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Two new Detroit properties join list of 2009 AAA Four Diamond Award® honorees
3/23/2009
DETROIT – March 23, 2009 - MGM Grand Detroit and its flagship eatery, Saltwater, are the two latest Detroit properties to be awarded AAA's prestigious Four-Diamond rating for hospitality industry excellence. They join The Atheneum Suite Hotel & Conference Center and Iridescence to make a total of four AAA Four-Diamond properties in the city.
Michigan's second-largest city, however, gets credit for having the one and only Five-Diamond award winner – The 1913 Room in Grand Rapids has earned AAA's highest honor for a seventh consecutive year and is one of only 46 restaurants nationwide to earn the distinction. During a special luncheon ceremony conducted at Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center today (March 23), The 1913 Room received its five-diamond plaque, along with 25 Michigan properties that earned the AAA Four Diamond Award®.
The luncheon ceremony was conducted during the Michigan Governor's Conference – Driving Tourism 2009 in Detroit and was sponsored by AAA Michigan and AAA Living magazine. Fourteen restaurants and 11 lodging establishments in Michigan now carry the four-diamond rating.
In 2009, a total of 1,224 hotels and 768 restaurants throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean received the AAA Four Diamond Award. AAA Four Diamond hotels and restaurants represent just 3.4 percent of the 58,000 AAA Approved and Diamond rated properties. AAA's more than 51 million members rely on diamond ratings in the AAA TourBook® guide to assist them when traveling.
AAA members and non-members alike can access the diamond ratings for free on AAA's new and improved Internet TripTik® Travel Planner, available at AAA.com/TripTiks.
Sixty-five AAA/CAA tourism editors visit more than 58,000 lodgings and restaurants each year throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Tourism editors conduct evaluations of lodgings and restaurants, scrutinizing such areas as cleanliness, ambiance, amenities, and service.
According to AAA guidelines, guests staying at a Four Diamond property in Michigan will find establishments with "an extensive array of amenities combined with a high degree of hospitality, service, and attention to detail."
Michigan establishments receiving 2009 Five Diamond awards include:
The 1913 Room (Grand Rapids, 7 consecutive years), located in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.
HOTELS
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (Grand Rapids, 24 consecutive years)
The Townsend Hotel (Birmingham, 21 years)
Ritz-Carlton of Dearborn (Dearborn, 20 years)
The Atheneum Suite Hotel (Detroit, 16 years)
Radisson Plaza at Kalamazoo Center (Kalamazoo, 16 years)
Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island, 15 years)
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort (Mount Pleasant, 11 years)
Hyatt Regency Dearborn (Dearborn, 7 years)
Westin Hotel Southfield (Southfield, 7 years)
Westin Detroit Metro Airport (Romulus, 6 years)
The Dearborn Inn (Dearborn, 6 years)
Radisson Hotel Detroit (Bloomfield Hills, 5 years)
Royal Park Hotel (Rochester, 3 years)
JW Marriott Hotel (Grand Rapids, 2 years)
MGM Grand (Detroit, 1 year)
RESTAURANTS
The Lark Restaurant (West Bloomfield, 19 consecutive years)
Webster's (Kalamazoo, 16 years)
Tribute (Farmington Hills, 12 years)
Iridescence (Detroit, 8 years)
Rugby Grille (Birmingham, 8 years)
The Grill at the Ritz-Carlton (Dearborn, 7 years)
Café Cortina (Farmington Hills, 6 years)
Cygnus 27 (Grand Rapids, 5 years)
The Earle Uptown (Ann Arbor, 4 years)
Saltwater (Detroit, 1 year)
Diamond ratings will be included for each lodging and restaurant listed in the 2009 AAA Michigan/Wisconsin TourBook® -- one of a series of popular travel guides published for AAA members in the U.S. and Canada. AAA Michigan members can access the Auto Club's online TourBook® at AAA.com/TripTik.
AAA has included lodging information in its travel publications since the early 1900s. The association began rating lodging properties in 1963 and adopted the diamond designation in 1977. Restaurant evaluations began in 1986. For more information on the AAA Diamond rating process, visit: AAA.com/Diamonds.
About MGM Grand Detroit
Named as one of the "Top 10 new U.S. hotels of 2007" by Gayot and one of "53 places to visit in 2008" by The New York Times as part of the Detroit destination, MGM Grand Detroit is the city's first and only downtown hotel, gaming, and entertainment destination built from the ground up. The hotel features 400 chic and stylish guest rooms, including nine rooftop VIP suites and 56 opulent corner suites. Guests can enjoy three signature restaurants by two of the world's preeminent celebrity chefs: Wolfgang Puck and Michael Mina; 24-hour in-room dining by Puck in addition to casual restaurants; lounges, including a relaxed piano-style bar; high-energy nightlife; the only resort-style spa in southeast Michigan; and 30,000-square-feet of meeting space capable of hosting everything from large corporate events to intimate black-tie engagements.
MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM), one of the world's leading and most respected companies with significant holdings in gaming, hospitality and entertainment, owns and operates 16 properties located in Nevada, Mississippi and Michigan, and has 50% investments in four other properties in Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois and Macau. CityCenter, an unprecedented urban metropolis on the Las Vegas Strip scheduled to open in late 2009, is a joint venture between MGM MIRAGE and Infinity World Development Corp, a subsidiary of Dubai World. MGM MIRAGE Hospitality has entered into management agreements for future casino and non-casino resorts in the People's Republic of China, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. and Vietnam. MGM MIRAGE supports responsible gaming and has implemented the American Gaming Association's Code of Conduct for Responsible Gaming at its properties. MGM MIRAGE has received numerous awards and recognitions for its industry-leading Diversity Initiative and its community philanthropy programs. For more information about MGM MIRAGE, please visit the Company's Web site at http://www.mgmmirage.com.
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For more information regarding the MGM Grand Detroit or this release, contact:
Jamaine Dickens, Commerce Communications Group, Inc.
313.640.1801