TripAdvisor says Daytona has best for families
5 min read
DAYTONA Seashore SHORES — One of the beachside’s longtime independently owned hotels is ranked atop a prestigious new checklist of the nation’s Top rated 25 relatives-friendly lodging.
The beachfront 91-room Sunlight Viking Lodge, at 2411 S. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach Shores, scored the first-spot rating on a list of the Top rated 25 Resorts For Family members in the United States as component of the 2022 Travelers’ Choice Ideal of the Most effective Awards presented by journey site TripAdvisor.com.
In declaring the top place, the Solar Viking Lodge concluded ahead of an array of hotels in destinations that bundled Anaheim, California Branson, Missouri Santa Cruz, California Myrtle Beach front, South Carolina Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Ocean Metropolis, New Jersey and Williamsburg, Virginia as nicely as five lodges in the shadow of Walt Disney Earth in Orlando.
“It’s a resource of pleasure for absolutely everyone right here,” stated Amy Alexon, the hotel’s typical supervisor. “It’s the workers that did this. Which is the explanation we have so numerous great reviews. We’re like a family members listed here. When you appear at all the motels we conquer on that list, all the h2o parks, it is a huge honor.”
Designed Just Appropriate:Sun Viking Lodge celebrates 50 years in Daytona Beach front Shores
The Travelers’ Alternative awards honor travelers’ beloved destinations, hotels, eating places, things to do and further than, primarily based on the assessments and viewpoints gathered from travelers and diners all over the entire world on TripAdvisor around a 12-month interval, in accordance to the web-site.
The awards are break up into two amounts: Best of the Ideal and Travelers’ Decision.
The Most effective of the Very best designation is the website’s best honor.
It considers the high quality and amount of traveler opinions and scores to rank the most effective accommodations, places, shorelines, points of interest, restaurants, airlines and ordeals in certain categories and geographic regions, in accordance to the web-site.
Travelers’ Preference Best of the Most effective award winners stand for the best 1% of TripAdvisor listings, the web page mentioned.
Other properties on the Prime 25 spouse and children hotels 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 Solar Viking
For the Sunshine Viking Lodge, the TripAdvisor award arrives for the duration of a time of changeover.
A 12 months ago, in June 2021, the resort was offered by its longtime husband-and-wife possession staff of Gary and Barbara Brown to new entrepreneurs Ty and Tovah Lohman of Ormond Beach for $8.5 million, in accordance to Volusia County House Appraiser documents.
Going on:Immediately after far more than 50 many years as hoteliers, Brown relatives sells Daytona Beach’s Solar Viking Lodge
The Browns had owned and operated the lodge due to the fact 1971. While their son, Greg Brown, had to begin with stayed on as general supervisor, he stepped down from that placement at the finish of May possibly to concentrate complete-time on video clip creation perform.
Forward of that adjust, Alexon experienced been promoted to normal manager in January, relocating into that job after a lot more than a decade in different roles at the hotel in which she had started off as a front-desk clerk. Likewise, the hotel’s assistant common manager, Joel Pape, started out at the resort almost four a long time back in the maintenance office.
Ty Lohman, the hotel’s new operator, pointed the spotlight at the hotel’s management team and personnel for recognition for the TripAdvisor honor.
“Amy has a terrific crew that usually takes good care of the attendees,” Lohman said. “This is definitely about her and everyone she’s bought there. It is an iconic resort that has a good deal of amenities to offer family members. They labored really challenging, so they’ve acquired this.”
In change, Alexon made available gratitude to the Brown household for instilling the spouse and children-helpful way of thinking that even now characterizes the resort.
“I absolutely sure do pass up the Browns,” she mentioned. “I learned a large amount from them. They were awesome.”
In featuring congratulations, the function of the Brown household in building Daytona Beach as a vacationer destination more than five many years also was heralded by Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County.
“This is a superb, amazing reward for a family that has presented their life to the marketplace right here,” Davis said. “What that signifies, that took several years.”
When the Browns first opened their hotel in 1971, there was a great deal of local chat about the potential effect of a new vacationer attraction that would open up later that calendar year in Orlando.
From 2019: Sunlight Viking Lodge owner chronicles improvements in Daytona Seaside
“There was a lot of speculation about no matter whether Disney Planet would assistance Daytona or hurt Daytona,” Gary Brown stated in early 2021 as the Sunlight Viking Lodge marked its 50th anniversary. “If you glance at historical past, I feel it did both equally.”
Even as Disney’s mammoth empire loomed ever-larger, the Solar Viking Lodge endured.
It weathered gasoline shortages, wars, wildfires, economic downturns, the effects of the Sept. 11th attacks and, most not too long ago, the coronavirus pandemic.
Resort personnel praised for award-winning exertion
Reached by phone, Greg Brown also acknowledged his parents’ job in defining the Sunlight Viking Lodge encounter more than more than 50 decades at the helm.
“We sense blessed to get the award,” Brown claimed. “Obviously, my moms and dads played a large component in that, as perfectly. The full staff has to be commended for all their hard perform and making everyone joyful.
“We have a extremely stable personnel, even by means of the pandemic,” he explained. “The difficulties with staffing shortages have been challenging on everyone, but the core is there, and it kept us likely.”
Labor scarcity problems are even now a aspect at the resort, stated Pape, the assistant typical supervisor. Correct now, staffing for the hotel’s housekeeping department is about 20% below usual summertime levels, he reported.
Assist (truly) needed:Volusia places to eat, lodges battle to retain the services of staff
“But we all have to stage up as a group and get the task completed anyway,” he explained.
Alexon claimed that a staff members celebration bash is in the arranging stages as a reward for the TripAdvisor honor.
“It’s actually likely to increase morale,” she claimed of the award. “We’re going to have a massive occasion to rejoice the staff members.”
