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The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
June 14, 2013
Live Entertainment
Raw Bar
Bloody Mary Bar
Mexican Monday
H A P P Y H O U R S P E C I A L S
D E L A W A R E L O T T E R Y G A M E S
Boardwalk Hotel Tapped For TV Makeover Show
By SHAWN J. SOPER
NEWS EDITOR
5S 2C HR DE BE IN GS
OCEAN CITY – A proud, old Boardwalk hotel dating back nearly 90 years is getting a literal and figurative facelift of sorts this week, thanks to the intervention of the Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible” show and its host and noted hospitality “fixer” Anthony Melchiorri. The Lankford Hotel and its associated cottages and apartment buildings on 8th Street and the Boardwalk opened in 1924 and has been owned and operated by the same family ever since for nearly nine decades spanning several generations. While the hotel has retained its early 20th Century charm and has attracted many of the same visitors each summer for decades, the facility has found it difficult to compete with the newer, more modern Ocean City and its sparkling big hotel chains with the latest amenities, particularly in the often-tough shoulder season. To that end, the family reached out to noted hotel guru Melchiorri and his crew from the hit Travel Channel show “Hotel Impossible” to provide a new set of eyes and ears on some of the issues, both aesthetically and from an operational standpoint. The “Hotel Impossible” show follows Melchiorri as he rescues struggling hotels, some of which are down to their last hope and at risk of closing, and others, like the Lankford, for example, that need a nudge into the 21st Century. Each of the show’s episodes features a hotel either not living up to its potential or on the verge of closing. Melchiorri assesses each property and identifies its biggest problems. He then meets with the staff, from the owners to the front desk receptionists to the housekeepers to determine the key operational issues. The three-and-a-half-story Lankford Hotel, with its familiar Tuscancolumn façade, is a Boardwalk landmark at 8th Street. The hotel was built and operated by Ocean City pioneer Mary B. Quillen, who named it in honor of her aunt, Amelia Coffin Lankford, from whose inheritance she funded the project. It has remained in the family ever since with current owner Sally Rutka and her family now operating the hotel. Rutka’s great aunt was Mary Quillen, who sold it Rutka’s parents in 1962, just four days before the famed Ides of March storm devastated much of the resort area. Rutka bought it from her parents in 1988 and has run it ever since with her family. Rutka said this week she reached out to the Travel Channel and the “Hotel Impossible” show on the advice of her children. “We’re not a modern hotel,” she said. “This is about getting an outSEE PAGE 32
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