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PRZOOM - /newswire/ -
Durham, NC, United States, 2009/01/05 - Duke Tower Hotel announces a partnership with Medstay, a medical lodging referral service for Duke Medical Center. Medstay will recommend Duke Tower Hotel to patients, their families and friends while they are at Duke Hospital or Durham VA Hospital.
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Duke Tower Hotel & Condominiums has announced a partnership with Medstay, a medical lodging referral service for Duke University Medical Center and affiliated institutions, such as the Durham Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital.
In the partnership, Medstay will recommend Duke Tower Hotel to patients, their families and friends while they are in the Durham area. For people staying in Durham more than a few nights, Duke Tower Hotel, as a complete condo with separate living room, bedroom and kitchen, is ideally suited as a comfortable, extended-stay accommodation.
Duke Tower offers a lower medical rate for people who are in Durham for medical treatment, which is one of the Medstay criteria. To accommodate the needs of medical stay guests, Duke Tower provides a free 24-hour shuttle to Duke Medical Center and affiliated institutions. Duke Tower also offers daily breakfast at the newly opened Historic Tower Café. Serving breakfast is somewhat unusual for an extended stay hotel, especially in the Raleigh-Durham area.
Sam Henry, President of Medstay, said, “We are excited to be able to offer Duke Tower as one of our recommended accommodations. Their free, 24-hour shuttle is unique among hotels serving Duke Medical Center, as is their shuttle to Durham Regional Hospital. We are aware of no other hotel in Durham that offers free shuttle service to Durham Regional. The Tower Cafe breakfast and environment is attractive also.”
Medstay, on their website, will list Duke Tower Hotel prominently, including special notation showing that Duke Tower offers a free shuttle to Duke and a shuttle to RDU International Airport. Much of Medstay’s business comes in through their toll-free number, 877-633-7829, which is staffed from 8:00AM to 10:00PM daily.
“We are pleased to be a partner with Medstay, which provides lodging recommendations to people coming to Duke Hospital,” said Valerie Blettner, General Manager, Duke Tower Hotel & Condominiums. “Most departments at Duke Medical Center don’t have time or ability to ensure that accommodations they recommend are of consistently high quality. Medstay plays an important role and has a good reputation in providing that service.”
Medstay constantly monitors the reactions and opinions of their guests to various accommodation partners. They only represent accommodations that receive positive feedback from guests and will discontinue representing properties that receive poor reviews.
“We have heard nothing but positive feedback from the guests that have stayed at Duke Tower,” said Henry. “We find that guests like the upgraded Premium Suites in particular, so we try to only recommend those to our medical stay guests. We find that the medical lodging guests are often willing to pay a little extra for the Premium Suites.”
Another, smaller market served by Medstay (medstay.com) is recommending lodging to prospective students who come to the area to interview at Duke University or other educational institution. Duke Tower (duketower.com) has a special lower “interviewing student rate”, which will be offered via Medstay as well.
In spite of the poor economy, the market for medical care in general and at Duke University Medical Center in particular should remain strong in 2009 and beyond. According to Henry, he expects to see growth in the medical lodging sector in 2009 as more people are drawn to the world-class health care service provided by Duke and affiliated institutions.
Contacts:
Medstay, Sam Henry, President
T: 877-633-7829 - E: sammyhenry[.]medstay.com.
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val[.]duketower.com 
