DoubleTree by Hilton is celebrating their Silver Anniversary by driving the CAREavan across the country and handing out their signature cookies at every stop. The CAREavan is finishing up the last leg of their tour in the West Coast.

The CAREavan stopped in San Francisco on July 27, 2011, and parked at Pier 41 from 10am - 4pm to give out thousands of cookies. I received an email about DoubleTree's stop in San Francisco and decided to head over to check out the digs.


The DoubleTree staff (special thanks to Sarah) gave me a quick behind-the-scene tour and a brief summary of their cross-country trek. The CAREavan is labeled "care" for a reason, at each city tour stop, Doubletree donates cookies to a charity. Sarah said it perfectly, "A little sweet surprise to brighten up the day." The CAREavan made a charity drop off in the morning to a teenager rehab center in Berkeley before heading to the famous Pier 39/41 landmark. The DoubleTree staff was served a Proclamation from the city of Berkeley for their charity work; almost every city they visited awarded the staff with a Proclamation.

I asked the staff what was their most memorable experience with the tour so far. They gleefully told me about New York City. The city was celebrating Fleet Week and by serendipity a busload of Miss America contestants was driving by. DoubleTree asked the beautiful ladies to help hand out the cookies to the Servicemen. I wish I was at THAT tour stop!

The cookies are baked locally at each city and the local DoubleTree staff volunteers their day to help hand out cookies and talk to people about their history and giveaway prizes by signing onto Facebook.


I stayed at Doubletree while in New York and Chicago and it was one of the most pleasant hotel experience. Beside the fluffy bed and pillows, the staff were always courteous and sweet. However, the experience is never complete without the warm cookies during check-in.


CAREavan was conceived with the popularity of food trucks. I asked about social media's role with the promotion of free cookies. Sarah said their Facebook page has grown over 89% since the beginning of the tour. People are following them on Twitter for news and they are also on Foursquare. I can't agree more; I, myself discover news and promotion through Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

The best part of the experience was learning about DoubleTree's charity work and how much the staff are having fun promoting DoubleTree but also proud to talk about each charity they reached along the way.

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