W.Va's Greenbrier no longer has AAA top rating

The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., is the only hotel in the nation to earn AAA's Five Diamond Award every year since the rating system's inception in 1976. The Greenbrier and JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz., enjoyed that status until this year.

The Mobile Travel Guide removed the Greenbrier's five-star rating in 2000. The guide is now known as the Forbes Travel Guide.

Greenbrier President Jeff Kmiec said AAA told the resort last year it would receive a lower four-diamond rating primarily due to the smaller size of bedrooms and bathrooms in about 10 percent of the resort's 710 guest rooms.

Kmiec said the Greenbrier made it clear to AAA that it was unwilling and unable to alter the rooms' sizes.

"We simply cannot alter the footprint of the hotel in order to meet the new standard," Kmiec said in a statement released Friday to The Associated Press. "We cannot destroy hundreds of years of legacy and history for larger bathrooms."

"To quote (Greenbrier owner Jim) Justice, 'that's like asking to change the face of Mount Rushmore; we won't do it'''.