This report appeared in the Brunswick News:
Local Resorts Earn Top Ratings
Mobil Gives The Lodge and the Georgian Room 5 Stars; the Cloister Earns 4 Stars
The stars are shining brighter for the Sea Island Co., as the Georgian Room restaurant at The Cloister joined The Lodge at Sea Island, on St. Simons Island, as one of only a handful of top-rated five-star facilities in the 2008 Mobil Travel Guide rankings.
In addition, The Cloister regained its once fall-en four-star rating and the new Spa at Sea Island debuted at four stars in rankings of hotels, restaurants and spas recently released by Mobil. Mobil Travel Guide has rated dining and hotel facilities throughout the United States for 50 years, with its coveted five-star~ rating reserved for an exceptional experience with superlative service and surroundings. Its four-star rating is for out-standing facilities with exceptional service. Only 41 hotels and 17 restaurants in the United States met the five-star standard this year and only 125 hotels made the four-star mark. For The Lodge the top ranking was a continuation of a trend that has been uninterrupted since it was opened in 2001 and first ranked by Mobil the following year.
“There are so few Mobil five-star recipients — it really puts you up there with the very best,” said Richard Delany, general manager of The Lodge. “There are hundreds of different standards you must meet to achieve that rating. It’s about consistency. Four-star properties get things right most of the time; five-star properties get things right all of the time,” Delany said.
In Georgia, only the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Atlanta and The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead joined The Lodge and Georgian Room as five-star facilities. In the national constellation of 17 five-star restaurants, four are In New York City and two are in Chicago, with the other 11 scattered among 11 different locales.
For The Cloister, which had fallen from a five-star rating to four- and then a three-star before the old hotel on Sea Island was razed and reopened in 2006 in a $500 million rebuilding program, the four-star rank is its first as a new facility. The Mobile Guide likes it: “Wood-beamed rooms are now decorated with rich, jewel-toned Turkish rugs and plush, pillow-topped beds,” the guide says in its rating.
Of the Spa, the guide says, “the Spa at Sea Island defines the complete spa experience. The focus is on customization, with 26 treatment rooms dedicated to an extensive menu of offerings.”
The guide serves up its highest praise for the Georgian Room: “Tables are set with crisp white linens, hand-painted china and silver flatware. What graces those plates is a work of art, with cuisine inspired by seasonal, fresh ingredients and the bounty of the sea coast.”
The Lodge, the guide says, is “Classic and timeless; the décor brings to mind an English country manor.”
Three other facilities in the Golden Isles owned by other operators achieved three-star status in the 2008 Mobil ratings:
the King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort, on St. Simons Island
the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, on Jekyll Island
The Lodge on Little St. Simons Island.
A Mobil three-stat hotel is considered to be well-appointed, with a full-service restaurant and expanded amenities.
Mobile Rates Georgia’s Best 5-Star Hotels
· Four Seasons, Atlanta
· The Lodge at Sea Island
4-Star Hotels
· The Cloister, Sea Island
· InterContinental, Buckhead
· The Ritz-Canton, Buckhead
· The Ritz-Canton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation, Greensboro 5-Star Restaurants
· Georgian Room, Sea Island
· The Dining Room, Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead
4-Star Restaurants
· Bacchanalia, Atlanta
· Park 75 at the Four Seasons, Atlanta
· Quinones at Bacchanalia, Atlanta
4-Star Spas
· The Cloister Spa, Sea Island
· The Ritz-Carlton Lodge Spa, Reynolds Plantation, Greensboro
For a complete list of the Mobil rankings and to read comments from reviewers, go to:
http://mobiltravelguide.howstuffworks.com/