The Waldorf Astoria New York has been the site of major political events and notable guests such as President George H.W. Bush and Presidents Carter and Reagan at the 1980 Alfred E. Smith dinner in the Waldorf Ballroom. Credits: Waldorf Astoria

The day after President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft passed away, the March 9, 1930 edition of The Milwaukee Journal ran a piece on his frequent visits to Milwaukee. The article describes his reaction on the day that the World War I armistice was declared: “Sitting up in bed at 4 a.m. at the Hotel Pfister on November 11, 1918…the pajama-clad justice declared: ‘This is the greatest day in history.’ ” The Pfister also hosted Taft in 1915 for a meeting with the local Merchants and Manufacturers association and has welcomed every U.S. president since Truman.

A hotel’s background in catering to such dignitaries bodes well for the planner bringing in top-tier executives, who will surely experience the same level of service and decorum. Beth Waters, director of corporate customer experience, with Milwaukee-based Direct Supply, which services the senior living profession, notes that “We use the Pfister a lot when we bring in VIP guests, our board members or some of our really high-level customers. We have an Executive Operators Forum that we put together, and that is essentially the highest-level customer that we work with; they operate all the buildings. It could be the CEO or COO or the V.P. of operations. And we have historically put them at different hotels, and this year we made the decision to step it up a little bit and put them at the Pfister. It was extremely well received.”

“This year we made the decision to step it up a little bit and put them at the Pfister. It was extremely well received.”
— Beth Waters

The 307-room “Grand Hotel of the West,” as it was billed when it debuted in 1893, houses 25,000 sf of meeting space and still retains the “traditional look and feel,” Waters remarks. Complementing that visual appeal is a staff that is versed in “old school” hospitality. “On the second day of our meeting, they provided the box lunches we had arranged for, but as we were all sitting down to eat they brought out these warm chips that are just amazing. And instead of putting them on the buffet line the server went around to every table and made sure everyone had some; it was just a personal touch,” she recalls.

Apart from the white-glove service that is so second nature to hotels that have welcomed presidential guests, their political history can serve to engage meeting attendees. Planners can stage galas themed after a famed political event, work with the staff to provide attendees private historical tours of the hotel, or at the very least, offer attendees mementos tied to the history. The Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle, Washington, for example, published “The Olympic: The Story of Seattle’s Landmark Hotel” in celebration of its 80th anniversary in 2004.

Waldorf Astoria New York

George H.W. Bush was known to favor the cuisine at this iconic hotel, which made Waldorf Salad, Eggs Benedict and Red Velvet part of the national culinary tradition. And the resplendent Presidential Suite at the Waldorf has hosted and pleased every president since FDR (interestingly, none of the six presidents depicted in bas relief on the hotel’s 1893 lobby clock have stayed in the Presidential Suite). Among the suite’s Georgian-style furnishings are an upholstered rocking chair that belonged to John F. Kennedy, wall sconces donated by Richard M. Nixon and a desk owned by General Douglas MacArthur.

The 1,232-room Waldorf has also been the site of major political events, including the World War II Peace Treaty. Companies can create memorable and influential events of their own in the hotel’s 8,000-sf Executive Meeting Center, located on the 18th floor with accompanying panoramic views of the Big Apple. The center’s 13 rooms are part of the Waldorf’s overall 60,000 sf of function space. Groups also may engage in the hotel’s Historic Tours, showcasing the landmark’s New York City legacy, including the famed Grand Ballroom and rooftop space with apiaries and garden.

Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara

Classic West Coast hotels such as the 181-room Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara has been noted as a frequent lodging choice of Ronald Reagan and site of his press conferences. The Biltmore also has been a hub for corporate events, and regularly hosts meetings for the board of directors of Sage Publications Inc. Dana Graham, associate director, corporate events and community relations, for the Thousand Oaks, California-based academic publisher, describes a “cultural synergy” between the Biltmore and her company. “Since this is our board of directors, it’s a very sophisticated group of people. They’re there for business purposes and they want to be in a really dignified, professional environment that is attuned to service,” Graham explains. And the service at The Biltmore, like that of The Pfister, has that personal touch. “They know our attendees very well and treat us like a family,” she adds. “If we have a board member arrive ahead of schedule, they will do everything they can to get that board member into a guest room. If someone leaves something in their car, the valet staff is happy to run and get it. Or they’ll call you a cab if you happen to be stranded somewhere in Montecito,” she relates. “So when I am not onsite for the meetings I have complete trust and faith in the staff there. They’re a fine-tuned operation, and if we have last-minute things that come up, such as adding a champagne toast if there’s a special occasion, they’ll be able to make that happen flawlessly as if it had been planned for weeks.”

