Dear Grand Teton Lodge Company or Vail Associates or the Gods of Jenny Lake Lodge:
My name is Katherine Starkey. This summer will be the 17th time we visit Jenny Lake Lodge. We've been staying two weeks most of those years. We're retired, but we still think of ourselves as high school English teachers. Jenny, when we found it, became our bliss station and how we used all of our disposable income once we had some disposable income.
We team taught English in a midsize high school in a suburb west of Denver. There was a time when every sophomore read BLACK ELK SPEAKS at our school and Jim and I grew used to seeing Sioux-like Thunder Beings in the sky when they appeared. I can say without restraint and knowing I will suffer the jocular derision of many family members because of our proclivity to name certain things as "the best," that the best place in the world to see Thunder Being Clouds roll over the mountains and lord over the world is from the porch of "our" cabin at Jenny Lake Lodge.
The porch of Bluebell is our best place in the world and big companies like GTLC/Vail Associates forget that sometimes the decisions made about bottom lines make a difference to folks out here. The decisions you make about Jenny Lake Lodge are also about English teachers who like to hike to Lake Solitude in the day and rock on their porch in the evening knowing exactly when the sun will set over Mt. Rockchuck and sometimes Thunder Beings roll in and teach us a thing or too about Mother Nature.
The decisions hit other folks like us. We are good friends with other Jenny guests who've become yearly "campers" for their own reasons. The Monaco's started coming to Jenny over 30 years ago and would be the best source of history from the guests we know. They come from New York City and should be the "poster couple" for the place. David Hezlep has come longer than we have and has done more to create Jenny guests than any other person we've met up there. He's brought friends from Texas and Alabama (his home) and is hugely responsible for turning us into yearly returnees. He knew the hiking, the best things on each night's menu, wines, and art. We've met any number of truly wonderful and remarkable folks at Jenny.
Many regular returnees have stopped coming. Some have stopped for reasons that have nothing to do with Jenny. Many were pretty darn old and some have sadly died. If you were fortunate to stay at Jenn when Priscilla was there, you miss her sorely as we do.
Some have stopped coming for other reasons and this is what scares me. People who could afford the place, unlike us, began to see the kinds of slippage they wouldn't stand for because these folks have other options or standards or something that retired English teachers looking at clouds do. These folks weren't too old and the ones I know are alive and well. These folks don't like the corporate edges and little things like having to ask for a fire in the morning.
Jenny thrives because many folks come back. It is a different creature than The Lodge at Vail. Most of the hotels GTLC/Vail Associates deal with are like cruise ships--there are tons of rooms and giant restaurants and lots of people to move to ski slopes or somewhere. Even at Colter Bay and Jackson Lake Lodge the masses seem to be the focus--the company moves the masses across the Lake, down the river, and around the park highway and in and out of a number of appropriate dining spots and guest rooms with perfection. We know. We've stayed in those places and loved those places. Jenny Lake Lodge, however, is not a cruise ship and not meant for the masses. It's a personal yacht.
Jenny Lake Lodge is not like those places and it needs a staff that knows and loves it. It needs management that values its longtime return guests instead of valuing the overnighters with the hopes they might come back sometime. Jenny needs a staff that adores the Tetons more than anything. A job at Jenny is a seasonal job and only the mountains can hold folks to the kind of upscale dedication that is needed. The best staffs at Jenny worked to be close to the mountains, because for most of them working for money isn't part of the picture yet. That's what makes them good at what they do. They are the great teachers for the guests.
Through friends and FaceBook, it's been clear things are changing at Jenny. It looks like the dining manager from the Ahwahnee in Yosemite will be taking over the food situation. The hotel manager hails from Beano's Cabin up by Beaver Creek. These are big places. Jenny is small. I hope they both understand the beauty of small.
With all this in mind, here are my ardent hopes that this summer is the best ever and with that in mind, here's a list of thoughts to keep in mind:
1. Congrats for hiring Michael Hobbs. He has the hardest job with the least glory and he's magnificent at it. Nobody, truly, builds a better morning fire than Michael. I've seen him figure out how to explain hiking maps to even the densest guest. He's a fair and kind dining room host. He knows the history of the place and folks like us and our friends. This made us and others happy.
2. Remember to remind the new managers that intimate is good. That history and folks who come back do deserve some perks. We are your best and longest business.
3. Continue the strides towards environmental possibilities.
4. Remember the dining room and the food is why some folks come. It was a bumpy road last year. Talk to Jim Friend, another good soul and staffer who knows the history of the place and what makes it work. The hiring of the two Josh's to oversee the whole dining approach was a happy step as well. We have high hopes.
5. Pay attention to things. As life long teachers we know that what gets monitored is what gets done. Michael Hobbs is good at this. He had a great teacher in Angela Beaumont.
6. If the new folks have any questions that Michael can't handle, call Angela. She loves the place and knows it better than anyone. Why would folks not reach out to its best caretaker ever?
7. Change anything at breakfast. Serve Carol Monaco her unique breakfast order on a "big boy" plate. She deserves it.
8. Hire folks who love the mountains first. You can learn to be a waiter. It's harder to learn to climb mountains.
8. Love Jenny's littleness and its strange cabins and old-time quilts and its staff. Love us and all the folks who come.
That's it. I'm glad you hired Michael. I wish he was the big boss because he knows so much about the place. We're excited about seeing Michael and Jim and anyone else who has returned. Returning is everything--for both staff and guests. I don't want there to ever be a point in time where I need to weigh the value of the Thunder Beings over Mount Rockchuck with the value of the porch that makes seeing them possible.
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