It may sound strange, but when I was growing up, we didn’t know what a hotel was. My parents were great enough to show us the whole country on a shoestring, but take my word, hotels were not part of it because we simply didn’t have the money. Because of these childhood experiences, I think I have a particular appreciation for hotels, and I, like many of you, have stayed in hotels all over the world. I have to say I haven’t had many bad experiences, but there have been a few.

Last summer, I had the entire family in Ireland for nine days and we spent several nights at a wonderful hotel in Dublin, it was a great hotel. Ironically, one of my sons left his digital camera on a table in the hotel restaurant. We went through all the right steps to recover the camera beginning with an initial call to management to see if they would check to see if it had been turned in by anyone or found by the maintenance staff. We had no response. After three more calls, and three different managers, each call ended in the same result. While nobody raised their voices or said anything too rude, it became generally accepted by my family that the response from the hotel was one of non-concern. It was a marvelous hotel and we enjoyed our stay—until we got a look at the people behind the scenes. 

While the hotel did not accommodate our needs by recovering the camera, I can guarantee that if the same situation happened at one of the hotels covered in this issue, the problem would have been resolved. Because it’s not just how a hotel looks, how appealing it is, how firm the mattresses are or how good the food is. The difference between hotels comes down to the people who work there, who manage and meet the public, the people who make the hotel run.  

I think we can be proud to look at our hotel industry and say we are represented along with the best in the world. I would like to point out that the general managers on the cover, and the hoteliers featured, are people who are very involved in our community. They not only look at their business as thriving concerns which are generating profit, but they realize that being a part of a community can add to the increase of its quality. At the end of the day these people understand and live out community, and I thank them all for being here in the Greater Lansing area.

From all of us at The Greater Lansing Business Monthly we wish you a happy holiday season and a very prosperous New Year.

		Chris Holman Publisher