Home Publisher's Point of View Northeast Suites Founder Pushes ‘Made in the USA’ with GoLocal

Northeast Suites Founder Pushes ‘Made in the USA’ with GoLocal

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Glenn Hasek

The corporate housing industry is highly competitive, but Patrick Flynn has come up with a unique way to differentiate his company from others. The lodging industry should take note. Flynn, Founder and CEO of Northeast Suites, is beating the competition while creating a new revenue stream with GoLocal. GoLocal is a new category of suites—premium corporate living units and vacation rentals—furnished exclusively with products made or assembled in the United States.

Every detail, furnishing, feature, appliance and product—more than 60 items total in each unit—has been carefully sourced from companies all over the United States. Using a tablet or smartphone, guests can explore the origins of every product, learn the stories of these All-American companies and purchase any item on the spot for delivery. Northeast Suites benefits each time a product is purchased. The idea of selling items identical to those found in a lodging space is of course not new—Westin certainly comes to mind—but packaging so many American-made items into one suite and branding it as such is certainly unique.

I spoke with Patrick Flynn and he says he has patented his local concept. “This is just a start,” he says. The suites have in fact become showrooms for U.S.-made products that travelers can purchase. Flynn says the GoLocal suites now include 250,000 square feet of “retail space”.

Patrick Flynn, Founder and CEO of Northeast Suites

The Last U.S.-Made Toasters

Finding American-made products can often be a challenge. Flynn told me his company purchased the last U.S.-made toasters, for example. Not all products in the suites are “green” products but not buying products shipped from around the planet certainly cuts down on the company’s environmental footprint. Green cleaning products are used in every apartment. “I would like to make a shift toward more sustainability,” Flynn says.

Because 100 percent of a product is not always made in the United States, Flynn has come up with three categories of products available in GoLocal suites. The first category is local100. To qualify for that category, partners need to source, create, and design 100 percent of their product or service in the United States. The second category is localCreations. These products are made or sourced overseas but created and assembled in the United States. The third category, localDesigns, includes products that have been 100 percent designed in the United States but at least partially outsourced for production overseas.

In the press release announcing the GoLocal suites, Flynn said, “We built this program with one goal in mind—to share stories with our guests about the origins of these great products. There’s a certain quality that can only be experienced by seeing, feeling, and using our Made in the USA products yourself. And sometimes—you just have to have it! When you book our suites, you are supporting local economies and helping businesses grow and maintain jobs in the USA. It’s our vision to deliver a premium living experience, and to promote U.S. business owners who produce quality you can’t find anywhere else in the world.”

Featuring local is certainly not new and unique but kudos to Flynn for figuring out a creative way to package and monetize it.

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