The hotel houses 15,000 sf of meeting space and offers its tropical gardens for Garden Games such as bocce. During Sage’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at the resort earlier this year, “over 200 guests enjoyed an outdoor cocktail reception prior to hearing our featured guest speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, in the Loggia Terrace,” Graham says. “This coming February, we are eagerly anticipating hosting our esteemed founder’s 75th birthday celebration in the newly remodeled La Pacifica. It’s going to be a wonderful occasion.” The 4,200-sf La Pacifica is the resort’s oceanfront ballroom and terrace.

Originally built in 1927, the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara’s “history is part of the draw of the hotel,” she says. “We go to historic hotels, such as The Hay-Adams (profiled below) in DC. We’re academic publishers, so that is very meaningful to us.

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa

Presidents Reagan, Ford and Carter have all stayed at this oasis-like central California resort. Used as an Army training camp in the 1940s, today the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa is decidedly an idyllic environment in the midst of mountains, oaks and a George C. Thomas-designed golf course that dates from 1923. Attendees can decompress at the 31,000-sf Spa Ojai, with its newly introduced Somadome Personal Meditation Pod. Other new features of the Ojai include the Indigo Pool & Bar, opened this summer, and the signature restaurant Olivella and Vine, opened in September. The AAA Five Diamond, 308-room resort offers 35,000 sf of function space.

Hotel Del Coronado

About seven miles from the San Diego Airport, planners can find one of California’s most visibly iconic resorts, the Victorian-style Hotel Del Coronado, which has welcomed presidential guests such as Harrison, Taft and Roosevelt. The latter even flew the presidential flag at the Hotel Del, marking it his official temporary residence. When Roosevelt and his wife visited the hotel in 1935 for San Diego’s California Pacific International Exposition, a local newspaper reported: “The chief executive enjoyed an inspiring view of the broad Pacific, where a goodly part of the United States fleet rode at anchor, the lights from the warships shedding their glow over the temporary White House.” On September 3, 1970, President Richard Nixon hosted a state dinner in the Hotel Del’s historic Crown Room for Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. Former President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, and Governor and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, not to mention celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, were among the hundreds in attendance.

Although dating from 1888, the Hotel Del is no mere relic; a recent $13 million, two-year renovation has revitalized the property, which features 679 guest rooms and 65,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space.

The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square

Among historic California hotels, The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square has a claim to offering the most cutting-edge meeting technology with its Cisco TelePresence videoconferencing room, part of 56,000 sf of function space. The 1,195-room hotel has hosted events for dignitaries that would inspire confidence in any planner bringing in a high-profile group. Examples include a Barack Obama fundraiser, a celebration for Nancy Pelosi’s one-year anniversary as the first woman Speaker, the Third Annual Pros for Kids with first lady Nancy Reagan as guest of honor, and a United Nations Delegate Banquet in 1945. Some of the other major political figures to have lodged at the St. Francis include General Douglas Mac­Arthur in 1951, President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon in 1962, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito in 1975, Queen Elizabeth II in the Presidential Suite in 1983 (with the Reagans staying concurrently in the London Suite) and President Clinton in 1998.

Hilton Chicago

Opened in 1927, the Hilton Chicago has certainly lived up to its billing as “Midwest White House.” The 1,544-room hotel has hosted every U.S. president since its opening for a function in the pillar-less Grand Ballroom, while the two-story Conrad Suite has housed every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush. President Obama himself has a long history with the hotel, having held eight press conferences in the Continental Ballroom during his election season, and appointed many members of his cabinet in that ballroom. Obama also held his first-ever cabinet meeting in the Waldorf Room. These rooms are part of an overall 234,000 sf of function space that, like the rest of the hotel, exudes historical character with elements such as French-crafted fixtures, Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers and Fresco-style oil paintings. Next spring, the Hilton Chicago will unveil a property-wide renovation that aims to modernize while preserving historical integrity.

