Coronado Island's Glorietta Bay Inn Again Receives Top National Award for Treating Guests Right.

Business Editors

CORONADO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2002

Glorietta Bay Inn sure knows how to make its guests feel right at home.

For the second consecutive year, the historic boutique hotel received the American Hotel and Lodging Association's (AH&LA) award for the nation's Best Guest Relations program, presented April 4 at the Association's 36th annual "Stars of the Industry" luncheon in Philadelphia.

Glorietta Bay Inn received the award for hotels of 150 rooms or less; the Peabody Orlando was the recipient for hotels with more than 150 rooms.

Among the Inn's unique guest services cited were an interactive Web site "concierge" at (www.gloriettabayinn.com); personalized welcome letters from the hotel general manager upon check-in; twice-weekly in-room voice-mail updates about activities at the Inn and around Coronado; "Welcome Back!" placards hung on doors of return guests; a "Safety First" program for families with young children; an "e-mail postcard" program offering guests a complimentary photo session on hotel grounds that is sent to the guest's e-mail list; and personalized thank-you cards that guests receive when they arrive back home.

"We want to acknowledge our guests and tell them thank you after every stay," said the Inn's General Manager Lisa Reopelle. "Many of our guests return year after year, and for many, the Inn is a second home of sorts. They deserve our recognition and appreciation."

The 100-room Inn, designated a Coronado Historic Landmark in 1977, incorporates the former Edwardian mansion of sugar baron John D. Spreckels, who also built the Hotel del Coronado, located just across the street.

Spreckels' mansion, built in 1908, featured many innovations for its time, including electric lights and a tunnel connecting its water and electric systems to the generator at the Hotel del Coronado. The mansion also had a brass-cage elevator, marble staircase with padded handrail and skylights throughout. The home was built with reinforced steel and concrete, an earthquake precaution Spreckels insisted upon after living through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Today, guests can enjoy a complimentary continental breakfast served in the mansion's Verandah room and can dine in Spreckels' restored Music Room and on its adjacent sun-splashed porch, overlooking a rose garden and Glorietta Bay.

AH&LA, founded in 1910, is a federation of state lodging associations with some 13,000 property members worldwide, representing more than 1.7 million rooms.