Tiny skillets of mac and cheese, nitrogen frozen ice cream, 73 degrees and sunny, a brand new hotel, and the chance to meet some amazing new clients! This is what a mixer looks like at the new Homewood Suites by Hilton in Irvine. People from around the community and surrounding businesses stopped by to enjoy … Continued
So the typical “holidays” were quite some time ago, December to be exact, but with new hotels opening, new team members joining, and approximately a million other things happening, we decided to move ours a bit….and change it into an awards celebration at the same time! There were drinks, dancing, and just about the best … Continued
Our GM summits (where we get all of our General Managers together to go over pertinent topics and have fun activities) are certainly never boring, but some are even more exciting than others! This time we had the summit at our brand new Homewood Suites in Irvine, right by John Wayne/Orange County Airport. The food … Continued
DKN Hotels welcomes the newest member of its family, and the first Homewood we’ve ever built, the Homewood Suites by Hilton Irvine John Wayne Airport (how’s that for a long name!) After months of careful planning and preparation our brand new, built from the ground up, hotel is open for guests! Ok, now down to … Continued
You know how everyone does a ugly sweater party for Christmas? Well we’re not everyone!! (although we’ve been to those before and honestly they are pretty fun) Instead what we did was a make your own, ugliest of ugly, holiday hat competition! On top of that we had an epic gift exchange where some of … Continued
First let me start by saying there really is no better place to work than DKN! Ok now I’ll explain why 🙂 Kiran, the CEO and fearless leader of DKN Hotels had a birthday and we wanted to pull out all the stops to celebrate him. To start out the day our whole team from … Continued
The newest addition to the DKN Hotels family, The Sherman Hotel, has been doing a phenomenal job through their renovation by making guests happy no matter what the circumstances were! This month they won the HAFH award again because of their amazing customer service and for making guests from across the world feel right at … Continued
On 11/30 Executive Chef Jorge Espinosa and Director of Catering Nicole Peters, both from The Pierpont Inn, were invited in as guest speakers for the Ventura High School Advanced Culinary and Hospitality Class. They spent 2 hours with Senior students discussing the various culinary and hospitality careers that are available to them as they prepare … Continued
Once in awhile it’s nice to relax, unWINEd, and paint! DKN gets that better than any other company! (except maybe a wine company….but that’s beside the point). One night before thanksgiving our entire office got together to do a little paint, wine, and appetizer night. Obviously we all wanted to relax (which was, needless to … Continued
It looks like a trend is forming here…for the second month in a row, we have a tie in our Home Away from Home Stories! First off is Springhill Suites with their extremely touching story of how they made a trip of lifetime for a young boy who had just been declared cancer-free. Thank you … Continued
This past September, the team at the Hilton Garden Inn San Bernardino were recognized at the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s annual convention for their quick response to the attacks in San Bernardino back in December. The team was unaware of such recognition, until a fellow attendee of the convention gave word to Lory Sanchez … Continued
We love to have fun, and when it’s the summer (or end of the summer 🙂 DKN always throws a big company wide picnic for not only all of our team members, but their entire family as well! This is one of everyone’s favorite times because it allows for us all to come together, no … Continued
Thank you everyone for your amazing stories, this month brings us to our first ever tie! The stories were so great we couoldnt choose just one! Cherie’s story of Tim and Nick’s effort they put in to make sure Cherie made it home during the Blue Cut Fire just in time to gather a few … Continued
For starters NEGU stands for; Never Ever Give Up, and it is an incredible organization that helps children who are fighting cancer as they are in the hospital and going through the process. Through such challenging and trying times NEGU partners up with local hospitals as well as ones across the country to deliver packages … Continued
Since “Fun” is one of our values, and actually a pretty big/important one too, we like to plan events for our team that will be…well, fun! Our most recent event was at K1 Speed where they supply go karts that can go 45 miles an hour! Needless to say, the idea alone is amazing, but … Continued
There’s something about the ocean that just makes everything better, and with views of it at Hampton Inn and Suites San Clemente, it just doesn’t get any better than that! We’ve owned this hotel for a while now but it hadn’t had a photoshoot since it’s last major renovation and we thought it was long … Continued
It’s not every day you see a great hotel get even greater, but some days just aren’t like the rest! Over the last few months we’ve been working hard on our Holiday Inn Express in Newport Beach to make it even more wonderful than it already was for our guests! In addition to a massive … Continued
Our HAFH winner this month is the entire team at Doubletree because of their valiant efforts in assisting firefighters while they extinguished a massive fire just next door! A car burst into flames just behind the hotel and in minutes the fire had spread the length of the freeway onramp (keep in mind, this was … Continued
Our HAFH winner this month is from West LA! “It was a week ago that my car stopped working right in front of Holiday Inn Express on Santa Monica Blvd blocking the street as well as the entrance to the 405 freeway. It was a rush hour and I was bombarded by cars honking me. … Continued
As you know (because you always read all of our blogs 😉 we do a lot of awesome things when our quarterly GM summits roll around each quarter. This one was no different…except with respect to the fact that it might have been the most awesome one yet! After a normal day of fun activities, … Continued
You know what they say, a team that volunteers together sticks together. Obviously we took to heart what “they said” and got right on it! We didn’t have to wait long because thanks to Tyler’s (from our Springhill Suites in Anaheim) organization we set up an incredible opportunity to help our very own home county! … Continued
