Cooking Up a Recipe for Repeat Business

Forget mints on the pillows. Warm, gooey chocolate-chip cookies are the way to make a real impression on guests, according to Emmett Steed, general manager of the newly renamed Doubletree Hotel/Orange County Airport in Costa Mesa.

The former Red Lion Hotel became a Doubletree in early June and embraced that chain’s tradition of handing out monster chocolate-chip cookies to guests at check-in.

Guest response has been overwhelming, according to Steed, who said the cookie warmer at the front desk is now among his hotel’s most prized possessions.

“I underestimated the attraction of those cookies,” Steed said. “They really are magic.”

They also are loaded with fat and calories, which has Steed making another adjustment under the new Doubletree banner.

“I’m jogging more,” he said.