Sherman Inn Owners, Jim & Donna Reagen, recently received the "Best to the Guest Tourism Award," Northern New York's Top Tourism Award.
Sherman Inn's New Tourism Honor Due to Guest Reviews
The historic Sherman Inn added a new accolade to its growing list of awards for its outstanding service, luxury accommodations and hospitality.
The St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce presented its 2023 “Best to the Guest Award,” its top tourism award, to the Sherman Inn and owners Jim and Donna Reagen at its recent Tourism Awards dinner. Coming on the heels of the recent announcement that Trip Advisor awarded the Sherman Inn its “Travelers’ Choice Award” for the third year in a row, the county’s tourism award was presented based on the consistent top reviews on major travel engines including Google, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Facebook.
St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce officials said the Sherman Inn (Ogdensburg) was “awarded the 2023 ‘Best to the Guest’ Tourism Excellence Award, presented annually to ‘the individual, business or organization that has provided an excellent guest experience. Customer service, unique offerings, and attention to detail make this awardee stand out in the industry.’”
In addition to rave reviews read to the audience at the tourism dinner, Chamber officials noted that “The Sherman Inn has won Tripadvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Award for three years in a row, ranking among the world’s top 10 percent of lodging places with consistent great reviews.”
Donna and Jim Reagen, owners of the Sherman Inn, accepted the award and shared a comical retelling of their purchase of the Inn, which reopened under their ownership on Friday, March 13, 2020, “the same day the Canadian border was closed, the World Health Organization declared the pandemic, travel bans were put in place, and the world went into hiding.” Jim added that “Business has only improved since then!
Jim and Donna said that the success of the Sherman Inn is due to the outstanding reviews their customers give on a regular basis on all of the major travel engines including Expedia, Hotel.com, Booking.com, Airbnb, Google, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Facebook, and others which have given other travelers the confidence to stay with them at their historic renovated school.
“In this digital age, people who visit a community look to see who has the best reviews before making a decision to stay in a new place,” said Jim Reagen. “Donna and I are very blessed that so many of our guests who come as strangers, but leave as friends. They write these amazing five-star reviews which have set us apart among upstate New York’s top lodging places. We owe this award and our success to our customers.”