ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The St. Paul Hotel has earned the rare and prestigious honor of being named as one of Travel + Leisure Magazine's top 500 hotels in the world for 2014.
General Manger David Miller got the good news a couple weeks ago.
"Any hotel can have fancy furniture and nice carpet and fantastic food and beverages, which we do have all those things, but the people, the employees, really make the difference," Miller told KARE 11.
Only a handful of hotels in the Midwest made this list; a couple in Wisconsin and seven in Illinois were honored, while South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa did not have a hotel that cracked the top 500.
Miller says the award is special.
"Not only is it the editors choosing these hotels, but it's the readers of those magazines," Miller explained.
You can see just how classy the place is from the outside, with the doorman donning a top hat and tails. You can see just how opulent it is on the inside, from the traditional English afternoon tea to the 100-year-old Waterford Crystal Chandeliers.
What you might not see is the full-time painter, who constantly touches up every inch of the hotel or the full-time seamstress, who constantly takes care of last-minute needs.
The editors of T + L Magazine mention the breathtaking views from the 11th floor suites and the 12th floor workout room, where guests get great looks at the Mississippi River, Rice Park, the Landmark Center and the St. Paul Cathedral.
The St. Paul Grill also adds to the hotel's greatness. On the day we visited, we found a woman from Tulsa celebrating her 100th birthday with her family in the grillroom.
We also learned that the bar still had one bottle of the extremely rare, 55-year-old Macallan scotch. Back in 2008, only 20 bottles were distributed in the US, and the St. Paul Hotel got four of them.
"It's a very high end scotch that we sell for $750 a pour," Manager Justin Spano said.
In the hotel industry, it's the big and visual things that some customers notice. But it's those little things that can make all the difference and David Miller says they are a point of pride at the St. Paul Hotel.
"It's absolutely the attention to detail," he concluded.
