of 2014.
"It's a slow process, but it is in the works," she said. "It'll be a nice place for Soldiers to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
The in-house laundry facility is another success story for the new lodge. Previously, the linens were sent off-post to a contractor, who cleaned, pressed and returned them to Fort Lee.
"It's saved a tremendous amount of money -- close to $1 million," said Moinette. "There's a shorter turnaround time. We've been able to reduce our par level, or what it takes to make up one room. It's very expensive with this many rooms."
The turnaround time used to be three days, and now has been reduced to one, which makes a big difference, she said.
The hotel is so large that it's similar to running a city, said Moinette. With that level of responsibility, there are always issues that arise.
"Just maintaining the building is a huge issue," she said. "Even though it's new, maintenance is constant."
Also, because the lodging on Fort Lee includes several older buildings -- on Mahone near Lee Avenue -- those have to be maintained and updated as well. That's a bigger challenge, said Moinette, because they require so much more maintenance due to age.
Keeping the hotel working requires many bodies, said Moinette, which is another concern for her.
"We've had a hard time maintaining our staff levels, especially in housekeeping," she said. "It's hard work. They come in and work for a little bit, and then they just leave; there's a very high turnover. It's been a struggle and it continues to be a struggle."
When Moinette first arrived at Fort Lee, they were short nearly 40 people in housekeeping.
"That's huge," she said. "One of our biggest struggles is to maintain that staffing level."
All lodging job openings are available on usajobs.com, said Moinette. A custodial worker position is available constantly to help meet the facility's needs.
Many of the amenities offered by the hotel are definitely enjoyed and used by the guests, such as the business center, free guest laundry and study rooms.
"The kitchenettes in the room are very popular, and the guests use them a lot," said Moinette. "However, it brings a negative part with it because the smoke alarms are very sensitive and, if a guest burns something and opens their door, it can cause the alarms to go off."
Another widely-used amenity is free internet service. The lodge now offers wired and wireless connection, but because there are so many guests, the wireless Internet availability is also an issue.
"The wireless is slow because everyone wants to use it," said Moinette, who noted that school websites have top priority with the hotel's service. "The guests will be on sites that take a huge amount of bandwidth. It's been a huge issue and a huge complaint."
To alleviate the problem Moinette's staff gives new classes additional training on how to best use the Internet offered, including providing ethernet cables in each room so people can use the wired connection.
Parking is another issue that the staff is actively trying to find solutions to improve. Because the Army standard for lodges is one parking space for every two rooms, the parking situation is always a problem, said Moinette.
"Since a lot of the guests go to ALU, and they get rental car, they just leave them parked here," she said. "It makes parking a nightmare. We're going to convert some employee parking to guest parking and move the employees to some available spaces at the garrison headquarters building."
Any issue that arises is a top priority for Moinette, she said. Customer service is very important to her and her staff.
"Expectations of the military are high, and everyday customer service is a difficult business," she said. "You have to keep providing more and more and try to anticipate what that guest actually wants. Not that we please everyone, every day; but we try."
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