Short Trips: A little luxury chases away cold-day blues

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Thursday, November 6, 2003

Short Trips: A little luxury chases away cold-day blues

By JEFF LARSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER PHOTOGRAPHER

When it's dark by 4 in the afternoon and the high temperature for the week is supposed to hit only 45, it's time to start thinking inside the box.

PHOTO GALLERY


	Jeff Larsen / P-I
The new owner of the Olympic -- Toronto-based Fairmont -- prides itself in being the largest luxury hotel management company in North America.

See more photos from Jeff's story on Seattle's hotels.

To help stimulate that thought processes, Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau officially kicks off its annual downtown hotel Super Saver program tomorrow. A luxurious hotel room at a discounted rate for a night just might be the cheery winter break you were looking for.

In its 13th season, the promotion runs through March. A record 48 hotels signed on this year and some have slashed prices up to 70 percent. The rates run from the very affordable $54 a night at the Days Inn Town Center to $179 at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Grand Hyatt, Seattle Marriott Waterfront and Sorrento hotels.

Guests still need to stay only one night to get the deal, but this year reservations must be made either on the Seattle Super Saver Web site (www.seattlesupersaver.com) or the toll-free telephone reservation line (800-535-7071).

New this year is the room upgrade feature, deeper discounts on suites, and value-added offers, such as free parking at participating hotels.

This year, too, guests can pick up the Super Saver Value Guide that contains shopping, dining, cultural and sightseeing offers.

The rates are published, but anyone who books a room through the Seattle Super Saver program will get the lowest available rate at the time of the reservation. At the time they make the reservation, guests also will have the option to upgrade to a higher room category or suite at a discounted Super Saver rate.

The advance room-upgrade feature is a better deal for guests than waiting until they check in to ask for it. According to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotels will draw from their best available rooms and suites, depending on availability at the time of the advance reservation. The bureau also says other online bookers often make upgrades available to their customers only from leftover room inventories at the time of check-in.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	The indoor pool and hot tub at the Fairmont Olympic takes the edge off on cold and dark days.

Most impressively, this year the program has added what it calls "a robust, online booking engine" to its Web site. Not only will hotels be able to make rapid rate and inventory changes during the five-month run, but customers will be able to check out a wider array of hotels and rates more quickly and book a room in real time.

For a treat, and to get a little taste of what the Super Saver program has to offer, my wife and I ventured from our North Seattle home on a Saturday to stay overnight at one of the participating hotels.

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts this summer acquired what's often called the grand dame of Seattle hotels -- the Olympic. Employees and other guests told me the transition from Four Seasons to Fairmont ownership has been seamless. Both companies operate stylish, high-end properties all over the world. The new official name for the 450-room hotel is The Fairmont Olympic Hotel.

The 11-story Olympic opened in 1924. According to the newspaper clippings and photos framed on the wall on the arcade level, the event was a major happening in Seattle. The hotel's classic Italian Renaissance architecture -- complete with arched ceilings, crystal chandeliers and oak-paneled walls and ceilings -- made it stand out in the downtown corridor.

At the Olympic, valet parking is available at the covered main hotel entrance on University Street and is the most convenient parking solution. Our check-in was fast and courteous and our bags arrived at our 10th-floor room minutes after we did. Our stylish room had a peekaboo view of the waterfront, two televisions, a very firm king- size bed, and partition doors between the living and bedroom areas. Like most hotel rooms I've encountered, room temperature control was slightly problematic, but better than most.

When we returned to our room after dinner at Shuckers, we found that our toiletry items on the bathroom sink counter -- usually in disarray -- had been neatly arranged on separate wash cloths on either side of the sink. I thought the arrangement was a nice touch and so did my wife. But she noticed that whoever arranged our toiletry items forgot to leave a chocolate on her pillow. All I wanted was whoever arranged those toiletry items to follow us home.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	The Garden Room in the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.

The Georgian, with its lofty ceiling and elegant chandeliers, still is the formal dining centerpiece for the hotel. Shuckers, on the lower, arcade level, is the less formal restaurant, with an emphasis on seafood. The tables there are a little too close together for my liking, but my baked halibut with polenta ($25) and my wife's honey-roasted salmon with roasted potatoes and fresh green beans ($20) were excellent. The comfortable atmosphere was pleasant and the service was good.

Towering Ficus benjamina -- indoor tropical trees -- shade parts of the elegant (and large) Garden Room, which is open only on Friday and Saturday evenings beginning at 5. It offers a limited menu along with your favorite beverage. A jazz band gets cranked up at about 9 both nights, with a small dance floor if you feel the urge. Rumor around the hotel was that Fairmont plans to open the room more often. It's a lovely venue for sure.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	When it's dark and chilly outside, take a seat in the elegant lobby of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Where hotels allow smoking is always a difficult proposition. Shuckers is entirely non-smoking, but smoking is allowed in the Garden Room and -- surprisingly -- in the lobby lounge area just outside The Georgian, where I saw other guests as bothered by it as I was.

The hotel features a neat second-floor indoor swimming pool and hot tub with an adjacent well-equipped exercise room. Besides a wide variety of shops on the arcade level, there's also a European-style, independently owned spa.

The Fairmont Olympic Hotel experience for us was fortified by the graciousness, professionalism and friendliness of the staff we met, from the bellman who greeted us when we arrived to the wait staff at Shuckers and the Garden Room. A smile and greeting are worth a lot, especially when it's dark at 4 p.m. and 40 degrees outside.