It can be difficult to relax in the company of total strangers—unless those strangers take the first step to foster a personal connection. It’s a challenge for any hotel, let alone an extended-stay concept.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s Element by Westin brand found a way to break the potential ice between hotel and extended-stay guests with a spin on the traditional manager’s reception. The “Relax” receptions, offered three times each week, provide extended-stay guests a complimentary evening gathering featuring selected food and beverage pairings and a signature smoothie. With a focus on freshly prepared hors d’oeuvres paired with wines, the reception often involves outdoor barbecue, cooking demos, and more.

More than just a few drinks and snacks set out for guests, Relax is Element’s way of connecting with its demographic of upscale business travelers. Starwood isn’t selling extended-stay guests short at a brand that has no F&B outlets; instead, Element, in its seven locations, is opening up to its clientele. The receptions have been going since the debut of the Element brand in Lexington, Massachusetts, in July 2008. Launched during Jeremy Cooper’s tenure as divisional director of F&B, the Relax concept continues under the guidance of Gary Swanson, director of F&B, specialty select brands, for Starwood, who places importance on keeping the receptions fresh and alive for extended-stay guests.

“We are always looking for evolving programs,” Swanson says. “We have to make sure longer-stay guests have different experiences [during their stay]. We don’t want it to be like Taco Tuesday; we want it to be more interesting and not the same old thing day in and day out.

“The key word is ‘social,’” says Swanson. “Whether we’re doing a wine tasting or a cooking demo, we wanted to create a social environment, as well as, in many cases, a learning environment. With longer-stay guests, our GMs get to know them and interact with them. It creates a personal relationship, which is really important in the extended-stay market.”

Execution of Relax receptions typically involves a full-time cook in the morning, who prepares all the food for the reception for later in the day, Swanson says. “With technology such as a combi oven, we don’t need a highly skilled cook in the evenings, but we’re still able to put out a quality product,” he explains. “We’re really working with a single individual, along with the manager.”

The wine list is “limited,” Swanson says, but a factor helping draw guests is wine education. “A lot of times we’ll bring in the producer of the wine to assist us, if we’re really focusing on that wine. It’s helpful to have people there who can give an educated analysis of the wines people are tasting. We do offer beer, but there are no spirits involved,” Swanson says, noting that soft drinks and other non-alcohol beverages are also available.

For added interest, it can also be helpful to connect the guest with the local landscape. “Like any company, we provide guidelines for what we’re trying to accomplish, but we definitely give leeway to the properties in developing things that make sense for their regional needs,” Swanson says. “For example, what we do in Denver may not fly in Lexington.”

So what does fly in Denver? It’s local flavor, says Bradley Preston, general manager at Element Denver Park Meadows in Lone Tree, Colorado. “Not only do we add local flair to our food offerings, but we incorporate wines from local vineyards as well as craft beers from local and regional craft brewers,” he says.

Though the wine pairings concept appeals to those with upscale tastes, it is nonetheless casual as well, rooted in the manager’s reception foundation. The Denver property, for example, often injects a little backyard cookout vibe to give homesick guests a feeling of comfort.

“We mostly try to keep the receptions fresh through the food and beverage offerings,” Preston says. “Denver is a very outdoorsy market, so when the weather is nice, we’ll try and do as much as we can in our backyard around our barbecue grill. Of course, we also have guests who have their favorite items and who will plan their evenings around a particular menu offering.”

The Relax receptions attempt to create a more personal relationship between the hotel team and the extended-stay guests than do traditional manager’s receptions, something Element staff are diligent in maintaining.

“There’s always a management presence at the receptions—someone who may be helping replenish food or pouring wine—so the atmosphere becomes very family-like, like the parties you go to where everyone gathers in the kitchen,” Preston says. “Sometimes, we’ll even initiate a Wii challenge to break the ice and encourage interaction.”

Tad Wilkes, managing editor of HOTEL F&B, has covered on-premise hospitality for the past decade.

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