The Hotel Hershey’s formal portico and Mediterranean-style architecture, perched on a hill above the Pennsylvanian town that chocolate built, make you realize that this establishment is older and more sophisticated than most resort hotels. The lobby has a subtle cocoa scent. When you check in, a staff member gives you a Hershey’s chocolate bar without any formalities, as if that’s just what you do here.
Apparently, this is what they have always done. In order to maintain employment for the local labor force during the Great Depression, Milton Hershey opened the facility in 1933. Since then, the gesture has been repeated daily at the front desk. Depending on the individual, that continuity can be either endearing or a little eerie, but it is very hard to forget.
The Hotel Hershey was chosen the top theme park hotel in America by USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, and the outcome merits more than a passing mention since it reveals what families are genuinely searching for when making reservations at theme parks. The hotel’s AAA Four-Diamond and Forbes Four-Star ratings place it in a level of luxury that nearby resorts frequently hint at but fall short of. The density of amenities is what sets The Hotel Hershey apart from its rivals, not just the rating or tradition.
For each day that Hersheypark is open, visitors are given free admission tickets. The hotel and the park are connected by a complimentary shuttle. Hotel guests can enter the park during preview hours before it opens to the public. The One-Day Fast Track pass, which would cost a significant sum if purchased separately, is also included at the recently expanded Villas. This feature completely removes one of the most frequent annoyances of visiting a theme park.
The detail that usually causes folks to raise an eyebrow before they actually experience it is the Chocolate Spa. It sounds like a marketing gimmick. Forbes has given the spa a Four-Star rating. The inclusion of cacao compounds with proven antioxidant and skin-conditioning qualities in the flagship treatments—chocolate fondue wraps, whipped cocoa baths, and cocoa facials—gives the entire business a little more legitimacy than the novelty aspect would imply.
In any event, it’s the kind of amenity that is so unique to a location that you can’t have the same experience elsewhere, and in the hospitality industry, uniqueness is really difficult to create. The complex provides 5.5 miles of hiking trails, an outdoor pool with waterslides, disc golf, and an 18-hole putting course in addition to the spa and park admission.
These amenities are sufficient to complete a vacation without ever going inside the theme park. For families with members who have varying opinions on how to spend a vacation day, that is important. The property’s area and capacity were increased without compromising the old building’s charm with the recent addition of 98 new luxury rooms to the Villas part, along with a dedicated Concierge Lounge and first-rate outdoor activity courts.
Looking at the whole package, it seems that The Hotel Hershey’s award win represents something that the hospitality sector spends a lot of time attempting to comprehend and comparatively little time actually delivering: the impression that a resort took the entire experience seriously, not just the room category or the spa menu in isolation. It might be surpassed by another property in the rankings for the next year. With its chocolate-scented lobby and its ninety-year-old check-in custom, the hill above Hershey, Pennsylvania, currently holds the top rank, and it’s easy to understand why.
