I love hotels. It doesn’t have to be a luxury property either; I
just want the right hotel for a particular trip. As agents, many of
you probably have a client like me and matching the person to the
hotel is an important aspect of your service. After all, as Los
Angeles-based agent Susan Tanzman puts it in this issue’s cover
story, “Historic Hotels” (page 18), “Traveling is an experience and
when you make the room part of that experience, people just love
it.”
The niche market for historic hotels has never been stronger. As
baby boomers search for new and original travel experiences, some
of them are turning to one-of-a-kind properties over the familiar
chains. And since we have so many great classic hotels here in the
West, agents would do well to learn more about these unique
gems.
Writer Anne Burke who wrote our cover story has another, more
personal, connection to one of our “Best in the West” historic
hotels. Her parents met at Waikiki’s Sheraton Moana Surfrider in
1941.
“My dad was a young Navy officer stationed aboard the USS
Saratoga,” she told me. “My mother had quit her secretarial job in
Culver City, Calif., and sailed on a steamship to Honolulu looking
for romance and adventure. She found it under the banyan tree at
the Moana.”
These are the kinds of stories that make these grand dames of
the travel industry so special, and one reason they continue to
appeal to yet another generation of travelers.
On another note, the votes have been coming in for our
first-annual WAVE awards, but if you haven’t cast yours yet, please
do so before the end of April. You can find a ballot on page 12
that can be torn out and faxed to us, or go to our Web site
TravelAgeWest.com for a link. Be sure to make your voice heard, and
cast your vote for excellence. K.S.
