When first arriving at the hotel, the conference staff experienced a wonderful surprise: the La Quinta Inn and Suites employees had gone through and sorted each of the room keys and prepared them by room number and organized in a manner that made check in easy for staff. This cut down on many hours preparing the room keys to give out to delegates. Once registration actually came around, the hotel staff was continually checking up on the conference staff to see if they were handling everything okay and if there was anything the staff could do to make the process easier on conference staff.

As with every conference, there come some last minute changes which require room changes. The hotel staff worked with the conference staff in advance to prevent any difficulties with this, reserving extra rooms ahead of time in case a guest extended their stay (making the room unavailable) or if a delegate needed to change rooms. Even when registration was scheduled to begin in less than 24 hours, the hotel staff was able to help reorganize a few last minute delegate changes, something which definitely took a lot of stress off of the conference staff and made registration run extremely smooth.

Additionally, when trouble came about at the La Quinta Inn and Suites, they handled matters with ease, care, and confidence. During registration, some of the SEC members were messing around and one (myself) ended up running through a window, thinking it was an open door. Hotel staff immediately came out to see what the problem was and helped the member treat her wounds. They brought out any first aid supplies they could find, towels, wet rags, everything, and even helped pick the glass from the girl's leg. There was no hint of anger about the damage to their property - they truly cared about their customer and did everything in their power to make sure she was okay. Even as the day went on, the owner, managers, and other staff members came in to check on the girl and see if she was okay and if there was anything they could do for her, and maintained an extremely friendly demeanor. When check out came around, the staff once again checked on the girl to ensure she had made it through the weekend without any difficulties and if she needed assistance in checking out.

After the incident, the La Quinta Inn and Suites staff called the EMTs just to confirm that the girl had not received any major injuries and would not need stitches. Aside from the girl's well being, the La Quinta Inn and Suites staff did a phenomenal job taking care of the situation. By the time the EMTs had left, they had cleaned up the entire area. Within 20 minutes, the window had been replaced to ensure the safety of other delegates staying at the hotel was not at risk. They were also incredibly understanding of the situation, and not wanting to put the conference in a financial bind, decided to cover the window cost, an extremely kind and genuine offer.

Ultimately, the La Quinta Inn and Suites provided one of, if not the, best conference hotel experiences seen by the SAACURH region and there is no one more deserving of the Spotlight "Of the Month" award.

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