Welcome to the Suite: Staybridge Suites Blog

Think of this space as just down the hallway. This is a place for stories about people much like you. We’ll share some details here, some serious, some not.

We’re all busy, but busy people know how to make a little time. Join the conversation any time you can.

What’s in a Wreath?

This winning design featured apples and baskets

Visitors were snapping as many photos of the magnificent wreaths at Colonial Williamsburg this week as the well-costumed colonial people.

I figured some of you might enjoy the decorations. A wreath or two hung on many of the wooden doors at the restored site of Virginia’s capital city in the late 1700s.  Artisans had crafted the wreaths from natural items available in that era, from wooden drum sticks to woven baskets to pieces of fruit.

Drum sticks add rhythm

The seasonal art drew close scrutiny and appreciation of the sort otherwise reserved for a portrayal of George Washington, who did in fact pause outside the Governor’s Palace to explain his (early) intentions to remain a citizen of the crown.

Pleasing colors on an old door

We had the chance to spend a long day at Williamsburg while staying at the new Staybridge Suites-Yorktown hotel. The trip from parking lot to parking lot took about 20 minutes. The hotel is an easy left and then right turn from Interstate 60.

The spacious colonial village is run by a non-profit foundation. For a nice look at the layout, see this excellent interactive map.

Rosemary sprigs were a bit hit among admirers

“This is My Disney World Trip”

When Jeri Carlton calls the Staybridge Suites- Greenville/Spartanville hotel home, she is not far from the truth. When she calls the hotel her own Disney World, she means that, too.

Jeri and husband Wayne Carlton eased into the hotel on Nov. 10 after she had major surgery on her back. They stayed for close to two months as she recuperated and, in the process, befriended many of the hotel’s guests and staff members in the hotel situated just off the busy commercial boulevard, Woodruff Road.

“We don’t live more than a mile and a half down Woodruff,” she explained one morning at breakfast as she sat with a full view of the dining area, the better to enjoy the morning social scene.

The Carltons remember when Woodruff was a two-land road through corn fields. Now the hotel location is in the midst of some of the newest and nicest shopping and business areas in growth-oriented Greenville.  But that’s all the better for Jeri Carlton because she considers her Staybridge Suites experience the “best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Carlton’s back was bad. It hurt for years as she worked in the physically demanding food-service industry. Finally, in May she bent to pull a casserole out of the oven, and that was it. The lower back froze. Time for fusion surgery.  Because the Carltons’ second-floor apartment is up 17 impossible steps — and because Jeri didn’t think she could resist the urge to keep their place clean — Wayne decided that they would stay in a hotel where she could recover. Jeri opened the phone book and called hotels. They chose the new Staybridge Suites and moved into a hotel where the housekeeping staff made it their rule to change Jeri’s sheets daily and where the Carltons grew to appreciate the staff.

“They’re like one big family team here,” she said.

Speaking of family: For the first time in 35 years, Jeri Carlton did not cook at Thanksgiving. But because she was home in Greenville, she still savored the holiday at her sister’s home with family members. At the hotel, she met guests who became prized new friends. She grew to count on seeing some of the regular guests a second time as they returned for business or more family events.

As one couple checked out after Thanksgiving, going back to Florida, they paused at Jeri’s table, promising to see her again when they returned at Christmas. Carlton said the whole experience has been like that: friendly, sincere and kind of fun.

As her back gradually healed — she never had to climb stairs or clean or cook — the stay turned into what she called her best vacation ever.

“I’ve never gotten to go to Disney World, and I always wanted to go,” she said. “This is my Disney World trip.”

A Timely Seasonal Guest

The usual business crowd had temporarily vacated the Charlotte-Arrowood Staybridge Suites on the day before Christmas, but Karlos Gregory was there right on schedule, sitting near the fireplace.

Ms. Gregory exuded the seasonal spirit of giving with a wrapped box intended for — get ready for a surprise — Elvis.

