Spent Thursday through Sunday this weekend at The Inn at Bay Harbor, a northern Michigan golf resort which just joined Renaissance in December.

Went up with relatively average expectations and came away very impressed.

The property itself is designed to look like an old-time resort hotel on Lake Michigan, but is actually a new, modern building. It's the centerpiece of a large lakeshore development with retail, yacht club, real estate, etc. Amenities at the hotel included a large outdoor pool and hot tub, sand beach, croquette court, outdoor chess/checkers board and a full spa. Although I don't golf, they have a number of courses, including one ranked among the top 10 public courses nationally by Golf Digest.

What were truly impressive, however, were a bunch of little touches. They have a bonfire every night and provided ingredients so kids could roast marshmellows and make smores ... free coffee and popcorn in the lobby ... on Friday and Saturday night they were offering free chair massage by the spa massuesses in the lobby ... the pool attendant brought out toys for the children to play with, etc. We got free breakfast for my wife, myself and our daughter as part of the rate and the buffet was excellent, with omelette bar, etc. To a person, the staff was among the friendliest and most outgoing I've encountered in hundreds of Marriott nights.

The accomodations were also among the best I've seen in a non-JW Marriott, at least partially because a large part of the hotel is being sold on a time share/condo basis. Every room is a suite, although most of the smaller ones lock off into a relatively typical hotel room. We stayed in a larger-than normal room with two queen beds, an oversized bath, wetbar and fridge and large porch with two rocking chairs and a small table. No upgrade for a Marriott gold, but I didn't ask, so not surprising. They did take my bonus buck without a problem. We toured some of the larger suites and were extremely impressed. Their "tower" units are going for $1 million purchase for year-round usage. Also toured the "studio" lockout units, which have a full kitchen, murphy bed and fold-out couch. They were, in many ways, nicer than our room because of the kitchen and would be fine if you just needed one bed for adults and one for children.

According to the staff, they joined Renaissance in December because they weren't getting the traffic they feel they needed as an independent "Boyne" property. Boyne's a Michigan-based developer that also runs ski areas in the West. They still own the resort and were offering some really great golf packages. Winter ski packages are also offered. They're supposed to begin an expansion in the fall that will add a large indoor pool, hot tub, kids pool and another wing to the hotel. Overall, the staff seemed very positive on the new Marriott affiliation.

They're pretty much booked for the rest of the summer, but if you're a skier or want to plan in advance, they've got good rates and are certainly worth a visit.

Jim