Whether it’s cotton robes in every closet or technology integrated into every meeting, The Blackwell Inn seeks customer satisfaction and a four-diamond AAA rating through personalized service.

The Blackwell opened in June as part of the Fisher College of Business’s Executive Education Program. Blackwell general manager Doug Koyle said the college generates 20 percent of the inn’s business, with the rest coming from other university departments, campus area visitors and local businesses.

AAA evaluates 30,000 lodging properties across the United States. About 2.84 percent of these properties are awarded four diamond status, which is one step below the highest possible rating of five diamonds, an AAA spokesman said. There are 77 hotels in the United States with five diamond status, according to www.ouraaa.com.

The Blackwell managers decided not to apply for a four diamond rating until recently to make sure everything was ready.

“We waited because there was no urgency to be rated,” Koyle said. “We wanted to make sure that we had all our services and staff in place.”

Columbus has three four diamond hotels: The Hilton Columbus at Easton, the Hyatt on Capital Square and the Westin Great Southern. The Blackwell does imitate some of the features of these hotels, but as an independent hotel has the flexibility to develop other standards.

“Because we’re not locked into Marriott’s standards or Hyatt’s standards, we’re able to develop our own,” Koyle said. “So most of our management staff was hired from the local hotel industry.

“(Concerning) our service standards and operational policies, we’re using what we consider to be the best practices from the hotel industry,” he said.

Some of the services the Blackwell provides that mirror four diamond hotels include valet parking, bell service, evening turn-down and concierge, Koyle said.

Event sales associate Nicole Leonetti, a senior in hospitality management, said she thinks a four diamond rating would help the Blackwell gain more name recognition.

“I think we’re pretty close to getting a four diamond,” she said. “I think it would get our name out there more. A lot of people still don’t know about the Blackwell, and if we got the four diamond it would get our name out as one of the four diamond hotels in Columbus. We would be better able to compete with those properties already rated as four diamond.”

To Koyle, keeping the customers satisfied is a higher priority than a AAA rating.

“The one thing, a lot of times we get hung up on the importance of a rating when the priority is the guest’s satisfaction here, and our customer satisfaction is very high. That’s more important to me than a AAA rating,” he said.

The Blackwell differs from other four diamond hotels in its layout.

“Our design is very different and we have a lot of integrated technology,” he said. Because we’re not a large hotel, we have a more warm and intimate environment and we have the ability to customize services and features for guests.”

In addition to the guest rooms and services, the Blackwell also tries to personalize the meetings and conferences it hosts. Leonetti meets conference groups at the door and provides them with a special pager.

“Well, usually when people have a meeting, we usually meet them when they come in and give them a meeting planner phone,” she said. “While the event’s going on, they can call us if they need anything. If anything goes wrong or if they need anything they didn’t think of, they can call that extension because it’s programmed into the phone.”

The Blackwell also works with groups with varying budgets.

“When we’re planning the meetings, a lot of the time everyone has varying budgets, so we’re able to work within whatever their budget is because of our flexibility,” Leonetti said.

The Blackwell has not decided when it will apply for a AAA rating, but when it does, the AAA representatives will arrive within 2-3 months to evaluate the hotel. After they’ve stayed at the hotel, the representatives will walk through the hotel with management and make comments.

The next AAA TourBook for Ohio will be published in March 2004, according to a AAA spokesman.