The Elvis legend endures, but it’s not always associated with these holidays.  But for Gregory, the link makes perfect sense. To be precise, her gift was not a delivery for Elvis but for Chad Champion, an Elvis tribute artist, an entertainer who is like Elvis in style, costume and song but who is not exactly an impersonator.

Chad Champion’s wife, Christine, is the hotel’s sales manager. Because Gregory lives nearby, an easy drive down Arrowood Drive, she swung by the hotel to  brighten the lobby with her smile and to drop off her present with Christine, a local personality in her own right. She says, in fact, that personality is part of the fun at this hotel.

Karlos Gregory, left, and Christine Champion

Back to the gift.  As the self-proclaimed No. 1 fan of Chad Champion-as-Elvis, Gregory  brought an elegantly wrapped 365-day calendar, with every new page devoted to the King.

“I give him an Elvis calendar every year,” she said.

Gregory explained that she started swooning (my word, not hers) for Chad-as-Elvis after hearing him sing at a retirement home. Now she tries to hear him whenever he performs. When her Red Hat Society sponsored a float in the nearby Fort Mill Christmas Parade, Chad brought along his Elvis act, she said, and he crooned the whole way.

Gregory says she considers Chad the standard for judging other Elvis-alikes. Her favorite Elvis-type tune from Champion? “I like Amazing Grace,” she says.

If you’re wondering about her first name, Karlos, she explains that she is named for her German-American father, Karl. It’s an unusal name, yes, but so was Elvis. Once. Today, some people — Chad among them — are reminded of Elvis every day of the year.

Execs and Elvis at Halloween: Operations Manager David Bean, General Manager Darlene Ellman, Sales Director Christine Champion and entertainer Chad Champion.

Setting Course for Charlotte-Arrowood

The ship is loaded. We’re setting sale for our latest adventure. Our destination: Staybridge Suites – Arrowood.

Good luck to all of you/us who are on the highways this week. May you avoid the snarls and the Left Lane Closed Ahead signs.

Staybridge Suites hotels tend to boast locations near some of a city’s finest business areas and retail shopping. It hasn’t taken me long to figure that out. But I’m not sure if I would wish you too many hours today in the midst of the automotive masses.

About now, it sounds better to wish simply this: Peace on Earth.

Good will to all.  (Even the idiot who just swerved in front of you from the right lane.)

When Did They Become Cold Dogs?

With the semester thankfully over, and all those stacks of graded papers behind me, I enjoyed a moment at the movies with family yesterday. At the snack counter, another dad ordered three high-priced hot dogs. The fellow handed them over, unheated.

“These aren’t hot,” the buyer noted as he forked over his cash.

The worker pointed to a microwave at the far end of the counter and suggested he heat them up there. Hot dogs are not traditional fare at the movies, possibly because mustard is not compatible with seat upholstery. Just the same, the popcorn is at least correctly named. It is popped, mostly. And that requires some kind of pre-purchase kernal cooking.

Not so the dog. So the sign behind the counter was wrong. These weren’t hot dogs. They were heatable dogs. Room-temperature dogs. Alas, self-serve dogs.

For me, a smuggled Tootsie Pop sucker — preferably grape-flavored — is plenty for a two-hour flick. Save the hot dogs for the HBO flicks and the DVDs we watch in the Staybridge Suites, right? The microwaves are better, too.

By the way, we watched The Tale of Despereaux, a fine, animated riff on the world of fairy tales with echoes of the never-ending Shrek story. We’ll be seeing Despereaux, a floppy-eared, non-cowering mouse, in sequels in the theaters as well, without a doubt. And without a cold dog.

Clemson Rivalry Brings Two-Steps and Touchdowns

Sure not to miss home football games at Clemson University, Nick Hook and Kenny Lupo say they’ve devised a good plan.

