Efforts In Works To Return Brand Name To Toms River Hotel

(Holiday Inn removed its name from this hotel on Route 37 in 2013.)

The company taking over the former Holiday Inn on Route 37 says the hotel will become a brand-name franchise again, hopefully within the next year.

Robert Spitzer, the attorney for David Buddemeyer, the receiver for the Toms River Hotel as it’s currently named, and Alan Filer, general manager, told the Toms River Township Council that negotiations are underway to get the hotel back to brand-name status, either as a Holiday Inn or as a Doubletree hotel.

“There’s several things involved,” Spitzer said, including the cost of renovating the hotel to the specifications of the franchise, a cost he estimated at between $3 million and $5 million. “There’s a significant effort to upgrade the hotel.”

Spitzer and Filer were present because the council had been asked to approve a resolution that would allow the liquor license attached to the hotel to remain active while the property is fully transferred from TR Liquor, LLC, to Buddemeyer. Buddemeyer is president of Driftwood Hospitality Management, the company that has taken over the property.

The council approved the resolution by a unaninmous vote.

Councilman Brian Kubiel said residents were concerned by the name Toms River Hotel, and feared it would bring crime and drugs into the area if that name was maintained.

The hotel, at the corner of Clifton Avenue and Route 37, has been in the township since 1978 and until November 2013 carried the Holiday Inn name. Age had caught up with the 170-plus room hotel, however, and complaints and negative reviews on travel sites began to rise. It also was the site of a heroin bust in 2011, that netted $7,000 in cash and drug processing materials, in addition to heroin ready for sale, leading to negative perceptions of the hotel.

“As general manager I am trying to prevent that (bringing drug use and crime) as well,” Filer said. “We are taking steps now to address those issues.”

Reviews of the hotel on internet travel sites -- which Filer and the staff check and respond to regularly -- have improved significantly in the last couple of months.

Kubiel asked specifically if it would return to being a Holiday Inn, and Filer said it could be either that or a Doubletree, which is a Hilton hotel brand, “which could mean more business” because it is seen as a more prestigious name. Filer has been the general manager of a Doubletree hotel in Wilmington, Del., for Driftwood, and that hotel has received strong reviews from travelers.

Council President Maria Maruca asked for a timeframe on when changes and renovations might begin, and Spitzer and Filer said Driftwood Hospitality Management hopes to have the branding secured soon, with an eye toward getting renovations started by February and completed by the fall.

“So we’re looking at 60 to 90 days then,” she said. “I just don’t want to see this dragging on and on.”

Spitzer and Filer said the desire is to get the changes in motion as soon as possible.