Sand Dollar Inn named AETC Innkeeper Award winner

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Carissa Lee
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Tyndall Air Force Base's lodging facility, the Sand Dollar Inn, was recently named as the Air Education and Training Command's Innkeeper Award winner for fiscal year 2011.

"The objective of the Innkeeper Award program is to encourage Air Force Inns to improve their management and operation of lodging facilities at the 88 major Air Force installations worldwide," said Wilma Hall, Air Force Services Agency lodging operations branch chief. "But the ultimate and intended benefactor is the customer."

Programs were judged on Air Force lodging standards, customer feedback surveys and in-person evaluations of the Inns.

According to Alan Tremaine, General Lodging Manager for the Sand Dollar Inn, the Tyndall staff's hard work year-round contributed to their being named the major command winner of this award.
 
"Our staff is very keen on providing the best service possible and it showed when AETC staff was here for the evaluation," he said. "We had been briefing the 'Innkeeper' to our staff and what it means to them if we win. We have a great bunch of people who proved that we, the Sand Dollar Inn, are the best in the command."

While the Sand Dollar Inn did not win at the Air Force-level, the team can still be proud of their achievement as the command's best.
 
"It was a letdown when we found out that the Air Force Innkeeper Team was not coming to Tyndall," Mr. Tremaine said. "But the continued enhancements for our guests' comfort and intense effort we put into the visit works in our favor when we host the upcoming Accreditation Evaluation due in January 2012 - another opportunity to show the Air Force Services Agency staff how much we have improved since 2010."

The ultimate benefactor of these awards and competitions is the customer, according to Hall.
 
"Competition is the critical driver of performance and innovation," she said. "Recognizing excellence motivates Air Force Inns' staff to exceed all standards set before them and, in the end, the Air Force traveler receives quality service which improves esprit de corps."