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Show ____TheSalt Lake Tribune TRAVELSunday, November1, 1998. Lodging Quality at National Parks Varies, There’s a Better Way to Southern California But Zion and Bryce Shine, Survey Says BY CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS LOS ANGELES TIMES keeping oversights — were foundin more than half of the rooms inspected. Park and concessionaire representatives said the lodgings’ remote location makes it difficult to keep quality maintenance workers, AmFac officials asserted that much ofthe report's criticism focused on rooms that had already been taken out of service. And the hotel's general manager said, ‘The housekeeping issues have been addressed.” (Death Valley's other lodging area, FurnaceCreek, is privately owned and was not covered by the study.) @ in Yosemite National Park, inspectors bypassed the upscale Ahwahnee Hotel and concentrated on the Wawona Hotel (a historic 104-room property built from 1876 to 1918 and nowin need of costly repairs; rooms are $87 to $122 nightly: Yosemite Lodge, where 240 cabins, cottages and motel roomsrent for $92 to $118 nightly); and Curry Vil- Lookingfor a wilderness experience with tidy restrooms andfirm mattresses? Consider Utah's Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks. But brace yourself for heightened rusticity when bedding down at Death Valley's Stovepipe WellsVillage in the Cali- fornia desert. So concludesa recent federal study of concessionaire lodgingsin 10 popular national parks. It found a wide spectrum of conditions, giving highest marks to facilities in Bryce Canyon and Zion, and some of its lowest marksto Death Valley. The lodgings and concessionaire’s personnelat California's Yosemite Na- tional Park took somehits too The report, compiled in August by the General Accounting Office, is unlikely to provokerioting in the meadows. Most of the inspected lodgings fared well, and most park visitors are probably ready to park lodgings usually aren’t run according to the samestandards used by muchof the lodging indusry. Thereport coversfacilities at Bryce Canyon, Canyon de Chelly (Arizona), Death Valley, Grand Canyon (Arizona), Mammoth Cave (Kentucky), Mesa Verde (Colorado), Shenandoah(Virginia), Yosemite and Zion national parks, as well as Lake Mead Na- tional Recreation Area in Arizona and Nevada. require Some were maintenance: broken window, broken 1-877-494-6247 KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE can be the kind that don't recline, and sitting in them can be uncomfortable, especially on longflights or for someone with back problems.If the passenger just ahead fully reclines his seat, the space problem intensifies. Now Continental Airlines says it has decidedto provideits reservations agents with information about seat recline for its jets, the result of a Consumer Reports Travel Letter investigation into thetopic. rates from $40 to $225 nightly. @ At Bryce Canyon, wherelodgings include a 70- room motel ($83 to $98 nightly), 40 cabins ($93 to $103) and foursuites ($112 and up), the worst maintenanceor housekeeping problem inspectors found was a single rusty shower rod, which a manager immediately set about replacing. Even more remarkably, a park service concessionaire specialist reported that the park did not receive a single guest complaint letter about the lodgingsfor all of 1997. @ Inspectorspresented a similarly glowing assessment of lodgings at Zion National Park, which are also managed by AmFac. Zion offers 40 cabins ($93 to $103) and an 81-room motel ($83 to $98), The WINAIR worst problem: one sagging mattress, scheduled for replacementthis year. In both parks, inspectors noted, recently negotiated contracts require i aires to set aside a percentage of gross revenues for reinvestment in capital improvements. in one. They are usually just in front of emergency exit rows or ommendations: Always ask for a seat that reclines; choose Boeing tion agents do not bring up the topic. whenpossible, because they have the fewest middle seats; Boeing stant foot traffic can make a long flight even more grueling, and middle seats whose occupantsare “trapped” between other passen- be obtained by sending $5 with your request to CRTL, 101 Truman Ave., Yonkers, N.Y. 107031057. bulkheads, and asa rule reservaThe CTRL report also examines other “seats from hell’ — those located near toilets where con- gers. ‘TED RS Los Angeles * Universal + Disneyland LOW! LOW! FARES! ILYA'S TRAVEL 1-888-478-0808 Si! 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Copies of the October issue can In fact, absolute bliss nowstarts at just -HAWALL Escorted Tours Cenmena Parade NN EW YEAR'S CELEBRATION cline as “the airline industry's oneof thoseseats. 1 CCR The newsletter studied seating well-kept secret” and calls on air- they're about to be booked into IR on 800 wide-body planes from 11 In its October issue, CRTL re- Nonreclining seais are no secret for anyone who has eversat A 767 and Airbus A300 aircraft global airlines, identifying 77,000 undesirable seats. Amongits rec- fers to seats that don't fully re- lines to advise consumers when Downtown LA 18 miles LAX Consumer Reports Calls Attentionto Airline ‘Seats From Hell’ Up to 10 percent of the economyseats in a commercial airplane Hollywood 20 miles To Santa Menica cleanliness of public areas and lobby restrooms in the Grand Canyon, but the study turned in generally positive reports on the park's Bright Angel Lodge, El Tovar Hotel, Kachina Lodge, Thunderbird Lodge, Maswik Lodge and Yavapai Lodge, which together supply 908 roomsnear the canyon’s south rim, at or window nearthe doorlock. (Parkserviceofficials door handle, flaked paint, poor water pressure and s0 on. Inspectors said 26 of the 83 rooms needed Trenovation, but improvements were scheduled for only 10. Othertroubles — including multiple house- 1-877-4-WINAIR unheated tents and thus hurt recruitment @ Massive crowdsalso havetakentheirtoll on the smoke detectors, deadbolt locks and a door window or peephole. And most park lodgings include such features — butthey're not required by the park service. Of the 10 parks visited, inspectors found that four had at least one room with a nonfunctioning smoke detector. Five parksites had at least one room without a functioning deadbolt lock. Four had at least one room with a nonfunctioning windowlock. And four had at least one room without a viewport said that later this year, they plan to issue new lodging safety standards that include smokedetectors.) @ Manyguest roomshave no phones, and a larger number have no TVs — absencesthat rangers say are counted as advantages by most wilderness-seeking visitors. Park service standards also don't require daily changes of towels and linens, but those practices may be tightenedlater this year. @ Among the 83 motel rooms in Death Valley's Stovepipe Wells area — managed by Denver-based AmFac Parks & Resorts and priced at $38 to $80 nightly — inspectors found a variety of problems. GOOD THRU 12/17/98 hassles. You step off the plane and you're on your way. Call WinAir or your local travel agent today. TOLL FREE nightly, noneless than 60 yearsold). Fewer than half of the roomsat these lodgings have private baths. Inspectors found the Wawona hasflaking paint. substandard soundproofing, an inadequate boiler, neither televisions nor telephones, and electrical systems that need replacing in some rooms. Park officials said there's no money availablé now to deal with these conditions. Inspectors also found inconsistent housekeeping at Yosemite Lodge. In about haif of the roomstheylooked at, they found unclean bathrooms, walls and ceilings, A concessionaire's representative lamented the quality of the work force — blamedin parton last year's flood damage which has forced manyemployeesto live in crowded, ties outshine others. It also serves as a reminderthat generally Don't fly to LAX, just to sit in traffic. Fly WinAir direct to Long Beach. 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