The Hay-Adams

Located in Washington, DC, The Hay-Adams is named after John Hay, who served as a personal secretary to President Abraham Lincoln and historian Henry Adams, the descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Developer Harry Wardman bought the original pair of Romanesque homes designed in 1884 (an intellectual hub that welcomed figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain) and replaced them with The Hay-Adams House, an apartment-hotel that opened in 1928. Today the 145-room Hay-Adams makes a stately site for corporate meetings, surrounding groups with Elizabethan and Tudor architectural motifs. More than 16,000 sf of meeting space includes nine meeting rooms, a private dining room and the Top of the Hay, with panoramic views of the White House. Boasting Washington’s first air-conditioned dining room in 1930, the hotel drew many high-profile politicians, and its political pedigree continues in modern times: Obama and his family lodged at The Hay-Adams prior to his first-term inauguration.

The Mayflower Hotel

Dubbed “Washington’s Second Best Address” by President Truman, The Mayflower has been the site of numerous high-profile events in America’s political history, and some that were significant but not so high profile. Just four years after its 1925 debut, the property welcomed heads of state to a private room where they worked on continuing relations between North and South America. The room was later dubbed the Pan American Room. Eventually it became the Cabinet Room, where Reagan’s former aides and presidential library volunteers gathered in 2004 following his death to prepare and distribute the 1,000 funeral invitations. On March 3, 1933, Roosevelt stayed in guest room 776 on the eve of his inaugural address and wrote the famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

The Mayflower’s culinary staff has a tradition of serving foreign and domestic dignitaries: Winston Churchill attended a state dinner there in 1945; King of Morocco, Mohammed V. hosted a dinner in 1957 for the Eisenhowers; and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly ate the same meal at The Carvery Restaurant (now Edgar Bar & Kitchen) nearly every working day for 20 years until his death in 1972. The 657-room Mayflower offers 42,577 sf of meeting space and recently completed a $20 million renovation.

Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa

The Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa Commander in Chief suite is an opulent space with features that include dramatic ocean views, sprawling living space with a floating wall that can be drawn to create two private spaces, and an installation of miniature shoe sculptures.

As envisioned by shoe designer Robert Tabor, an entire wall in the oceanfront suite serves as an exhibition space for miniature pairs of shoe sculptures dedicated to the first ladies and female dignitaries throughout history. Tabor’s Shoe Wall features designs modeled after Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Evita Perón, Imelda Marcos, Margaret Thatcher, Marie Antoinette, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth. President Obama has spent a night in the same presidential suite.

Crowned Florida’s Top Resort in the 2015 Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa recently debuted a new oceanfront restaurant and lounge, a celebrity-chef-led culinary program with fresh menus and exciting gastronomic events, a bespoke Cultural Concierge program and more. Situated on a secluded private beach on seven acres of the Atlantic coast with breathtaking ocean views and lush tropical gardens, the AAA Five Diamond Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa boasts more than 30,000 sf of meeting and event space.

The Omni Homestead Resort

Planners themselves, not only attendees, can become enthralled with the history of a hotel such as The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. The Allegheny Mountains resort opened in 1766 and has hosted Washington, Jefferson, Taft, Roosevelt, Reagan, Bush Senior and many other presidents. “As a history minor in college, it certainly peaked my interest that the property had such history,” says Courtney Richardson, executive assistant to the TeaEO of Honest Tea, Inc. “What a privilege to stay where such important figures had and to know that certain rooms and halls had once heard conversation about the development of our country.”

“We wanted it to feel more like a retreat than an actual meeting, and no place seemed more fitting. The Omni Homestead Resort has certainly been able to maintain the historic charm.”
— Courtney Richardson

Richardson planned Bethesda, Maryland-based Honest Tea’s annual three-day company meeting at the Omni Homestead. “We wanted it to feel more like a retreat than an actual meeting, and no place seemed more fitting. The Omni Homestead Resort has certainly been able to maintain the historic charm. We have never held our company meeting offsite before, so being at such an amazing property was a treat all in itself. Our attendees took tours, read about the resort and were amazed at its history.”

The very father of America, George Washington, awarded Captain Thomas Bullitt the land grant that allowed the construction of the first Homestead property, an 18-room mountain lodge. In the course of hosting 23 U.S. presidents — from Thomas Jefferson’s 1818 vacation to George W. Bush’s 2015 golf trip — the Omni Homestead has grown to 2,300 acres and 483 guest rooms. Today, planners have more than 72,000 sf of meeting space at their disposal, including the 13,485-sf Grand Ballroom and 10,368-sf Regency Ballroom. That’s a wealth of opportunity to convene in what is arguably the resort that is closest to America’s roots. C&IT