The Cobblestone Hotel & Suites in Crookston received a Hotels.com Loved by Guests Award for 2020. Manager Lisa Tadd said this was the first award the hotel has received since it opened six years ago, but they were also the highest-rated Cobblestone hotel in the country. “This is actually the first award that this location of Cobblestone has ever gotten,” said Tadd. “They’ve been open for six years. We got a guest satisfaction rating from our guests overall on the internet online surveys said we were friendly, helpful, and put us at an 8.6. The highest you can go is 10. Right now, nationwide for our company, the highest-ranking was, I believe, an 8.0. We beat that.”
Tadd said they have been short-staffed this year, but they focused on providing the best guest service possible. “Our little tiny Crookston hotel beat that, which was really a thrill and surprising for all of us because we’ve been running on a shadow crew staff this year because of COVID,” said Tadd. “It’s been really hard because of our restrictions on breakfast and stuff. Our little team, I think there are five of us this year that pulled this off. It’s pretty awesome because we have some pretty big hotels nationwide. My little team, we just rocked it and did the best we could with guest representation, guest service, and if they need something, we take it to them, those kinds of things.”
The rating means a lot to both the staff and local owners said, Tadd. “I know the investment group, the local owners of this hotel were pretty thrilled to see that,” said Tadd. “Especially this year because it’s been so hard on everybody, so they were pretty proud of us too. I’m going to have a pizza party for my team one of these days if we ever have time.”
Like many other businesses, COVID has caused things to change in the hotel industry. Tadd said she’d used her experience on the corporate level to help make changes while also steering guests to other Crookston amenities. “We’re interacting with a lot of companies, reaching out, trying different techniques this year,” said Tadd. “I, myself, come from the corporate office chain, so I’ve really taken a lot of ideas from my experience there for years for adjusting to COVID. We don’t have stuff from the university like we used to. We don’t have big groups for weddings and things like that this year. But we have actually maintained very well with supporting not only other local businesses but the other hotels too. We send people to their restaurants, or if they have amenities that we don’t, we gladly send them over there. I’ve had a lot of compliments on that, that my team has been supportive of the other hotels in the area. I think that helps. You get what you put out is my theory.”
Even missing many of their traditional bookings to COVID-19, Tadd said it appears they could outpace business from last year. “We’ve actually picked up,” said Tadd. “We’re probably going to beat our mark from last year at this time, which is really surprising. We’re thrilled about that.”
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