ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Best Western hotel at 1550 N. Lincoln Ave. is now officially a Garner by IHG hotel.
The hotel had its ribbon-cutting last week, and General Manager Jennifer Rodriguez said the process has been a long time in the making.
“Everything started about a year and a half ago. I'm still the general manager over at the Holiday Inn Express and our CEO asked me to do a little bit of research on the Best Western so at that moment, I kind of knew my bosses were interested in buying the company,” Rodriguez said. “I didn't hear very much more about it, they just told me and then kept me updated. I was told in May of last year they were in the process of purchasing the Best Western and that they wanted to turn it into a Garner by IHG. At that point, I had expressed I would love to manage both facilities but at the time, they already had a manager here, and June is when the official closing date happened. My management company then bought the building, it closed, and everything was good to go. From June to August, they started getting things prepared, getting it approved from IHG on the layout, the formats, seating and everything else in August. That month, I actually became the general manager of this facility and the other one as well. From June to December, we have worked so hard to try to get this place open. At that time, we were not able to open as a Garner, but we did open up as an independent IHG Hotel, which we called Liberal North. Two weeks ago is when we officially opened as a Garner by IHG. It's been a long process, and I'm extremely proud of all my workers who have stepped up, stayed late, helped out, and everything else.”
Rodriguez said there was a lot of work to do to get the facility fully ready to go.
“We had to replace every single PTAC unit, and there's 67 rooms, not including the end hallways, my office, everything else like that. We also had to replace every single mattress and all the TVs,” Rodriguez said. “We also had to get new curtain, curtain shades, and other items for the rooms themselves, and we also had to get new pool furniture. We had to get a new treadmill that was IHG standard. We still have some stuff to do, like we still have to replace lobby seating, and we still have to resurface the outside and the sidewalks. We also had to remove all the vinyl off of the third and second floors. We had to mud it, we had to paint it, and we had to put corner guards up on every single corner in this hotel in the rooms and in the public areas where people travel with their bags and the housekeeping staff with their equipment. We are still in the process of updating our key lock system, and we are going to go to where we just open the door instead of inserting it.”
Rodriguez said there was a lot of excitement about the hotel officially being ready to go.
“We have always been open for guests, and opening up as a Garner when there are not very many hotels that have opened up with this brand name is very exciting. I am thrilled to see what we're going to do within the community and the guests who come to stay with us,” Rodriguez said. “The guests are our main priority, we want them to feel like they're home away from home. I'm so relieved everything is good to go, the process and work was very nail-biting for quite a while. It was very anxious waiting on everything to be finally approved. Once everything finally got approved, we are ecstatic. We're going to be having an employee party dinner with both facilities, because without both facilities, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish everything that we accomplished in such a short time frame.”
With everything still being rather new, Rodriguez said there will be a lot of work done to help spread the word.
“We had the ribbon-cutting last week, that was one of the things we've done to help spread the word. I felt amazing about it to see all the support the community is bringing to a new facility. We're so used to it being a Holiday Inn or Best Western, so to see a new name and see so many people show up was great. I was thrilled to see everybody and have them have a small experience of what we do daily,” Rodriguez said. “We've also been updating the City of Liberal, the Liberal Police Department, the Liberal Fire Department and other entities. I also post online about the new opening for the Garner, and I know there will be more to come. We did decide to be part of the United Way raffle, that's something else that helps put our name out there. I've also gone around to businesses and put our name out there because most of our business is transient, but we also get local companies that bring people in from out of town. So if I can get those local people that will also spread the name to their friends, their family, and the experience that they have here, it spreads like wildfire.”
Rodriguez added encouragement for patronage.
“We are friendly, we are welcoming, and we are going to treat you like your home away from home. We would love the opportunity to show you what a great atmosphere,” Rodriguez said. “We're also pet-friendly, and there is a fee with that, it's $25 per pet per night. But part of that $25 charge is it goes to our local animal shelters, Prairie Pet Mobile Vet, and anywhere else that has to do with animals in this local area – part of those proceeds will go to help the animals in need. Anyone wanting to stay with us can either come up here and speak to one of the front desk agents, or they can call (620) 624-9700 or email
Overall, Rodriguez said, she is excited to welcome guests.
“I was very nervous about all of this at first, but overall, I feel like we've started out great,” Rodriguez said. “I also want to let the people know we are a new and upcoming brand, and we have several amenities for guests who stay with us, and we're definitely different from hotels that you'll see around town, so I'm excited to get to see all the new faces and people that decide to come and stay. We also have a meeting room that holds up to 72 people, and that is open for the community to be able to rent as well, so if anyone has any questions about that, they would just need to get in touch with us, and we'll help arrange everything.”
