NEW: Ocean House Named 5-Diamond Resort by AAA
Friday, January 20, 2012
Ocean House, Watch Hill's luxury resort, has been named a five-diamond property by AAA for the first time. It's also the first-ever Five Diamond establishment in Rhode Island.
This is no mean feat: only 126 lodgings and 53 restaurants nationwide earned the Five Diamond Award for 2012, representing just 0.3 percent of the total 59,000 AAA/CAA Approved and Diamond Rated properties.
Second laurel for Ocean House
The timing couldn't be better for the luxurious property, which has just been named a finalist in Travel + Leisure's 2012 World's Best Awards Survey. (To learn more or vote for RI's entry, go here.)
Ocean House joins nine new properties to the list, including the Mandarin Oriental in Miami, Montage Beverly Hills, two Ritz-Carltons in Lake Tahoe and Toronto, and the St. Regis in Houston.
“Five Diamond lodgings feature extraordinary physical attributes and meticulous personalized attention," said Michael Petrone, director, AAA Tourism Information Development. “It is an amazing accomplishment to achieve and maintain this level of quality and service, and AAA is pleased to honor these properties with a Five Diamond Rating.”
How hotels are rated
The Five Diamond list is compiled using the results of AAA inspectors' on-site visits. AAA inspectors identify themselves, but their visit is not announced ahead of time.
AAA’s professional inspectors, ideally positioned to observe emerging hospitality trends, noted other changes in store for 2012. For hotels, a prevalent trend is creating a home-away-from-home environment, according to AAA inspectors. Another growth area is “smarter” hotel rooms that learn guests’ habits as they use a central remote to control everything from heating and air to lights, curtains, music and wakeup calls.
In the restaurant industry, prevailing themes include more natural ingredients, locally sourced foods and healthier meal options. These include rustic fare — simple dishes with fresh ingredients — made in-house and new twists on comfort foods such as a “dusting” of dried, powdered fruits or vegetables to add texture and flavor, rather than heavy sauces.
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