Press release: 1994-04-10: Hotels Aim Their Deals At the Kids

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.nytimes.com (archived)

By Laurel Graeber

April 10, 1994


PROBABLY the most pampered young hotel guest in literary history was Eloise, the children's-book heroine whose long-term residency at the Plaza included abundant room service, roller-skating down the halls and valet cleaning for her sneakers. More recently, Kevin in the film "Home Alone 2" turned his own suite at the same establishment into a veritable video arcade and gourmet dining palace, courtesy of his dad's purloined credit card and his own chutzpah.

Such escapades, of course, were purely imaginary. But these days, red-carpet treatment for juvenile lodgers at hotels and resorts is more than the stuff of fiction. As more children travel with their parents -- last summer, over 40 percent of vacationing adults planned to take their children, according to the United States Travel Data Center, a Washington-based research group -- hotel chains and individual properties alike are responding with special perks. The many chain-sponsored camps and clubs for children include Camp Hyatt (Hyatt Hotels), Ritz Kids (Ritz-Carlton), Kids for All Seasons (the Four Seasons), Westin Kids Clubs (Westin Hotels, beginning in May) and Kidspree Vacation Club (Holiday Inn Sunspree and Crowne Plaza Resorts). Individual hotels' lures include the opportunity for children to make an "erupting" papier-mache volcano at the Ihilani Resort and Spa on Oahu, Hawaii, and, if the children are game, to ride down a slide into a vat of chocolate pudding at Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort in Bermuda. Kids can handle exotic birds at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Florida and literally join the circus (at least for a while) at selected Club Med family villages.

"We usually plan a program a season ahead, and each one has a theme," says Randy Bobick, director of recreation for Camp Hyatt Kachina, the children's program at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz., and a prototype for the chain's 102 other Camp Hyatts. On the 1994 agenda for campers aged 3 to 12 is "A Western Adventure," with activities like a treasure hunt for "gold," a "Cactus Round-up" (a scavenger hunt) and a "How the West Was Won" fort contest. This summer a tai chi instructor will also be on hand to teach the kids elements of self-defense. Craft and nature activities revolve around the resort's Southwest locale, such as cactus-growing, bolo tie-making and bandanna-decorating.

Other resorts also specialize in acquainting vacationing children with local history, flora and fauna. The Westin Maui's Keiki Kamp, which operates during the summer and school vacations, offers children from 5 to 12 tours of Lahaina, a historic Hawaiian whaling town three miles away, and a five-minute hike up to Black Rock, where King Kahekili made his mythic plunge into the ocean. Children of the same age who attend the Ritz Kids program at the Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage, Calif., will visit the Bighorn Institute, a research center about 10 miles from the resort. (The Peninsular bighorn sheep, an endangered species, also graze on the grounds of the hotel.) And for little ones who appreciate feathered friends, there are at least a dozen at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. Participants in the resort's four children's camp programs, each geared to a different age group, can rub shoulders with residents such as Sammy, a green-winged macaw; Mendel, a toucan; Sheff, an umbrella cockatoo, and Peaches and Cream, a pair of lovebirds (all are tame).

Other programs ease up on the educational angle to emphasize pure fun. The Basin Harbor Club, a resort on Lake Champlain, Vt., has made a tradition out of its "Christmas in July" celebration, when young guests make Christmas cookies and serenade the guests with carols. "Santa rides by on a golf cart, and he hands out little gifts to the kids by a real evergreen that they've decorated," said Pennie Beach, one of the resort's owners. These festivities, the week of July 9 this year, complement the resort's regular kids' programs, which include Champ's Camp (ages 3 to 7) and Harbor Mates (8 and up). The programs offer crafts, sports, field trips, picnicking and cruises on the lake; a tennis clinic, introduced this year, will help parents teach their children how to follow in Martina's and Ivan's footsteps.

Still more flights of fancy come courtesy of Club Med, which has offered supervised activities through its Baby, Mini and Kids' Clubs for years; its circus act features instruction in activities such as the trapeze, trampoline, tight wire, tumbling and, for those who like to keep their feet on the ground, juggling and clowning. All stunts are taught with nets and safety ropes and harnesses, culminating in a circus show for the parents. Offered at eight of Club Med's family villages in Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Bahamas, the weeklong program is open to 2-year-olds and up. "Kids from 4 to 7 like the trampoline and the clown gags; those 8 and over go for the aerial stuff and the more daring stunts,"Bob Christians, the circus director, said. "But we always let the kids choose."

