Rampart Lodge brings home Innkeeper Trophy

  • Published
  • By Inis Lovely
  • 10th Force Support Squadron Marketing
Sixteen staffers of the Academy's Rampart Lodge were rewarded Dec. 2 with a trip to New York City to receive the prestigious Innkeeper Trophy at the International Hotel/Motel and Restaurant Show.

"I'm extremely proud of my staff," said Rampart Lodge general manager Giuseppe La Bella. "They couldn't stop working even in New York. Our housekeepers continually rated the housekeeping quality at the New York hotel in which we stayed. It wasn't up to the caliber of our Rampart Lodge."

Earning the Innkeeper award and trophy is an arduous process that includes a visit from an evaluation team armed with a 30-page, 438-item checklist to rate lodging excellence benchmarks such as customer service, housekeeping, and financial and facility management.

Ready for a close-up at any time, the lodge's front desk area and visitor quarters were selected as location sites for several Air Force training videos. After the Conference of Service Academy Superintendents, Army Lt. Gen. Hagenbeck, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said that Rampart Lodge "set the bar so high we'll have difficulty matching the hospitality of the Air Force Academy."

Esteemed visitors such as comedian Sinbad, Sen. John Glenn and pilot Capt. Chelsey Sullenberger also chose to stay at the 102-room Rampart Lodge. In addition to Rampart Lodge winning the coveted Innkeeper Award, Dana Simnioniw, Rampart Lodge operations manager, earned The Innkeeper Travelers' Award for exemplary high standards of professionalism, attitude, customer service and job knowledge.