The Art of Being a Top Hotel in the U.S. Thanks to the Readers of Travel + Leisure Magazine
August 29, 2016. Winter Park, Florida – The Alfond Inn at Rollins was named one of the top 15 Best City Hotels in the Continental U.S. in the Travel + Leisure 2016 World’s Best Awards, announced in the August issue of the magazine.
The awards are the result of the Travel + Leisure annual reader’s poll. The prestigious endorsement from the magazine’s well-traveled, discriminating readers establishes The Alfond Inn’s ranking among the top echelon of hotels in the United States and confirms what has set the hotel apart since opening three years ago this month – the growing preference among travelers for small, stylish boutique hotel experiences, the antithesis of cookie cutter lodging experiences. In the case of The Alfond Inn, the distinction comes from being one of the most committed art hotels in the U.S., a strong emphasis on service and a mission that’s firmly rooted in philanthropy. All of this from a boutique hotel owned by Rollins College, located in the charming and historic town of Winter Park, Florida.
The Travel + Leisure World’s Best Award comes on the third anniversary of the hotel’s opening, after a year of benchmark achievements:
Ø The Alfond Inn was ranked one of the top 10 hotels in the United States in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, October 2015.
Ø The Alfond Inn is the only hotel in the United States that serves as the extension of a fine arts museum, successfully integrating art into the guest experience. Expressly designed as an extension of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, the hotel maintains a rotating display of cutting-edge works from The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, a nearly 300 piece collection of contemporary art that was assembled and donated to The Cornell Fine Arts Museum by Rollins alumni Barbara and Ted Alfond.
Ø Approximately 250 artworks have been on view in rotation at the hotel since opening. They are changed frequently so that guests can experience new and distinctive dialogues between new acquisitions and previously accessioned works, as well as to accommodate loans to other museums.
Ø The increasingly popular Weekly Art Tours are conducted every Sunday at 1 p.m. and are complimentary and open to the public. A Happy Hour Art Tour takes place on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m., followed by cocktails (for purchase) in the Library Lounge. Audio art tours are available at the front desk
Ø Net operating income from the Inn is directed to The Alfond Scholars Program fund, the College's premier scholarship fund, which funds full Rollins scholarships (tuition, room and board). For the year ending May 2016, The Alfond Inn contributed $1.65 million toward The Alfond Scholars Program. That money, along with spending from the endowment, will be used to fund 4.23 student scholarships ($46,520 each) at Rollins. In 2016-2017, an estimated $1.8 million will be contributed by the hotel to the endowment, which will fund another 1.74 students ($81,000).
Ø Owned by Rollins College, a private coeducational liberal arts college in Winter Park, The Alfond Inn at Rollins was built with a $12.5 million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
A member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts LVX collection, The Alfond Inn at Rollins has a AAA Four Diamond Rating and is managed by The Olympia Companies, an innovative leader in hospitality. The 112-room boutique hotel includes the award-winning Hamilton's Kitchen restaurant, a pool and fitness center, and 10,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. It is 15 minutes from downtown Orlando and 30 minutes from Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport. The Alfond Inn at Rollins, 300 East New England Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789. 407-998-8090.
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