"The Ahwahnee" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Ahwahnee

Denise hadn’t been to Yosemite for many years so when her birthday was approaching she dropped some unsubtle hints about what would please her and they pointed toward the valley. I used to go to Yosemite three times a year. I would drive the four hours from Mill Valley or Monterey, have lunch at the Ahwahnee, walk around for three hours, and then drive home. It was a true restorative.

I hadn’t been there in several years and I was itching to return. The Yosemite I speak of is a remarkable valley which you enter from the west, either over some 6,000-foot hills or up along the Merced River which flows out of the valley.

There are two places to stay, unless you are a camping type, and as my idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn, there are two places to say: the affordable Yosemite Lodge and the high-priced spread, the Ahwahnee Hotel. The Ahwahnee is a spectacular building built in the mid-1920's. Its six stories are dwarfed by the granite cliffs that form the valley and rise thousands of feet as the backdrop to the hotel. The building is stone and wood; the dining room has 34-foot ceilings.

It is awesome, and I don’t use that word lightly. It truly inspires awe. There is dignity about the place, as well as its surroundings. It sits below Half Dome, one of the most breath-taking natural sights anywhere. And so you’d think the folks who run the place would be humble by the location and the hotel itself. It has a rich history of providing a bed and meal to many of the worlds leaders over more than three-quarters of a century. Historically, the tradition was one of rustic elegance. Amidst the glory of nature, the glamour of civilization.

You’d think. But somehow management of the Ahwahnee has slipped into the hands of people who are less awestruck than I. They’re busy running a hotel, one that might be anywhere, and that has lessened the experience. I want everyone working at the Ahwahnee to share my reverence and humility. They used to. They don’t anymore.

For instance, they used to require that men wear jackets in the dinner room at dinner. That’s no longer the rule. Now that might not seem like a big deal, but the fact is that when you eliminate such requirements, the quality of the guests, their behavior, and the service they command all decline. It has happened on the airlines, it has happened in the churches. At the Ahwahnee, the casualness has brought a decline in the dining room service.

There were a number of other signs of deterioration, and I made a list of them. That’s what journalists do, even when they are on the scene for their own pleasure. So when I received an email from the Ahwahnee asking me to take a survey, I hit reply and said, I don’t like surveys, but I’ll send you a list of my observations if you’d like. Before I had a chance to hit send, I got another email from them which was identical except that it was a template:

Welcome [Name], Thank you for your recent visit to [Hotel Name]! Your feedback regarding your recent visit is extremely important to us! Please participate in our online Guest Satisfaction Survey. Your responses are kept confidential and are combined with other guests’ responses to show us the areas in which we need to focus first. To start a survey click on a link below: At the end of this survey you can enter to win a prize valued up to $5000! Thank you for your participation, we are looking forward to your feedback!

Sincerely, [Hotel Name].

So I hit send, and never got a reply. I did get another survey solicitation and I responded the way I did the first time, except on the subject line I put attn: Roger Young who was listed on the email as the General Manager. No reply.

I was irked. For what they charge at the Ahwahnee, you’d think they would have their systems working smoothly. They are not. When I just now went on-line to check their room rates -- they start at $379, before tax -- there was programming code on the front page of the site. Also, the site had rates for last year. Hello?

Here is a litany of other issues we had with them, all indicative of a tragic failure of management. Not tragic as would you rather visit the Green Zone in Baghdad, but isn’t it a shame that such an extraordinary establishment isn’t properly run. The incompetence and malfeasance disrespects this fine national monument.

First, obviously whoever manages their computers and site is not getting the job done. In addition to the current disrepair, on the ground in the valley, we discovered that the reservations system that is supposed to interface between the Yosemite Lodge and the Ahwahnee don’t really talk to each other. If they do, it is not in a language the clerks who handle it understand.

We initially had reservations at the Lodge. When we arrived, they didn’t have our room. So they upgraded us. How grand! Then the clerk asked us if we might not prefer to stay at the Ahwahnee. Yep, that would be fine. He clacked on his keyboard, printed out our new reservation and sent us up the road. When we arrived, the reservation didn’t exist. However, after some minor kerfuffling, we managed to get assigned a room under the eaves. Not with a view, as had been promised, but any room at the Ahwahnee is going to be special.

Our room had dead flowers in the vase. Denise called the front desk. They said they’d send someone up with fresh flowers. No one ever came. There was also a dead bottle in the special recycling basket. Wouldn’t you have thought they’d empty the trash before sending someone to their room? Another bugaboo...the maid should always make sure that the clock radio is (1) set to the proper time, (2) has a soft music station set if it is turned on, and (3), most important, the alarm is not set to go off the next morning. The clock has the right time and we actually liked the music selection, but we didn’t want to awaken at the hour the previous guests had chosen.

No big deal, of course, but it does raise the eyebrows a notch. I had called for a dinner reservation a couple of days earlier. Actually, I’d called a half-dozen times and finally left a message on the answering machine. They called back to confirm at 9:30 that night. I wasn’t asleep, but when the phone rings at that hour, it’s usually a wrong number or something else is wrong. The person confirming the reservation didn’t know where she was calling, actually, and was grateful it wasn’t the east instead of the west coast. (I had mentioned when I left my number that I was calling from Monterey.)

The dining room is still operating with paper reservations. When we were there, we saw two management types peering at the charts and lists, erasing hither and thither, no doubt doing their best, but I’ve seen larger restaurants that operate without so much hassle.

Of course, when you reduce the complications of messy systems, you have more time to see to the details, and it is the details that make the event special. They haven’t figured out how to keep the candles lit on the tables in the dining room. The tapers are in metal sleeves and they were constantly going out. Water glasses weren’t refilled without asking. The anchovies on the caesar salad arrived ten minutes later.

The Ahwahnee is managed by a mega hospitality corp. I sent an email and left a phone message requesting contact information for the manager of the hotel. No response. They’re too big. A unique place like Yosemite Valley needs local hands-on control because the people in charge on the other side of the country either don’t know better or don’t know how to get the job done properly.

Alas. This is not the fall of Western Civilization but it is a sign of decline. Perhaps I shouldn’t expect that a hotel should maintain the quality that I first enjoyed a quarter-century ago, but I do. The Ahwahnee is worthy of the finest in management, for its guests, its employees, and for posterity.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.