Two things (among many) that are awesome about working for DKN is how many different vendors, artists, and just plain cool people we get to work with on a regular basis. The other is how many amazing opportunities we are constantly given to develop our skill set and move into positions we want to be … Continued
The DoubleTree by Hilton in San Bernardino is always a happening place, but especially on days we host the legendary Torsten Hall and poster artist, Jon Ortner who both came to our pre race party! They were there to hang out and mingle with the guests while even signing posters for everyone. Guests got to … Continued
DKN is a company that not only has a ton, but grows a ton of leaders and a big way that we’re focusing on doing that is through The Ladder Program. This relatively new undertaking is a mentor led and team driven program that helps aspiring team members participate in and share new experiences in … Continued
Where can you go to learn about revenue management from a director of revenue for ten hotels? What about learning operations from someone with 500 years experience (ok maybe a bit less) in directing operations of countless hotels? DKN U! Mike, our director of revenue and Brian our regional director of ops both came out … Continued
Our most recent HAFH winner! From Michael Marriott Rewards Gold Member-All staff were courteous and helpful. One who went beyond the call of duty was Lynsey, who rescued our Disney vacation by tracking down and returning my briefcase I accidentally left in the super shuttle bus from the airport. It contained our passports, my granddaughters birth … Continued
You know how if you’re working on your birthday some companies start a little email chain to wish you happy birthday? Obviously that’s great, but we think we kind of have them beat. (yep, all of them!) Here at the wonderful DKN, we get you a box of your “favorite things” like food/candy/other random awesome … Continued
The team at the incredible (and ancient in the best way!) Pierpont Inn volunteers each month at the local beach about a stone’s throw away from the hotel. Every single Team Member is invited to join in and volunteer at the Ventura State Beach by picking up trash left on the beach and to help … Continued
DKN as a company is centered around three main pillars, team member engagement, financial success, and customer experience. Every leg of this stool is incredibly important to us, but for our customer experience leg we’ve actually developed an entire training program. We’ve designed this to teach our new team members our unique way of making … Continued
This year marks some very special things related to our SpringHill Suites Anaheim Maingate property. Even though it’s only been open two years we’ve already been awarded the SpringHill Suites 2016 Silver Circle! This award is only issued to hotels that are in the top 20% of all SpringHill Suites by Marriott for overall satisfaction … Continued
All was quiet as Ana walked into the room with a smirk on her face. Angie was only a few steps behind and as she crossed the threshold and saw the entire office she barely had time for her jaw to hit the floor before a shout of “Surprise!” echoed through the whole office! Everyone … Continued
Our General Manager Summits once a quarter are something no one wants to miss! There’s a few reasons for this. First of all, it’s an awesome time for all of our GM’s from across California to get together, share best practices, encourage each other, and learn from the different speakers we have at each summit. … Continued
Hilton will be featuring the incredibly beautiful and groundbreaking designs of the freshly remodeled DoubleTree by Hilton in San Bernardino! “According to the design team, the mission was to create an environment that exemplifies a “new style of aristocracy.” The design, therefore, has warm color palettes and exaggerated textures that mimic the San Bernardino Mountains … Continued
One thing (out of many) that sets DKN apart from so many other companies is just how important our people are to us. Collectively we’re a huge fan of rewarding long time team members for their many years of amazing service and we have a special reward program set up for each year of service … Continued
You know how we always talk about “The DKN Values?” Well, one of them is Value and Respect, and this isn’t just something that stays at our hotels with our own team members, it’s something we designed to spill over into the community and everyone around us! A great example of this is what our … Continued
From a guest talking about Eric – “Last Saturday night me and my wife were sitting in your courtyard having a glass of wine and saw your employee walking the parking lot cleaning up. We noticed there was a homeless man walking the parking lot as well. Your employee in a polite way approached the … Continued
Saturday mornings at the DoubleTree in San Bernardino don’t always have a visit from Santa….but when they do, it is truly awesome! They threw what they thought would be a little shindig for the team but I guess Santa heard what was going on and decided to show up! Not only that, but instead of … Continued
It was a sad day indeed when the DKN team members from the Support Center crowded into The Surf Motel’s little parking lot and started setting up for their goodbye party. One thing that was abundantly clear however was just how excited everyone was. Excited you may ask, but why? Well, as bittersweet as it … Continued
Turkey, Family, and tons of pies! These were the themes of the night and rightfully so because there was not a single family who missed out on at least 2-10 slices of pie as well as heaping portions of mashed potatoes, turkey, and punch! A team from DKN came to help the the Boys & … Continued
Today we announce the completion of a comprehensive, top‐to‐bottom, $10 million renovation of the formerly independently‐run The Hotel San Bernardino, and the re‐opening of the property under the DoubleTree by Hilton flag.
Trying to make a difference in the lives of others is part of our nature here at DKN Hotels. With the Special Olympics World Summer Games being held in Los Angeles this year, we saw that event as a great opportunity to show our support for those talented athletes. Having donated some money for the … Continued
The 77-room property changed ownership for an undisclosed sum from selling company Brighton Management and marks DKN Hotels’ 12th property in a quickly growing portfolio. The historic property, nicknamed “The Lovely Lady by the Sea”, was built in 1910.
