May 6--Business and luxury travel have yet to rebound after the economic and emotional turmoil of the last part of 2001, but one Denver-area hotel company has found room to grow. 

Destination Hotels & Resorts, a Denver Tech Center-based manager of about 30 independent, luxury resorts, has recently landed the contract to manage the new Teton Mountain Lodge at the base of Jackson Hole ski area, making it the nation's third-largest hotel management company. 

And the horizon looks bright, as the company's reservations at its stable of super-plush hotels climb to levels found this time last year. 

"Reservations have pretty dramatically exceeded our budget and expectations," said Charlie Peck, the perpetually grinning president of the 7,000-employee company. "We hope it's a trend that continues." 

Peck's hopes are carried on the back of vacationers, not the deep-pocketed business travelers and groups that have helped his business flourish in the past five years. Business travel across the country is down as corporations scale back budgets with a wary eye on the sputtering economy. 

"We've seen the leisure travelers taking up a lot of the availability that the corporate users have left behind," Peck said. 

Destination manages 7,600 rooms at 30 resorts in 11 states and two countries. The 30-year-old company's annual gross revenue has grown from about $250 million in 1996 to $575 million last year. Destination is the hotel management wing of Lowe Enterprises, the privately held billion-dollar real estate development firm in Los Angeles. 

Where Lowe is the developer of high-end residential and commercial real estate projects, Destination is the manager of golf, beach and mountain resort hotels. The Destination fold includes nonchain hotels and one-of-a-kind resorts, such as the 115-year-old Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. 

And where Destination's primary competitors, luxury chain hotels, succeed in volume, Destination's success is hinged on exceptional properties managed locally. 

"We want unique, one-of-a-kind assets that provide unique, one-of-a-kind experiences," Peck said. "And we succeed because our team is so good, we don't have to hear from them too much." 

Micromanagement is not part of Peck's protocol. He looks out his corner-cubicle office over to the Inverness Hotel & Golf Club, which Destination manages. 

"I can't even do that at the Inverness, and I can see it from here," said Peck, whose out-of-office play involves climbing mountains such as Everest and McKinley and running marathons up and down Pikes Peak. 

The newest member of Destination's family -- Teton Mountain Lodge -- was built by a team of Jackson Hole developers and skiers who envision a vibrant retreat at the base of the famed ski hill. 

Although the project is composed of for-sale condominiums, Destination is handling contracts with owners at the 129-room lodge to accommodate guests. Destination joins Vail Resorts' Snake River Inn and a Four Seasons-managed hotel at the base of the ski area, which has recently begun a major revamping of its aged base area. 

In addition to its reputation as a manager of top-shelf hotel resorts, Destination's winning bid to manage the Teton Mountain Lodge also hinged on its history of managing ski mountain hotels. 

"The fact that Destination is doing so well in a downturn market shows what a strong company they are and how well run the company is," said Rob DeLauriers, a professional skier who is part of the development team at Teton Mountain Lodge. "They also do so much business at Colorado resorts. The experience of a company with that kind of ski background made a lot of sense for us and really put them at the top of our list, and we were looking at about six companies." 

Destination's stable of lodges includes Vail's Cascade Resort & Spa and Landmark Properties as well as The Stonebridge Inn and Top of the Village in Snowmass. 

The company's properties in Snowmass and Vail surround major projects in the planning phases. Vail Resorts has sketched a $400 million overhaul of the 1970s-era Lionshead Village, which is home to Destination's Landmark condo complex. And in Snowmass, Canadian developer Intrawest is planning a major new village at the base of the ski area. 

That's good news for Peck, who said he has grown to appreciate the leisure travelers who flock to places such as Vail and Snowmass Village. The leisure traveler has always played second fiddle to the expense-account-toting business traveler, but times have changed, Peck said. 

"In times of stress and strain, people go back to the basics. And what is `the basics'? The family vacation," said Peck, who notes that although he is leaning on the vacationers right now, he's still courting business travelers with special deals and specifically sculpted events. "We want to be there for the companies when they are feeling flush again." 

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(c) 2002, The Denver Post. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. FS, MTN, IDR,