
Project Theme
A national hotel chain was 6 months into a landscape contract that included 4 regional suppliers and 3 national suppliers. Initial feedback on services were inconsistent. Their own Hotel Managers were providing mixed reviews of how the program was going and the self-audits the suppliers were providing painted a picture of above average results.
With Operational Leadership pushing for improvement and Facilities needing some mechanism to capture and measure the results, the suggestion was pitched to approach an outside audit firm who could provide an independent analysis of their program.
Ferrandino & Son was approached for two reasons. First, they were familiar with the scope of work as they had participated in the RFP. While not awarded any of the portfolio during the bid because of their inability to meet the pricing goals, Ferrandino & Son was well-respected within the brand due to their approach during the RFP process.
Second, Ferrandino & Son has one of the largest field presences in the commercial landscape industry so their ability to provide “boots on the ground” across the entire hotel chains portfolio was something that could be leveraged.
The hope was that by initiating site audits through Ferrandino & Son, the national hotel chain could ensure the services they were paying for were getting completed and if there were performance issues, they could be identified quickly so as not to negatively impact the entire landscape program.
Project Challenges
The national hotel chain felt they had 4 challenges they needed to overcome to make an independent audit successful.
1. They needed an audit partner who had coverage across their entire portfolio, which at the time included properties in 41 states.
2. They required a digital survey tool that could capture inspections in real-time and offered some level of dashboard reporting where they could drill down into regions, districts, and ultimately to the property level.
3. They needed the ability to cross-reference the properties to their vendor assignments so that a custom scorecard could be built for each supplier partner.
4. Due to the current issues they were experiencing, they needed a partner who could ramp up quickly, so they didn’t lose the buy-in of their operational teams.
Ferrandino & Son’s Solutions
Ferrandino & Son implemented a 4 step process to ramp up and roll-out the program.
1. They customized the audit survey to the client’s scope of work, incorporating specific weighted values for those items deemed most critical to their stakeholders.
2. They conducted site walks in each of their 4 regions, bench-marking expectations and perceptions on existing properties to leverage the coaching and training that would occur with their Territory Managers when the audits began.
3. They built out a dashboard reporting system that would showcase the data in multiple formats, including by site, district, state, region, and even by supplier.
4. They helped build out the communication plan to the properties and suppliers in advance. This made people aware of the audits occurring, how the information would be shared, and what the goals were. The primary goal being to ensure a consistent, quality service across the entire hotel chain.
Outcomes
Over the first 6 months of the audit program, Ferrandino & Son performed 1,624 inspections, which amounted to a quarterly inspection for each property. The results were impactful.
1. Performance across the board was not as poor as the perception was at the time Ferrandino & Son was initiated.
2. The audit highlighted a discrepancy between the scope and what the hotels believed they should be receiving – something easily corrected through coaching and improved communication.
3. The audits highlighted a gap in chemicals being applied to scope and the full weekly services being performed.
4. While most suppliers graded well overall, one national supplier and one regional supplier did not score well and were moved into a probationary period with specific action plans developed to try to coach them up.
Lessons Learned
For the client, it called out their need to have improved program management on all service programs and how critical real data can be to help manage and make decisions in real-time. For Ferrandino & Son, it was a chance to tweak their own audit process, incorporating some new attributes that they can leverage in their future programs.
Fundamentally, the goals as outlined at inception were achieved and an even more strategic, long-term audit plan was designed. Ferrandino & Son was awarded the work for the term of the existing landscape contract and look forward to expanding their audit program into other service programs with this client.
Interested in Learning More?
To learn more about property maintenance or comprehensive landscape programs for your multi-site portfolio, give Ferrandino & Son a call at: 866-571-4609 and ask to speak to someone in our Business Development Team. You can also reach us at: sales@ferrandinoandson.com

Project Theme
This specific multi-location retailer was exploring a process for landscape improvements across its portfolio. However, they needed to develop not just a potential scope and a workflow but also a long-term budget plan (10-15 years) to address their entire portfolio.
This would require local knowledge around permitting, local ordinances and pricing. With a portfolio dispersed across the country, the retailer needed somebody who could leverage a national approach while at the same time be willing to develop a program that would eventually include other suppliers in addition to us.
Executive Summary
Ferrandino & Son was recently tasked with transforming multiple retail locations’ landscaping back to its “brand” level while confirming to local requirements.
The three goals of the program were defined as:
- Scope, price and execute more than 300 sites as a pilot for their remaining portfolio
- Complete all of the projects in less than 6 months from scope to completion
- Properly navigate municipality mandates and restrictions
Project Challenges
The retailer had not had a formal capital landscape program in more than 30 years so the degradation of their assets (turf, plants, irrigation systems, etc.) was significant and widespread. They had no formalized budget and no project plans and needed guidance on how to manage the workflow.
Through the initial workshops, we identified 3 critical steps:
Step #1: Planning: Identify the sites without landscaping plans and create new plans based on the sites that already had plans provided from a third-party vendor.
Step #2: Communication: Communicate with local management, vendors, and municipalities to ensure site maintenance is up to code and local standards.
Step #3: Budget: Reduce cost of maintaining locations moving forward.

Ferrandino & Son’s Solutions
With a short timeline and multiple locations in different territories, it was important for Ferrandino & Son to create a plan that brought all the locations back to brand level while also staying within the budget.
Ferrandino & Son first executed site walks at each property. For each site walk it was necessary to first contact each location to explain the project and potential work. Then, each one of our project managers scheduled their initial site survey walk with the vendor completing the capital work.
It was important that Ferrandino & Son kept budgeting at the forefront of the end goal. Part of the plan to reduce cost moving forward was to reduce ongoing maintenance. This could be accomplished either by installing low-growth plants or removing mulch. This goal required working with local & corporate management.
Additional landscaping suggestions included ground cover or sod and River Rock for drought restricted areas. To complete this project is was necessary to work with each municipality to understand if there are would be any restrictions with the proposed changes.
Once each site survey was complete and local management’s questions have been answered, a proposal was developed and sent to Corporate for approval. Once approved, Ferrandino & Son was able to schedule a time to complete the approved services with a local vendor partner. Ongoing project management included: conducting weekly calls for progress updates, maintaining and updating estimated completion dates and following+ up on any municipality issues.
Ferrandino & Son was able to suggest even further cost and time saving tactics once the proposal was accepted by corporate. Ferrandino & Son suggested the client include locations with similar geographic locations to utilize the same vendor for multiple projects and use the economy of scale for additional pricing discounts.
We were also able to suggest a new communication path which included more lead time to local managers. This suggested a more focused group of stakeholders at the client level to approve the scopes of work, ultimately reducing a significant amount of back and forth correspondence.
Summary
Communication was paramount to completing this project on time. There were numerous parties involved that caused many additional phases to be rolled out following this model. Even with some of the initial capital investments that were made to the project, a measurable savings was achieved on routine maintenance within the first landscape season with a complete ROI on spending and increased sales in less than 18 months.
The attention to detail and support Ferrandino & Son displayed resulted in an increase of 80% more projects that were approved the following fiscal year.
Interested in Learning More?
To learn more about property maintenance or comprehensive landscape programs for your multi-site portfolio, give Ferrandino & Son a call at: 866-571-4609 and ask to speak to someone in our Business Development Team. You can also reach us at: sales@ferrandinoandson.com
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