I wanted to provide an update as I have made two additional trips to Newport since my post above. We stayed at the Mill Street Inn in a Townhouse Suite for the first of these trips and were rather disappointed. I know it is the offseason, but the hotel did not seem like it was even trying. I have stayed at several SLHs before and this hotel was not in the same league.

So for our next trip,we decided to try Vanderbilt Hall again. We discovered that the hotel was actually sold in late November to Peter de Savary who owns some properties in England and Grenada. He does appear to be making some improvements to the hotel, the major one that was was apparant to us while we were there was the addition of an outdoor swimming pool which is currently being constructed. He has also brought in some interesting art work and rebranded the restaurant. As far as differences in the food, my only point of comparison is breakfast, which seemed to be more or less the same as it was when we were there last November, which wasn't bad.

They have also brought in some nice soft touches to the hotel, like a nice surpise at turndown that my fiancee really enjoyed. I'm not sure what other changes are in store, but I would suspect that not much will happen to the rooms, as these were already in great shape. We were in a Bi-Level Suite this time, which would work really well if you want a lot of seperation between the bedroom and living area and might be something that we consider in the future if we know we are going to have people over while we are there. But for just the two of us, I think we both preferred the junior deluxe suite and its extremely high ceilings and great deal of light.