The Davenport Hotel and Tower

Feb 14, 2010

Think of the Davenport Hotel and Davenport Tower as two sisters. The former is the traditional, conservative older girl; the latter is the hip, adventurous younger daughter. Both, however, are linked by a spirit of gracious hospitality.

Davenport Hotel and Tower marketing director Matt Jensen said that the two wings — located on opposite corners of the same downtown Spokane, Wash., intersection — are identical in services and amenities. Both have a restaurant, lounge, swimming pool, fitness center, business center and complimentary wired/wireless Internet. Both are pet friendly and served by Davenport town cars. Guests of either property can enjoy the amenities of the other, with full access and signing privileges.

Exterior of the Davenport Hotel // (C) 2010 The Davenport Hotel and Tower

But as travel agents decide which building is better for their clients, it’s important for them to understand their differences. All of the Davenport Hotel’s 33,000 square feet of meeting space is headquartered at the hotel, which also offers several cozy conversation areas around the mezzanine. Additionally, the tower’s guestrooms don’t have soaking tubs, while many of the hotel’s guestrooms do.

Typical of siblings, the hotel and its sister tower make a point of looking very different from each other. The hotel, which Louis Davenport opened in 1914, features classic European architecture and, although it fell into disrepair during the last three decades of the 1900s, an all-encompassing renovation from 2000-2002 brought it back to its glory days. Its old-world overtones are evident as soon as clients enter the lobby, designed as a Spanish-style patio.

From the outside, the tower, open since 2007, takes a more modern design approach. Inside, there’s an exotic feeling to the decor, inspired by Asia and Africa. The safari overtones are evident throughout, from the lobby with a huge mural of a tiger behind the front desk to the guestrooms, with their leopard-print pillowcases.

Despite their points of distinction, the hotel and tower share common ground when it comes to amenities and services. All accommodations feature beds with pillow-top mattresses, Egyptian-cotton bath linens and terrycloth robes and a gift of peanut brittle with the evening turndown service. The hotel and sister tower share a green goal as well, said Jensen.

“We continue to make improvements to our earth-friendly initiatives,” he said. “Examples include newer fluorescent light bulbs, increased recycling capabilities and a partnership with a local refiner of biodiesel. We also direct our banquet leftovers to Feed Spokane [a non-profitorganization that works to feed the needy with food donations from local businesses].”

As the Davenport sisters continue making individual statements, they remain particularly in sync when it comes to training their employees to ultra-high standards. Like dutiful daughters, they put aside their differences in order to keep alive the overall goal as stated by Louis Davenport:

“We hope to so well please our guests that they will be glad they came, sorry to leave and eager to return.”