Welcome, Overnighters

A few weeks ago, two travelers from the Seattle area were spending their Sunday evening at the jimgermanbar in Waitsburg and didn't want to return to Walla Walla before catching their early-morning flight back to Sea-Tac from the Walla Walla airport.

They made a wise choice. They obviously had a good time at the eclectic and regionally known cocktail bar. They weren't in any condition to navigate the 20 some miles back to Walla Walla legally or safely.

So bar owner Jim German called up the new Seven Porches guest house on Main Street to see if a room might be available late in the evening and with little notice, so the couple could stay in town.

No problem. They stayed the night, spending at least a portion of it on the porch overlooking Fourth Street and the Bruce Mansion, enjoying a bottle of wine in the still fall evening.

Thanks to a recent growth in accommodations in Waitsburg, more and more travelers in the Touchet Valley have the option of staying overnight instead of being tied to Walla Walla as their hub.

With this week's announcement that the Best Western hotel chain plans to build a mid-sized hotel of up to 50 rooms in Dayton, the prospects of travelers spending more time in our communities gets even greater.

Between the Waitsburg inventory of rooms at Nothing New Lodging, Hiromi's House, PJ's, Seven Porches, the Three Maples, the Tea House and the planned hotel next to the Waitsburg Post Office on the one hand, and the Dayton lodging at the Weinhard Hotel, the Blue Mountain Motel, Dayton Motel, the Purple House and the proposed Best Western, the valley will easily boast as many as 150 rooms when it's all said and done.

Sure, there will be more competition, but not necessarily between the lodging establishments in the valley itself. Rather, we see it more between the Touchet Valley and Walla Walla. For years now, Dayton and Waitsburg have lost a lot of potential overnight guests to Walla Walla because the lodging just wasn't or it wasn't adequate.

Now, lodging businesses will offer a wide variety of options, from the more corporate style Best Western and simpler Blue Mountain Motel, to the charming elegance of the Weinhard Hotel, the Main Street comfort of Nothing New Lodging, and the neighborly warmth of the Waitsburg Cottages, Hiromi's House, PJs and the Seven Porches.

This is a welcome development for our communities. Not only do hospitality businesses generate direct jobs and tax revenues, they entice travelers to spend more of their time and dollars at other businesses in town.

Waitsburg need not be envious of Dayton just because the bigger chain has reportedly chosen its easterly neighbor for a new location. Staying closer than they would if they overnighted in Walla Walla, Best Western guests would still avail themselves of Waitsburg's growing number of food and drink establishments, and its stores.

When you add the number of rooms - we counted at least 25 - at the smaller lodging facilities currently available or in the works in Waitsburg, the inventory is nothing to sneeze at and, in terms of architecture and scale, the tasteful establishments uphold the city's One-Of-A-Kind reputation.

The growing inventory of rooms here is a part of a transformation the Touchet Valley is going through and a very helpful one at that.

The shortage of attractive accommodations has long been a bottle neck in the area's growth as a travel destination. The hours tourists spent here have long been limited by the need to turn around and drive back to Walla Walla even if the desire was there to stay longer and later.

With the recent addition of more food and entertainment venues, the increase in lodging inventory should uncork much of travelers' pent-up demand to enjoy more of their time in our communities.