DAYTONA Seashore SHORES — One of the beachside’s longtime independently owned resorts is ranked atop a prestigious new list of the nation’s Leading 25 spouse and children-welcoming accommodations.
The beachfront 91-area Sunshine Viking Lodge, at 2411 S. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach Shores, scored the 1st-place rating on a record of the Top 25 Hotels For Households in the United States as portion of the 2022 Travelers’ Preference Greatest of the Ideal Awards presented by journey website TripAdvisor.com.
In boasting the prime location, the Sunshine Viking Lodge finished forward of an array of lodges in destinations that incorporated Anaheim, California Branson, Missouri Santa Cruz, California Myrtle Beach front, South Carolina Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Ocean Town, New Jersey and Williamsburg, Virginia as perfectly as 5 motels in the shadow of Walt Disney Earth in Orlando.
“It’s a supply of satisfaction for anyone below,” said Amy Alexon, the hotel’s general manager. “It’s the workforce that did this. Which is the purpose we have so several superior opinions. We’re like a family members below. When you glimpse at all the hotels we beat on that list, all the h2o parks, it is a substantial honor.”
Designed Just Proper:Solar Viking Lodge celebrates 50 a long time in Daytona Beach front Shores
The Travelers’ Preference awards honor travelers’ favourite locations, motels, dining places, factors to do and past, primarily based on the testimonials and thoughts gathered from travelers and diners around the entire world on TripAdvisor above a 12-thirty day period period of time, according to the website.
The awards are split into two amounts: Very best of the Best and Travelers’ Option.
The Very best of the Ideal designation is the website’s best honor.
It considers the high quality and quantity of traveler evaluations and rankings to rank the ideal accommodations, places, shorelines, attractions, dining places, airlines and experiences in precise groups and geographic areas, according to the website.
Travelers’ Preference Finest of the Finest award winners stand for the top rated 1% of TripAdvisor listings, the website stated.
Other properties on the Leading 25 loved ones lodges listing include 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 Vacation resort & Spa in Orlando (No. 16) and Marriott’s Cypress Harbour Villas, also in Orlando (No. 17).
A time of transform at Sunlight Viking
For the Solar Viking Lodge, the TripAdvisor award arrives in the course of a time of transition.
A yr back, in June 2021, the lodge was marketed by its longtime husband-and-wife ownership crew of Gary and Barbara Brown to new homeowners Ty and Tovah Lohman of Ormond Beach front for $8.5 million, in accordance to Volusia County House Appraiser records.
Transferring on:Soon after additional than 50 several years as hoteliers, Brown family members sells Daytona Beach’s Sunlight Viking Lodge
The Browns experienced owned and operated the lodge because 1971. Whilst their son, Greg Brown, had originally stayed on as normal manager, he stepped down from that place at the finish of May to target comprehensive-time on video clip output perform.
In advance of that improve, Alexon had been promoted to basic manager in January, relocating into that job after a lot more than a ten years in several roles at the hotel the place she had began as a entrance-desk clerk. Likewise, the hotel’s assistant basic supervisor, Joel Pape, begun at the lodge almost four several years ago in the upkeep office.
Ty Lohman, the hotel’s new proprietor, pointed the spotlight at the hotel’s leadership staff and staff for recognition for the TripAdvisor honor.
“Amy has a excellent team that normally takes wonderful care of the guests,” Lohman said. “This is actually about her and all people she’s acquired there. It is an legendary hotel that has a large amount of facilities to present families. They labored really challenging, so they’ve earned this.”
In switch, Alexon offered gratitude to the Brown household for instilling the family-pleasant mentality that even now characterizes the lodge.
“I guaranteed do miss the Browns,” she explained. “I realized a lot from them. They were astounding.”
In offering congratulations, the position of the Brown household in establishing Daytona Seashore as a vacationer spot above five decades also was heralded by Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County.
“This is a wonderful, incredible reward for a family that has supplied their lives to the field here,” Davis claimed. “What that signifies, that took many years.”
When the Browns very first opened their resort in 1971, there was a large amount of neighborhood converse about the opportunity effects of a new touri
st attraction that would open later on that calendar year in Orlando.
From 2019: Solar Viking Lodge owner chronicles changes in Daytona Beach
“There was a great deal of speculation about irrespective of whether Disney Planet would help Daytona or harm Daytona,” Gary Brown reported in early 2021 as the Sunshine Viking Lodge marked its 50th anniversary. “If you seem at history, I think it did both.”
Even as Disney’s mammoth empire loomed at any time-much larger, the Sun Viking Lodge endured.
It weathered gasoline shortages, wars, wildfires, economic downturns, the effects of the Sept. 11th assaults and, most lately, the coronavirus pandemic.
Lodge team praised for award-winning work
Attained by phone, Greg Brown also acknowledged his parents’ function in defining the Solar Viking Lodge working experience in excess of extra than 50 many years at the helm.
“We feel blessed to get the award,” Brown explained. “Obviously, my dad and mom played a large section in that, as nicely. The entire team has to be counseled for all their hard do the job and earning everybody content.
“We have a pretty solid personnel, even by means of the pandemic,” he stated. “The problems with staffing shortages have been tough on every person, but the core is there, and it stored us likely.”
Labor scarcity problems are continue to a aspect at the resort, reported Pape, the assistant basic manager. Right now, staffing for the hotel’s housekeeping division is about 20% below common summer months stages, he stated.
Help (genuinely) needed:Volusia dining places, accommodations wrestle to use workers
“But we all have to phase up as a team and get the work performed in any case,” he stated.
Alexon stated that a employees celebration party is in the organizing levels as a reward for the TripAdvisor honor.
“It’s truly likely to increase morale,” she said of the award. “We’re likely to have a massive party to celebrate the workers.”
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