PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Millennium Hotel provides Alaska charm, service

Great food, comfortable rooms and 24-hour room service equals a great night sleep

Jen Ransom

PNA Contributing Writer

It’s the kind of hotel I look for when I travel,” said Bill Remmer, director of sales and marketing at Millennium Alaskan Hotel Anchorage. Remmer, who has worked in the hotel industry for 15 years, says that the Millennium staff prides themselves on providing travelers a home away from home. And with its unique to Alaska atmosphere and rooms with simple touches like decorator pillows, 24-hour room service and a view over the floatplane capital of the world, Millennium seems to be doing just that.

Millennium Alaskan Hotel, formally the Regal Alaskan, has been operating in Alaska since the Millennium Copthorne Hotels purchase of U.S. Regal Hotels in 1999. Millennium Alaskan Hotel was renamed officially in 2001, but the service and comfort that visitors came to expect with Regal continues on with Millennium, says Remmer.

The 248 room hotel offers modem lines, voice mail, refrigerators, a 24-hour health club (including a whirl pool, steam bath, sauna and Stairmaster and treadmill equipment), 24-hour room service along with access to the Lake Spenard jogging path and the hotel’s very own floatplane dock. Remmer says it’s not unusual to have a pilot dock at the Millennium for a quick bite to eat at the hotel restaurant, The Flying Machine, open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. And for those not at the pilot seat, The Fancy Moose Lounge, the hotel’s bar, is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Remmer says that both locals and hotel guests frequent the lounge.

Unlike many Anchorage hotels, Remmer says that Millennium does not rely heavily on tourists for its business. Most of the hotel guests are individual corporate travelers, and many are return guests. According to Remmer, approximately 65 percent of Millennium’s guests are repeat visitors. He chalks this up to friendly service, comfortable rooms, great food, easy access to the airport (one mile) and downtown (10 minutes), and a true Alaska atmosphere.

“The rooms are designed to have an Eddie Bauer feel,” said Remmer, “while the front lobby is designed like a hunting lodge.”

The lobby certainly does have Alaska charm, with old-time photos, animal skins, Alaska artifacts, a rock fireplace and a one-of-a-kind 6-foot diameter globe.

Also available to the corporate world is the hotel’s 6,000 square feet of versatile meeting and banquet space. Seven meeting rooms can house up to 300 people, and the Lake Spenard rooms have a view over Spenard Lake. Millennium also has audiovisual equipment to rent, such as sound and slide projectors, overhead projectors, even a piano is available. A screen, podium and microphone are included in the room rental package at no extra cost.

Remmer invites travelers to come enjoy Millennium Alaskan Hotel — whether it be for an afternoon on the lake front patio deck or an evening of rest in a spacious room. For those traveling frequently, be on the look out for the Millennium Partner Card, already available in Europe and coming out in the United States this fall. Travelers will get pay benefits of three percent on everything they spend, including room fees.

Millennium Alaskan Hotel Anchorage is located at 4800 Spenard Road. For more information call 907-243-2300 or log onto www.millennium-hotels.com.