Post #103019 by SilverLine on Wed, Jul 21, 2004 9:06 AM

OK, the link requires registration, so here's the full text and pictures from the KC Star:

People touring Chateau Avalon on Tuesday got a taste of Tahiti in a theme room decked out with tiki poles, statues and thatched huts. The hotel, in the Village West district in Kansas City, Kan., has 62 rooms, including 24 theme rooms. Other themes include Egyptian Palace and Mayan Rainforest.

Posted on Wed, Jul. 21, 2004

A new look at Village West

Come get cozy, hotel says

By RICK ALM

The Kansas City Star

The area's newest hotel offers guests a night in the Lincoln Bedroom, or a New York SoHo-like loft, among its two dozen themed rooms.

The Chateau Avalon, in the Village West district in Kansas City, Kan., had a soft opening last month and a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.

Mayor Carol Marinovich praised the facility as “another unique attraction” in the entertainment and retail district that includes Kansas Speedway, T-Bones minor league baseball and Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Owner Steve Beaumont, president of Lenexa-based Beaumont Enterprises, said the 62-room hotel was five years in the making and designed for “romantic getaways.”

“This is a place where couples can unplug, decompress and get reacquainted,” he said.

More a bed-and-breakfast than a hotel, the facility has no pool, no spa, no workout room and, hopefully, no children, Beaumont said.

“These rooms are meant for couples, with one bed per room. They don't need to go swimming,” he said. “They want to be alone,” and maybe curl up with a movie from Avalon's library of DVDs.

If families do inquire, Beaumont said, he'll point them toward Great Wolf Lodge, with its indoor water park, game arcade and other family-oriented activities just across the street.

“There's a real symbiosis between us,” he said of the two specialty properties.

Every Avalon room features jetted therapy bathtubs, oversized beds, breakfast in bed and an array of high-tech features including flat-screen televisions, surround-sound music and high-speed Internet access. Room rates range from $149 to $399 per night.

Themed rooms each have their own handcrafted touches, such as mountain boulders and an Old West saloon in the Jesse James room, a giant rain-barrel hot tub in Pirate Cove, and the three-story castle setting of the Monte Cristo room — the hotel's one-of-a-kind deluxe suite.

The 24 room themes are repeated as many as four times, and include names such as Egyptian Palace, Mayan Rainforest, Camelot, Colorado Frontier, Buckingham, Tahiti and Havana.

The hotel also offers meeting facilities for up to 24 persons in an 18th-century-themed boardroom. The hotel's 28-acre grounds are themed as a European estate with gardens and fountains.

Chateau Avalon is managed by Leawood-based Leisure Hotels LLC., part of a group that manages 26 properties in five states. Free tours are available from 1 to 3 p.m. weekends.

For more information, call 1-877-KCAVALON (1-877-522-8256) or (913) 596-6000, or go on the Internet to http://www.chateauavalon.net.

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[ Edited by: SilverLine on 2004-07-21 14:03 ]