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Entrepreneur Magazine Best Business Hotels in America

RELEASE DATE: 04/23/2010

Best Business Hotels in America
By Bruce Schoenfeld | Entrepreneur Magazine - May 2010

The line separating resorts and business hotels was once as dark and definitive as Ritz-Carlton's paneling. Resorts put their dollars into spas, manicured grounds and luxurious furnishings, and business properties weren't homes-away-from-home so much as branches of the home office. Fax machines, direct-dial long distance and, later, working modems and business centers with computer access gave a place bragging rights, along with conference space with video screens and a concierge who knew the local restaurants and gave precise directions.

These days, everyone carries a branch office in their laptop, if not their breast pocket. Executives are far more likely to write a memo poolside than in a business center, and MapQuest, Chowhound, iPhones and GPS devices have largely eliminated the need to ask anyone about anything. If your business hotel now resembles a vacation hideaway, it's because pampering is the new business amenity, a way for even mid-range properties to distinguish themselves in a category that seems to offer travelers better options each year. Hotels that once trumpeted a few Nautilus machines in a workout room now have full-service spas. Hi-def flat-screens are as de rigueur as HBO used to be.

Still, some hotels give the traveling executive even more. It might be instant translation services, or round-the-clock dinner menus for jet-lagged guests or in-room massages and sport-specific trainers. But the best combine an impeccable location and state-of-the-art facilities with a commitment to service that shifts just about anything into the realm of the possible. A helicopter to the airport? Football tickets for a key client? A live iguana for a business pitch? The best business hotels will make it happen.

We went looking across the country for hotels like these and found 15 that offer an exceptional experience for business travelers--and one that topped them all. We looked past the trendiest hotels, or even the most renowned, for hotels that are smart and sophisticated choices. Some have a decades-long track record, others are only a few years old, but none of them is coasting on faded glory. Cost has been taken into consideration, but this isn't a value list. All of our picks offer top quality; some manage to do it for a bargain price. And because today's corporate marketplace isn't nearly as concentrated in New York and California as it was a generation ago, our choices span everywhere on the continent that business spans--across all four time zones, from coast to coast.

The Umstead
100 Woodland Pond, Cary, N.C.; (919) 887-2135. Best value.

SAS founder Jim Goodnight lobbied Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons to bring a world-class business hotel to the Research Triangle. When they demurred, he built his own beside a pond on the SAS campus. It feels like a Gustav Klimt painting come to life--all polished wood and gold and Art Nouveau accents. Rooms and suites are especially spacious, a benefit of Goodnight's already owning the land. Public spaces are calm, and all the business amenities are there, including 10,000 square feet of meeting space with conferencing capabilities and high-tech sound.

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Bruce Schoenfeld, a contributing editor for Travel + Leisure, has been traveling for business for nearly 30 years.