On the Friday before home games, they drive almost two hours up from their homes in Lexington, S.C., to Greenville, where they check into the Staybridge Suites Greenville I-85 Woodruff Road hotel. Then on Saturday mornings, after breakfast at the hotel, they hurry over to Clemson to be among the orange-clad fans at legendary on-campus Memorial Stadium, better known simply as Death Valley.

Hook graduated from Clemson in 2003, Lupo a year later, both with majors in agricultural mechanization. Today, they both work in the construction industry in Lexington, which like Greenville is one of the fastest growing cities in the state.

On a drizzly Saturday after Thanksgiving, both sported orange shirts as they awaited the season’s big game for intrastate bragging rights with the University of South Carolina. Along for what shaped up as a friendly (sort of) rivalry game were three friends: Amanda Maner, Heather Lybrand, both USC fans, and Lauren Heyward.

For Hook, the issue wasn’t just winning the game. He likes youthful interim coach Dabo Swinney, who replaced Tommy Bowden during the season. “I really want to see Swinney win this,” Hook said. “I want them to keep him as the coach.”

In fact, Clemson won, 31-14, and the crowd chanted “Dabo, Dabo, Dabo” at the end of the game. Here’s the story from The Greenville News.

After checking in at the hotel on most football Fridays, Hook and Lugo say they dine at next-door Indigo Joe’s, a sports bar and grill featuring TV screens on just about every wall. But prior to this rivalry game, the group visited the Blind Horse Saloon, a place known for country line-dancing. The place was packed with football fans, more for Clemson than USC, but that didn’t discourage Maner and Lybrand.

“They were out there two-stepping it,” said Lugo

Shops and Screens: A Busy Black Friday

On Black Friday, the big holiday gift-buying day after Thanksgiving, the keyword was shopping, and the well-located Staybridge Suites Greenville I-85 Woodruff Road hotel was key for that.

Name your popular big-box store. This hotel is close enough to walk. The upscale center called The Shops at Greenridge was so packed with visitors that traffic office had lined up their police cars to block a left-turn option and maintain a flow inside the huge retail center. The flashing blue lights on top of the squad cars seemed almost part of the holiday illumination.

A store with Clemson University sports gear, Mr. Knickerbocker, was packed as fans prepared for the following day’s rivalry, what reporter Ed McGranahan of The Greenville News called “the annual seismic event” that is Clemson vs. University of South Carolina.

Choice was the word for dining, too. Market Point Drive, the smooth road that leads to the hotel, featured Sticky Fingers, Ni Hao Buffet, Blue Fire Grill, Azia, and a Doc Chey’s Asian Kitchen and the bistro in a new Whole Foods in the nearly adjacent Shops at the Point. Across busy Woodruff Road beckoned PJ Chang’s China Bistro, Brixx Pizza, Longhorn Steakhouse, Red Robin, Panera, Mimi’s Cafe and Salsarita. And that’s just the short list.

I ducked into Indigo Joe’s, a sports bar and grill next to the hotel. Normally, I’m not a fan of the idea that every public place has to have a TV screen to prevent actual conversation. But this time, I wanted to be the fan and to cheer on my old school, Fresno State, going up against undefeated Boise State.

My rapt support didn’t help much. Too far away, I guess. Boise State crushed us. But Indigo Joe’s offered a bank of nine screens on an end wall. So even as Boise State scored yet another touchdown, and there were many — the final score was 61-10 — I didn’t have to watch. This is where ubiquitous media pays off. I just glanced over at the Gonzaga vs. Maryland basketball game, and the pain wasn’t too bad. The patty melt helped.

Revitalizing in Rochester

Here’s an announcement from the city of Rochester celebrating the completion of the soon-to-open Staybridge Suites Rochester University as part of a project to revitalize a riverside neighborhood in the city’s southwest.

Some developments occur with more ease or inertia than others. The Rochester project took 25 years; proposals to bring new life to older districts tend to involve complications. In this case, Mayor Robert J. Duffy commended leaders for persevering with the project along the South Genesee River corridor.

