by Dawn Gilbertson – Mar. 20, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
With room rates topping $500 a night in peak season for its signature creekside cottages, the exclusive L’Auberge de Sedona resort attracts a wealthy, well-traveled crowd.
Guests check in with ultrahigh expectations, expectations that hotel officials admit haven’t been universally met as the 25-year-old resort showed its age in recent years.
“Stale,” “dated” and “old” are words sprinkled in reviews posted in the past year on TripAdvisor.com, a popular travel-review site
L’Auberge’s new owner hopes to erase any negative impressions – and attract a new generation of fans – by plowing $25 million into a major renovation and expansion.
The project, which began earlier this year, will add 17 hillside cottages the size of small houses (with a nightly mortgage to match), and 16 spa cottages. In total, L’Auberge will go from 56 rooms and cottages to 89, increasing its supply more than half.
Existing rooms and cottages are being updated to include amenities that have become standard in upscale and even midrange hotels: flat-screen televisions, iPod docking stations, wireless Internet and the like.
Workers are expanding outdoor decks on the cottages and addressing past guest complaints about poor lighting and low ceilings.
“We’re competing (for) people who live in gorgeous homes,” said Joe Mottershead, general manager of L’Auberge since 2006. “Our customers come in, and they’re looking for things they have at home . . . We’ve got to stay up with that.”
In follow-up surveys sent to guests, L’Auberge long has gotten marks in the mid- to high 90s out of 100 for its service, he said. Its rankings for the quality of the “product” have been nearly 10 points below. The goal is to close that gap. He said the resort is seeing early results from guests who have tried the renovated cottages.
Exclusive and well-known as it is, it doesn’t rank in the top 10 among 44 Sedona hotels and resorts rated on TripAdvisor based on reviews and proprietary factors.
“We anticipate that score to skyrocket as we bring these new units online,” he said.
Part of the lag in upkeep, Mottershead said, is because of ownership changes in the past few years.
L’Auberge was last renovated in 2004, but the effort wasn’t anywhere near as extensive as this one, especially in terms of updating furnishings, he said.
Scottsdale attorney and developer Al Spector, who purchased the hotel and adjacent property for nearly $40 million in May from a California hotel company, is redoing the entire place.
Spector owns the neighboring Amara Resort in Sedona and was one of the developers of the Scottsdale Princess, now known as Fairmont Scottsdale.
The main lodge, which has 21 guest rooms and suites, is done, as are half the cottages. Construction on the hillside cottages, which L’Auberge hopes to rent for $800 to $1,500 a night, is due to begin soon and be completed by the end of September.
The major expansion and makeover come at a time when hoteliers in Sedona and across the country are having a difficult time filling rooms.
Sedona’s occupancy in December and January fell below 40 percent for the first time in several years, according to Smith Travel Research. It stood at 34.6 percent in January, the latest month available, down from 40.3 percent a year earlier.
Fiscal year-to-date lodging-tax collections in Sedona are off 8.4 percent.
“We’re as concerned about the economy as anyone,” Mottershead said.
He said the resort’s timing may actually prove to be good, because the renovations have taken a lot of its rooms off the market as occupancy was plunging. On average, it has been down about 15 rooms and cottages, or more than one-quarter of its supply, every month this year.
It is slowing the renovation pace for its busy months of March and April, and bookings look solid, he said.
With its creekside setting and national reputation as a first-class romantic getaway, Mottershead said L’Auberge has generally outperformed its competitors in Sedona on key industry measures.
L’Auberge’s occupancy was 86 percent in 2007 and 84 percent in 2008, driving its decision to expand, Mottershead said.
“We turned away more business the past two years than we were actually able to book,” he said. “That gives you an indication of the kind of demand for the type of product we have.”
L’Auberge hopes the hillside cottages, which offer its first full views of Sedona’s trademark red rocks, and spa cottages will attract younger travelers.
It also hopes to gain a name with its new outdoor showers in its cottages, an idea it borrowed from some luxury Napa Valley resorts.
“We thought it would translate really well to Sedona,” he said.
