By Jan Jackson
Twenty-five years in the hotel-sales business and a life-time love of gardening has made Kate Cutler’s corporate sales job with Moonstone’s hotel garden properties a good fit. In Silverton, Moonstone’s Oregon Garden Resort has hosted more than 14,000 guests since it opened Oct. 1, implying it is a good fit for the public as well. In the meantime, Cutler’s passion for the resort, the garden and the community of Silverton, is helping her drive sales beyond expectations.
“Normally I travel a lot in my job but since opening this resort, I’ve had to stay right here to keep up with site tours,” Cutler said. “It is such a beautiful property and guests love the way it sits next to the 80 acres of gardens with its awesome view of the Willamette Valley. I’ve discovered that if I can show it, I can sell it.”
Cutler, who was born in Woodburn and raised on her family’s farm in St. Paul, lived a brief time in Spokane, Wash., before coming back to Salem and taking a job in hotel sales.
“I went to school to become a dental assistant and continued that work until after we returned to the Salem area,” Cutler said. “It wasn’t long, however, before I wanted to do something less clinical – something that gave me a feeling of being out in the real world. I went to work for the Chumaree (now the Red Lion) and I found I loved hotels almost as much as I loved digging in the dirt.”
When Cutler left the Chumaree, she went to work for VIPs Industries and then went on to doing outside sales, training sales staff and helping to open 17 new Phoenix Inns. When Phoenix Inn sold off everything but the Phoenix Grand Hotel in downtown Salem, she did a little traveling and came back as a weed-pulling volunteer for The Oregon Garden. Now that the resort is open, she says she feels good about money from the occupancy of every hotel room going to what she calls every Oregonians’ garden.
Business at the new Oregon Garden Resort is coming from a mixed bag of meeting planners, associations and government groups from Oregon and Washington, as well as group tours booking from as far away as Colorado and Texas. A big tour is happening in March when people from all over the world will come to learn more about the Garden’s Sustainable Plant Research and Outreach Center (a partnership of The Oregon Garden, Chemeketa Community College, Oregon State University, Institute for Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the city of Silverton, Marion County and several other public and private institutions).
“We are also hosting a lot of high-end tours as well as individual people interested in wine-tasting, garden-related and spa packages,” Cutler said. “The spa packages, which include everything from a single massage to a week or more of pampered care, are especially appealing to girls’ weekend getaways. We sold more 55 special Valentine’s Day packages and have similar specials coming up.”
The Resort, which features a main lodge, luxury garden suite and 102 guest rooms, bills itself as an 11-acre destination boutique resort with more than 18,000 square feet of meeting facilities with an on-site restaurant, day spa and cocktail lounge. In addition to serving a complimentary American breakfast, it gives guests unlimited access to The Oregon Garden’s 80-acres of themed botanical and water features.
“When the tram starts running again in April, guests can board it right here at the resort,” Cutler said. “This place is relaxing and tranquil and I still feel my best when I’m out there digging in the dirt and pulling weeds.”
For more information on the Oregon Garden Resort, call 503-873-5847 or 800-966-6490 or go to moonstonehotels.com.