City leaders billed the Brooks Landing project as a victory for the local folks who pushed it through. We’ll leave the question open whether there may be some benefits as well for the travelers who check into the hotel, which is expected to open in mid-December.

The hotel sits as part of a new retail/office district just across the river — there is a pedestrian bridge — from the University of Rochester, a prestigious and private research institution of about 9,000 students.

See you every second weekend

Stuart Adams with sons Harry, Jack and Conley

Stuart Adams is proud to be a regular.

He’s a regular hotel guest and, more to the point, a father who regularly sees his sons.

When his banking job required a transfer from Charlotte to Chicago, close to two years ago, Adams had an immediate problem. The divorced father of three sons intended to remain in touch with the boys. But how? He needed to sell his house, and maintaining an apartment was more than he wanted.

The solution: Find a hotel where he and his sons could comfortably stay every second weekend.

Stuart Adams said the group spent much of a day driving around Charlotte scouting for a suitable hotel that offered a sense of home in the suite design. They liked the layout and have come to value the friendly service.

“Once we started here,” the father said, “that’s where we’ve stayed.”

I found Adams and sons on a Sunday at the Staybridge Suites Charlotte Ballantyne hotel. Because they’d already had checked out, they were spread out in the downstairs common area, quietly watching the Charlotte Panthers football game on the wide-screen TV. They had worked halfway through a large pepperoni pizza in the box beside them.

Conley, 16, and Jack, 15, — who are each on school football teams — watched the game with their dad. Harry, 12, was busy in the adjoining business center working on a PC.

“We just pretty much hang out,” Conley said.

His dad offered an anecdote to help explain why they hang out there: When the hotel switched to new flat-panel TV sets in the suites, the boys found that the systems had not yet been outfitted with auxiliary inputs for video game consoles. The guys always brought their X-Box systems to play over the weekends. When Adams alerted the hotel management, he said, they called technicians to the site the following day, a Saturday. They worked all day to arrange things.

It’s true that the hotel was going to need to make the fixes at some point, notes Adams. “But the fact is, they did it then.”

The Adams guys say they are set now. The father comes every second week, arriving on Fridays and leaving Sundays. The boys’ mom drops them off on Fridays. They are so familiar with the place they show up even if their dad’s flight is delayed. They know he’ll get there. He always does.

On Sundays, Jack fetches the pizza. He knows the pizza people down the way, and they know him. He carries the box back to the hotel. They watch a game and take it easy together. Eventually the boys return home and Stuart flies back to Chicago, to return 12 days later.

It’s good to be a regular.

Say cheese and join the group at breakfast

Rose Forman just spent a week learning the basics of retail studio photography.

But some elements of her new job with a commercial studio require as much intuition as skill. Take, for example, the mysteries of convincing a wary 2-year-old to hold still. You can be nice. And patient. You can treat everyone with happy respect. But that doesn’t mean a small child will turn into a cover kid in front of a camera.

“There really isn’t a good way,” Forman said with a knowing smile.

As we chatted at breakfast recently at the Staybridge Suites Charlotte Ballantyne, she recalled observing one child hide under a table until the parents finally surrendered.

But those are the exceptions. She said her company serves an upscale market with highly digitized, family-friendly studios. She knows more about the process after spending a week with 19 other sales associates training in Charlotte for their new jobs behind cameras. Forman got serious about photography in high school and later served on her student newspaper at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C. She’s happy about her new prospects: good pay, nice equipment and chances for promotion.

Nights and mornings with the group at the hotel were pretty good, too.

“The breakfast was great,” she said. “We’d all come down to eat together.”

As we talked, the week-long session was ending. The new associates were fanning out across the country, and she was making plans to drive home to launch into her new job in hometown Columbia, S.C. At the front counter, guest concierge Carolyn Thier was preparing for another group of trainees to arrive that evening.

Click. Copy. Transfer. It’s a digital world, but humans still set the frames.