For more than 55 years, DoubleTree by Hilton has provided comfort and hospitality for both business and leisure travelers worldwide, aiming to make guests feel welcome through a philosophy of comfort and kindness.
DoubleTree Hotels are famous for their tradition of greeting guests with their signature, warm DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie at check-in, exemplifying a cordial welcome and a comfortable stay. For more than 30 years, the simple gesture of offering the iconic DoubleTree Cookie to their guests has become synonymous with the DoubleTree’s warmhearted brand of service that makes travelers feel genuinely welcomed and cared for.
The time-honored warm cookie tradition began in 1986 when DoubleTree by Hilton introduced its delectable signature cookie amenity to guests as a way to build brand loyalty through a nightly turn-down service. Nine years later, in 1995, the DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie amenity was transferred to front desks, reaffirming the brand’s philosophy of true hospitality.
At the 385-room DoubleTree by Hilton JFK Airport, Executive Chef, Mery Jordan arrives at the hotel each day to oversee kitchen operations, as well as the on-premise baking of the iconic DoubleTree Cookie to be given to hotel guests daily upon check-in.
Mery Jordan’s 43-year culinary career began in Bulgaria, her birthplace, and she moved to New York 30 years ago, where she attended the New York Restaurant School in Manhattan, thereafter working at several 5-star dining establishments.
Upon walking into the hotel’s kitchen, the warm, sweet aroma of vanilla, butter, and sugar, with hints of cinnamon and chocolate, fills the air. Baking sheets rest on the kitchen’s stainless steel counter, laden with individual scoops of freshly mixed cookie dough, awaiting their turn in the oven. After about 17 minutes of baking time, as Chef Mery pulls the sheet pans from the oven brimming with warm, chewy, delectable cookies bursting with semi-sweet chocolate morsels, rolled oats, and chopped walnuts, her eyes sparkle with delight.
With the assistance of cooks Wilmann Borgella and Angel Inamagua, 400 DoubleTree chocolate chip cookies are produced each day. “We bake about 3,000 a week and around 150,000 of these cookies for our guests a year … at this hotel alone,” says Exec. Chef Mery.
Additionally, on August 4, 2023 (National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day), DoubleTree added a new soft chocolate chip cookie to its hotels to accommodate guests with food allergies. In collaboration with Partake Foods, a minority-owned, women-led company known for its allergen-free products, the new cookie is gluten-free, vegan, nut-free, and is packaged in its own individual wrapper. So, when guests check into any DoubleTree U.S. location, they can ask for the allergy-friendly cookie in place of the original.
DoubleTree at Home, www.doubletreeathome.com, also offers its famous chocolate chip cookies for purchase, which include six hand-packed cookies in a decorative tin delivered right to your home!
More than 20 million are consumed every year, and in 2019, the DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie even became the first food to be baked in space during experiments aboard the International Space Station inside a prototype oven designed to make long-duration space travel more hospitable.
It all goes to show you that even the simplest and thoughtful gestures of kindness are captured in the moments of quiet pleasure and hospitality that make you smile with gratitude.
