DAYTONA Seaside SHORES — One of the beachside’s longtime independently owned lodges is ranked atop a prestigious new list of the nation’s Best 25 loved ones-pleasant accommodations.
The beachfront 91-room Solar Viking Lodge, at 2411 S. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Seashore Shores, scored the very first-put position on a listing of the Top 25 Accommodations For Family members in the United States as section of the 2022 Travelers’ Choice Ideal of the Finest Awards offered by journey site TripAdvisor.com.
In proclaiming the major location, the Solar Viking Lodge completed in advance of an array of inns in destinations that provided Anaheim, California Branson, Missouri Santa Cruz, California Myrtle Beach front, South Carolina Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Ocean City, New Jersey and Williamsburg, Virginia as very well as five accommodations in the shadow of Walt Disney Environment in Orlando.
“It’s a source of satisfaction for absolutely everyone here,” said Amy Alexon, the hotel’s basic manager. “It’s the workforce that did this. That is the purpose we have so lots of excellent reviews. We’re like a loved ones here. When you seem at all the inns we conquer on that listing, all the water parks, it is a large honor.”
Built Just Proper: Sunlight Viking Lodge celebrates 50 a long time in Daytona Seaside Shores
The Travelers’ Selection awards honor travelers’ favorite destinations, accommodations, eating places, points to do and beyond, dependent on the reviews and opinions gathered from vacationers and diners around the environment on TripAdvisor in excess of a 12-month period of time, in accordance to the site.
The awards are break up into two concentrations: Ideal of the Greatest and Travelers’ Selection.
The Ideal of the Very best designation is the website’s highest honor.
It considers the good quality and amount of traveler reviews and scores to rank the ideal lodging, destinations, seashores, sights, eating places, airlines and encounters in precise categories and geographic regions, in accordance to the web-site.
Travelers’ Alternative Greatest of the Ideal award winners characterize the top rated 1% of TripAdvisor listings, the web-site stated.
Other properties on the Prime 25 relatives motels record contain Celebration Suites in Kissimmee (at No. 5) Marriott’s Harbour Lake in Orlando (No. 8) Sanibel Moorings in Sanibel Island (No. 11) Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa in Orlando (No. 16) and Marriott’s Cypress Harbour Villas, also in Orlando (No. 17).
A time of modify at Sunshine Viking
For the Sunlight Viking Lodge, the TripAdvisor award comes in the course of a time of changeover.
A year back, in June 2021, the resort was bought by its longtime partner-and-wife possession staff of Gary and Barbara Brown to new owners Ty and Tovah Lohman of Ormond Beach for $8.5 million, according to Volusia County Home Appraiser data.
Transferring on: Soon after far more than 50 several years as hoteliers, Brown family sells Daytona Beach’s Sunlight Viking Lodge
The Browns had owned and operated the lodge since 1971. Despite the fact that their son, Greg Brown, experienced to begin with stayed on as general manager, he stepped down from that place at the close of Could to emphasis comprehensive-time on movie manufacturing do the job.
In advance of that adjust, Alexon had been promoted to general supervisor in January, going into that job after more than a decade in a variety of roles at the resort the place she had began as a entrance-desk clerk. Also, the hotel’s assistant basic supervisor, Joel Pape, began at the hotel nearly four years ago in the routine maintenance department.
Ty Lohman, the hotel’s new operator, pointed the highlight at the hotel’s leadership group and workers for recognition for the TripAdvisor honor.
“Amy has a fantastic team that normally takes excellent care of the guests,” Lohman stated. “This is definitely about her and everyone she’s acquired there. It is an iconic hotel that has a ton of amenities to present people. They worked actually difficult, so they’ve earned this.”
In change, Alexon available gratitude to the Brown household for instilling the loved ones-helpful state of mind that still characterizes the hotel.
“I certain do pass up the Browns,” she said. “I uncovered a large amount from them. They have been awesome.”
In providing congratulations, the function of the Brown family in acquiring Daytona Beach as a vacationer destination about 5 many years also was heralded by Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Affiliation of Volusia County.
“This is a wonderful, remarkable reward for a spouse and children that has given their life to the marketplace in this article,” Davis mentioned. “What that signifies, that took a long time.”
When the Browns very first opened their resort in 1971, there was a whole lot of area converse about the possible affect of a new vacationer attraction that would open up afterwards that yr in Orlando.
From 2019: Sunlight Viking Lodge owner chronicles improvements in Daytona Beach front
“There was a lot of speculation about irrespective of whether Disney Planet would assist Daytona or harm Daytona,” Gary Brown explained in early 2021 as the Sun Viking Lodge marked its 50th anniversary. “If you search at history, I think it did equally.”
Even as Disney’s mammoth empire loomed ever-much larger, the Sunshine Viking Lodge endured.
It weathered gasoline shortages, wars, wildfires, economic downturns, the effects of the Sept. 11th assaults and, most just lately, the coronavirus pandemic.
Lodge staff members praised for award-profitable work
Arrived at by cellular phone, Greg Brown also acknowledged his parents’ job in defining the Sunlight Viking Lodge experience over far more than 50 yrs at the helm.
“We come to feel blessed to get the award,” Brown reported. “Obviously, my dad and mom performed a massive portion in that, as very well. The whole personnel has to be recommended for all their difficult perform and making everybody happy.
“We have a incredibly stable employees, even via the pandemic,” he stated. “The issues with staffing shortages have been hard on all people, but the main is there, and it retained us likely.”
Labor lack difficulties are nevertheless a variable at the resort, said Pape, the assistant standard manager. Correct now, staffing for the hotel’s housekeeping section is about 20% under normal summer ranges, he reported.
Aid (really) desired: Volusia restaurants, inns struggle to seek the services of employees
“But we all have to step up as a team and get the position performed anyway,” he said.
Alexon said that a staff celebration get together is in the arranging stages as a reward for the TripAdvisor honor.
“It’s definitely likely to boost morale,” she claimed of the award. “We’re going to have a large party to rejoice the staff.”
This report at first appeared on The Daytona Seashore News-Journal: Daytona Seaside inns: TripAdvisor claims Daytona has greatest for households
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