Not all children's activities get the adrenaline going. Many hotels and resorts offer soothing solutions to that family vacation nightmare, a day of pouring rain. Among the most popular is the front-desk equivalent of a lending library, where children can check out storybooks, games, videos and toys. This summer, for instance, Hilton Hotels' 86 participating Vacation Stations will offer such time-honored favorites as Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Scrabble and Mr. Potato Head. Starting in May, close to 1,300 Holiday Inns will let children borrow Parker Brothers board games and will give all registering families a pack of game cards for Trivial Pursuit, which they can keep for the trip home. This summer Howard Johnson, in its Kids Go HoJo program, will let children borrow Sega games from the front desk at all of its hotels; about 275 will set up whole rooms as game arcades. And at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, the Junior Presidential Suite offers, for $495 a night, a complete entertainment center (television, stereo, VCR and Nintendo), an arts and crafts area, a toy box and a refrigerator stocked with appealing but nutritional snacks. Child-proofed and child-sized in its amenities (the bathroom has a two-foot-high sink), the suite accommodates two young guests with a trundle bed for a third; parents stay in an adjoining master bedroom.

Oahu's Ihilani Resort and Spa includes a Computer Learning Center as part of its Keiki Beachcomber Club for guests aged 4 to 12. The center has three Macintosh computers, a scanner and a color printer, along with a software library that ranges from the educational to the entertaining. "We also have a camera called Fotoman that we take all around the property," says Jenny Devin, the resort's supervisor of children's programs. "We take up to 32 pictures, feed the photographs into the computer, and print them out. The kids can use the computers to produce their own newsletters and we can send them pictures of themselves later in a birthday letter."

Such amenities are wonderful for children who are big enough to bang a keyboard, but what about those who haven't yet graduated to eating with a spoon? This group, too, is getting increased attention. Last year Embassy Suites began its Family Friendly program at about 30 of its hotels, offering special suites on low floors with corner guards on furniture, covered electrical outlets, locks on microwave ovens, protective covers on bathtub faucets and plastic tumblers instead of glassware. Some Four Seasons hotels have rooms that are similarly childproofed. Radisson has a program at Sand Key, Clearwater Beach, Fla., where it will childproof suites and install safety nets on balconies for $10 above the regular room rate. Next month Westin Hotels will offer arriving parents safety kits that include children's identity bracelets and emergency phone numbers for physicians in the area, ambulances and the like.

A harder-to-please young traveler, the teen-ager, is the focus of programs at some hotels and resorts. For instance, on demand, selected Hyatt properties will set up Rock Hyatt, with activities like barbecues, sporting events and a "Rock Zone," where teens can listen to music and watch videos. The Boca Raton Resort and Club includes "Boca Raton 33432," a club that offers displaced 90210'ers entertainment like dance parties and volleyball, as well as a resort sport card entitling them to a cruise and such goodies as free one-hour rentals of bicycles, the tennis court and snorkeling gear.

At the Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., children 12 to 17 can take part this summer in the resort's first ever Culinary Camp (June 26 to July 2), at which they will learn presentation skills, tour local produce and seafood purveyors and prepare everything from hors d'oeuvres to dessert under the watchful eye of the resort's executive chef, Matthias Radits. (Parents can taste the results at a graduation dinner.)

The Breakers is also offering its popular Etiquette Camp (July 10 to 16, for children 9 to 17) and its Money Management Camp (July 24 to 30, for ages 12 to 17).

The children create and run a fictional company and learn how to follow the stock market -- ethically, emphasizes the instructor, Terry Upton. At the end, the Breakers gives each child a tuition refund check of $100 with which to buy up to two stocks, free of commission, from the Palm Beach securities firm Gruntal & Company.

"We get big limos to take them there, and it's very exciting for the kids," says Mr. Upton. He does wince, however, when he recalls the boy two years ago who said, "I want to invest more," and produced a wad of $100 bills from his pocket
Even Eloise, for all her bravado, wasn't that daring. WHERE TO CALL
Information on the various programs for children can be obtained from the following:

Club Med, (800) 258-2633.

Embassy Suites, (800) 362-2779.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, (800) 332-3442 in the United States, (800) 268-6282 in Canada.

Hilton Hotels, (800) 445-8667.

Holiday Inn, (800) 465-4329.

Howard Johnson, (800) 446-4656.

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, (800) 233-1234.

Ritz-Carlton, (800) 241-3333.

Westin Hotels and Resorts, (800) 228-3000.

Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes, Vt., (802) 475-2311.

Boca Raton Resort and Club, Boca Raton, Fla., (407) 395-3000.

The Breakers, Palm Beach, Fla., (407) 655-6611.

Ihilani Resort and Spa, Oahu, Hawaii, (808) 679-0079.

Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort, Tucker's Town, Bermuda, (809) 293-2040.

Radisson Suite Resort on Sand Key, Clearwater, Fla., (813) 596-1100.