New Travis Air Base hotel offers amenities

Article Launched: 02/23/2006 7:03 AM PST

New Travis hotel offers amenities

By Reporter Staff

A new 350-room hotel called the Westwind Inn has opened at Travis Air Force Base to accommodate visiting military and government officials.

The base will host an official opening ceremony today for the new facility, said base public affairs officials.

The new, modern building features a spa, a conference center and a restaurant for light dining, according to Doug Marchel, the base's lodging manager.

The hotel's lodging adds to the 220 rooms previously available to visitors to Travis Air Force Base. An expansion was needed, Marchel said.

"It was costing the government more than $10 million per year to send people downtown because we didn't have room for them," he said.

Many of the old lodging quarters are dorms spread across many of the buildings at the base. Some of the quarters lacked private baths, housekeeping and other basics, Marchel said.

The base's new hotel will provide mid-level hotel accommodations that offer those types of amenities.

The Westwind Inn is one of only three hotels like it in the Air Force. Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and Osan Air Base, Korea, also have similar accommodations.

The impact that the base's new hotel will have on surrounding businesses is not clear. Vacaville and Fairfield hotels have played host to visiting officials during the last several years.