This past week was a whirlwind trip of meetings and hotels — starting in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton. The Beverly Hilton has gone through a massive $80 million renovation, which has made the rooms quite comfortable. Soon they will be bringing down the older section (which did not receive the renovation, but just a fresh coat of paint) for a new Waldorf Astoria Hotel and condos. From there, I had the opportunity to sit down with executives from the new Andaz on Sunset. Hyatt took the old Hyatt Regency Sunset (aka the Riot Hyatt — home of the music industry during its heyday and the site of the antics of such rock bands as Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones) and turned it into their newest casual luxury brand. Halfway through the week, I journeyed down south to San Diego and had a meeting at the recently opened and beautiful Grand Del Mar, just outside of San Diego. The hotel, its public spaces, rooms and suites are absolutely magnificent, as is their Tom Fazio golf course which winds its way through a nature preserve. When you play, the holes are arranged so that you do not see another golfer on the course — truly exclusive! Downtown San Diego is a plethora of hotels, many of which we visited — from boutique properties, like the The Keating, which has a unique open room design, to the more sophisticated and full service W San Diego. I had forgotten what a party area the Gaslamp District was and found myself awakened many times during the night by revelers below! We were also excited about the history of the city — from the US Grant Hotel, opened by Ulysses S. Grant’s widow, to Georges on Fifth, once owned by Wyatt Earp as his casino and whore house, to the historic Hotel del Coronado, best known as the location for Some Like It Hot. There will be more and more about San Diego in upcoming blogs and reviews as the entire staff will be in attendance at the NBTA conference this summer. -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO