"Dear Rebecca,

On behalf of Dr. Mullaney and the UCSD Continuing Medical Education staff for the 29th Annual Advanced Nephrology and the 8th Annual Young Investigator's Forum that was held at the Estancia Hotel on February 4 - 6, 2010, I would like to thank you and your entire staff for a great job. It was a joy to work with you. You were most helpful from the planning to the initiating stage. You were a great support to me personally.

Please express my appreciation in particular to Melissa Hanley, Donle Chung, Bryan Deip, Mark Phillips, Guiney, and Victor Guillen. But in addition to each of them, their staff members did an outstanding job. As busy as the Estancia staff was during our stay, everyone handled our requests quickly and in a friendly and gracious manner. They all did superior jobs in tending to our needs and keeping the areas organized, tidy and refreshed. All of the wait staff for the luncheons did a wonderful job.

You have a great team! The comments we received from the participants were quite favorable regarding the overall quality and professionalism of the Estancia Hotel, your staff and service.

I look forward to working with you and your team on future conferences.

Sincerely, ..."

Cheryle Genovese
UCSD CME Conference Planner
(February 7, 2010)

"Dear Erica and Gordon,

Last night's event was splendid, the food was delicious and magnificently presented, and your staff did an amazing job. We are very grateful to you and the Estancia Management for underwriting the reception and taking such good care of Salk last night. We are thrilled to be partnering with the Estancia and look forward to many future opportunities to work together again.

Erica, you were personally a joy to work with and your responsiveness and ideas for the event allowed me to sit back, relax and take care of our guests.

Many, many thanks! ..."

Elizabeth (Betsy) Reis
Director of Donor Relations Development

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
(November, 2009)

"Thank you Rebecca for everything. Your team was simply amazing, we received very positive feedback from our guests on the accommodations, food, our cocktail and breakfast/dinner events, and Estancia facilities (I think Mustangs & Burros and the Spa were big favorites). We also received compliments on the location, what a very beautiful city with many things to do! I also wanted to thank you for your recommendations for Lifestyle Limousine, we received comments on them as well noting that they were very informative of the area and that our guests were all kindly greeted at the airport. Sean also mentioned that Maderas golf course was excellent and also well organized.

Thank you very much for helping us to have an amazing first annual trip with our customers. I am sure they are already hoping to qualify for next year's! Your organizations event planning services are second to none, which even enabled my team to enjoy some free time! Additionally, we also appreciated the quick responses to the few concerns that arose. Please let me know if the Estancia needs any corporate recommenadtions. ..."

Jenn Voelker
MARKETING MANAGER

Leggett & Platt
(November, 2009)

"Dear Gordon,

I wanted to write to you about a meeting that we had at the Estancia October 25-28th and the great experience that we had. It is a very difficult meeting, and a very important one. I am so glad that we went with Estancia! Our participants loved the hotel, and my team loved working with your staff. Rebecca Sanicki was a pro at answering my multitude of emails - I made crazy requests, and she always helped. She fell ill during the conference, but her prep work was superb and made the conference seamless. Melissa, Brenna and Jeff were so on top of everything at the meeting. They were fabulous. True professionals who had a smile on their faces as they scrambled around meeting the needs of all the guests. Lori Love was also great, as I set up the contract with her. Your security team was exceptional. Marcos and Alex were so, so great. They made our guests feel secure and they were there the minute we had a concern. They were flexible, professional, and fabulous. They went above and beyond what I expected.

We also really appreciate the work of Jose, Robert, and Norm on the engineering team. And finally, Swank AV did a great job with my last minute requests. Eva and Paul were awesome. We use Estancia as much as possible because you are right across the street, and because you are the best hotel I have ever experienced. I do conferences in Europe, Asia and all over the US - Estancia is my favorite. We send all of our people to Mustangs and Burros all the time - it is a great establishment with good pricing. Every summer we have programs that last about 4 weeks and we use Estancia for all of our speakers - the speakers tell me that they come so they can stay at the Estancia...

Thanks so much Gordon - you have a great team working for you. We really appreciate it.

Best, ..."

Laura Martin
Conference and Events Coordinator

University of California, San Diego
(October, 2009)

"Tara,

Thank you and the rest of the staff for a very successful physician retreat. As the planner and facilitator of the meeting, it was so nice to be able to concentrate on my agenda and not have to worry about a-v needs, food/drink needs and comfort of the attendees. Everything was handled so professionally and expediently. So much stress was taken away from me that I can't put in to words how relieved I felt. I will recommend your facility to anyone who asks or anyone who is looking for a nice place to stay or to conduct a wedding or business function. Everything was top-notch. ..."

Teri Deabler
Practice Administrator

Torrance Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Group
(October, 2009)

"Dave,

I just wanted to take a moment and send you a note of appreciation for Tara's incredible responsiveness and customer service to both our guests and all three organizers (Latham, CAIVP and Scripps) for the Forum on Nuclear Power & California's Clean Energy Future hotel block This event has many moving parts and Tara made the hotel and shuttle provisions seamless. We work with many vendors and do not always come across such customer service so kudos to Tara and the Estancia team. We look forward to working with you again in the future. ..."

Lisa Easterly
Business Development Manager

(October, 2009)

"I had a wonderful time and couldn't have been any more pleased with how everything went. Thank you for an outstanding, smooth event.

Sincerely, ..."

Vicki Nguyen
Administrative Assistant , Biogen Idec

(September 2009)

"Dear Halsey,

I too want to add my voice to this note and tell you that you and the staff of the Estancia made Vicki and I look like Rock Stars in the eyes of our supervisors. We received so many compliments on the venue, the quality of the food, and the high level of service that you provided.
  
Thank you for helping us make our event the success that it was!
We look forward to hosting future events at your facility.

With Kindest Regards, ..."

Patty Waymire
Executive Assistant to Sr. VP, Greg Reyes

"Dear Tom:

This is a long overdue commendation to you and the entire staff at Estancia Hotel & Spa. On a personal note, you are responsive, professional, very thorough and most important, a pleasure to work with.

As you know, each January our company holds an annual meeting of our branch offices. For years the meeting was held at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida. Our corporate offices are located in La Canada, CA and as our company grew, the cost of flying the corporate staff and all the meeting necessities became an overwhelming cost as well as additional work in preparation and shipping.

Beginning in 2002 we have held our meetings on the West coast and it has become a challenge each year to find a new location that meets our needs. We have had successful meetings at the Marriott Rancho Las Palmas, Rancho Bernardo Inn, Hyatt Grand Champions, Temecula Creek Inn, La Quinta, La Costa and Estancia. Since our move from Dodgertown, the only property we have utilized twice, in 2007 and 2009, is Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa. The size of the property, the location, the quality of the meeting room and audio visual, the on-property networking locations, the friendly staff, the exercise facility and the spa make up the perfect venue for our meeting.

Our managers are still talking about the "make your own sushi" competition the Estancia staff organized for us in 2007; and the "Rock Band" competition last year was a success due to the combined efforts of our IT team and your staff in setting up the room. Your staff was very accommodating and offered their opinions on room setup as well as made changes after the room had already been set. These are just a few examples of how your staff goes above and beyond for its guests.

The highest compliment we can pay to your property is to book with you again. There are many properties to select from but you and your staff have worked hard to gain our business. You have delivered above and beyond and we could not be more excited about returning again in January 2010.

Thank you for all your hard work and I look forward to finalizing our plans for January 2010.

Sincerely, ..."

Pam Stumbaugh
Assistant Director - HR, Benefits Manager, Corporate Meeting Planner

(August 13, 2009)

"My name is Denise and I was the meeting coordinator for a meeting we held at your property yesterday.

We had 8 outside experts in the field of Prostate Cancer come to San Diego for this meeting from various parts of the US as well as two of our international, upper management staff.  All are world travelers so they have stayed just about everywhere imaginable.

When I arrived on Sunday to oversee the dinner we had that evening in the library, Mark at your front desk greeted me very warmly and let me know that my guests had all checked in.  He also let me know that he was willing to assist with anything I might need for the evening.

I then met Mark in the library who was one of three who served the group for dinner.  Chad and Nicole were the other two and all three gave excellent service to our group.  They each provided warm, friendly, and attentive service without being too pushy or interrupting us.  The pace was perfect and the food was excellent as well.

On Monday morning I was warmly greeted by William, the communications expert as well as Daniel who was our contact for our meeting.  Both continued to check in on us all day and provide us with whatever we needed.  Melissa stopped by in the afternoon and communicated my happy hour and dinner adjustments to Tara for me.  However, throughout the day I was in email contact with Tara and she was able to provide two late checkouts for a couple of our guests who were leaving later that evening.  Anything outside of the ordinary that we asked for was granted.  And always with positive attitudes and sincere feelings of wanting to provide excellent service.  Tara has responded to me within 15 to 20 minutes of any email requests I sent prior to our meeting and went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed.  Mark and Nicole, the two who served us in the Library Sunday evening, also served us at our dinner on Monday evening.  I learned from Tara that Nicole is new and she is an excellent addition to your staff.  She and Daniel were on a mission to find a missing item that one of our guests left in the library on  Sunday evening and it was returned to him late Monday afternoon.

And my whole Estancia experiences started several years ago when Lori Love worked with me on my first meeting at your property.  Her personable communications, warmth, and real connection with me left an impression that I have not forgotten. 

Gordon, based on my experience yesterday and in the past, you have a superb staff at the Estancia.  All of our guests commented on how much they enjoyed themselves and we here at Gen-Probe sincerely appreciate how good you make us look!  This was my fourth meeting at your property and I look forward to recommending your property and working with your staff again in the future.

Peace always, ..."

Denise Welsh
Executive Secretary, Gen-Probe Incorporated

P.S.  I was also impressed with how the valets ran at full pace in retrieving cars all the while maintaining their cool and being calm and friendly.

(August 2009)

"Dear Mr. MacMitchell:

I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying the gorgeous summer weather in La Jolla.

I'm writing to express my sincere thanks to everyone at Estancia La Jolla for our very successful meetings this past weekend (PTCL Advisory Board and Speaker & Media Training programs) at your lovely hotel.

From the moment we stepped in the door, your staff made sure that every aspect of our two-day meetings was given the highest level of service possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few key people from your hotel staff who were instrumental in the successful outcome of our programs.

First and foremost, Tara Luansing-Aguilar, Executive Meetings Manager, offered outstanding service from beginning to end. She was so pleasant on the phone and in her e-mails, and helpful in every step of the meeting planning process, even despite the extreme changes we were throwing her way at the last minute. Her attention to detail and professionalism is truly spectacular and it was my supreme pleasure to work with her on this meeting. Tara is truly an asset to your staff and should be commended for her commitment to excellence.

Next, your Event Concierge team is simply amazing. Melissa Hanley, Megan Morris and Donle Chung were constantly checking in on our meetings and there was no request too big or too small for them to manage. Our meetings flowed so smoothly because they did such an excellent job of catering to our every need. They certainly went "above and beyond" for us on so many occasions, so please extend my heartiest gratitude to them for their dedication and service on our behalf.

Without a doubt, I have to give special thanks to Nicole Haddy, who so expertly coordinated our rooming lists for both groups. There was an inexcusable amount of back and forth changes on our end, and she handled each request with such grace and effortlessness. I understood from Tara that Nicole had to take over quickly when your Group Rooms Coordinator passed away so unexpectedly, so the fact that Nicole was able to jump right in and handle all our changes was truly remarkable. At our pre-con, i jokingly called her my "Rock Star", but please know that she truly was a star when it came to managing our rooming lists for us.

In addition, your Audiovisual (William O'Bannon), Banquets (especially Danny Pope), Concierge, Front Desk (Terry Buchholz), Shipping/Business Center (Adrian Ibanez), and Bell Staff/Valet were all fabulous! They all contributed equally to making our meeting the success that it was.

And last but most certainly not least, your head chef and his staff are to be highly commended. Each meal was absolutely delicious, and the presentation of each meal was beyond compare.

Hopefully the opportunity will present itself that I'll be able to bring more groups back to your beautiful
property in the very near future. Until then, take good care and thanks again to you and the staff at the
Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa for your warm hospitality and excellent commitment to quality of service.

Best regards, ..."

Susan M. Padien
Freelance Meeting Manager for CC Ford Healthcare

(August 11, 2009)