|
Heads Above the
Rest
The Newsletter of The Boutique
Search Firm
January 2001
| THE AMERICAS |
| Ritz-Carlton President Horst Schulze
officially announced that he would be resigning his title and position
before March 2001. During his 12 years as President of the company, Ritz-Carlton
grew from eight to 38 hotels and currently has 22 under construction and/or
development. Prior to joining Ritz-Carlton Schulze had a long career with
Hyatt Hotels. |
| Ben Marcus, founder and chairman
of the Marcus Corporation died at age 89. A child immigrant from Poland
he came to America in 1925, and launched his first movie theater a few
years later, which grew into am empire of 482 screens. He also developed
Marcus Hotels into a national powerhouse that includes the Pfister in Milwaukee,
Miramonte in Palm Springs and the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa, as well
as 175 budget hotels and motels. Ben Marcus had been married for 66 years. |
| Island Outpost chairman Chris Blackwell
has hired Jonah Liebrecht as COO. Might that mean Blackwell wants to go
very, very heavily into spas? Liebrecht joins him after several years at
the helm of Canyon Ranch. |
| Norman Love is leaving his position
of Corporate Pastry Chef for Ritz-Carlton twelve years after joining the
company. Love spent his entire career in Florida, save for a stint at the
Beverly Hills hotel prior to joining Ritz-Carlton. The 40-year-old is taking
early semi-retirement and will devote his time to teaching and pastry competitions. |
| Henry Kravis� golf and hospitality
group, KSL Resorts, got themselves the Arizona Biltmore as a Christmas
present, buying it from Wayne Huizenga. Managing Director David Feder is
staying on board while director of marketing Randy Wilcott is out. KSL
veteran John Zaner has been named Executive Chef, transferring from the
Grand Wailea Resort where he had been for the past two years. Prior to
that he was the Executive Chef at KSL�s La Quinta in Palm Springs. Zaner
was originally recruited by KSL in 1994 from the now shuttered Hyatt Regency
at Los Angeles International Airport. |
| Alain Cohen is the Director of
Sales and Catering at Windows Steaks and Martinis, the rooftop restaurant
at Los Angeles� Transamerica Tower. The property was formerly known as
The Tower Restaurant. |
| Matt Bailey has joined William
Shoaf at Fandango Resorts in Park City, Utah as Executive Vice President.
Interestingly enough, Bailey had been Shoaf�s successor at the helm of
Robert Redford�s Sundance, also in Utah. |
| Jeffrey Tucci has been named GM
of Ocean Edge Resort and Golf Club in Brewster Massachusetts. The property
belongs to Corcoran Jennison Hospitality. Tucci was previously the Resident
Manager at the Crescent Court in Dallas for Rosewood Hotels. He was also
for four years the Food and Beverage Manager at L�Auberge du Soleil in
Napa Valley. |
| John Harrison has joined South
Beach Miami�s soon-to-be-red- hot Shore Club as Associate Director of Sales.
He bonds back with Director of Sales Cecile Gilmer with whom he had worked
at the Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad, California. |
| Ed Conway, GM of the soon-to-open
Greenhorn Creek Resort in Angels Camp, California, has hired Robert Smith
as Chef de Cuisine for Camps, the fine dining restaurant. Smith, a 1984
Johnson & Wales grad, joins from the Columbus Marriott. |
| Christian Mari has been appointed
General Manager of the Philadelphia Marriott, coming from the Renaissance
Baltimore. A 1973 Cornell graduate, Mari joined Marriott unintentionally
by becoming the GM of the (former) Stouffer Presidente in Mexico City in
1990. Stouffer as we know, became Renaissance, which was gobbled by Marriott. |
| Peripatetic conceptual genius Patrick
Willis is now at the helm of the spanking new Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation
of New York City. |
| Richard Cotter, who until now was
Managing Director of the St. Regis New York and St. Regis Brand Manager
for Starwood is now in charge of New York Hotels for Starwood. |
| Seamus McManus is leaving Meadowood
to assume the top job at the upcoming St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in
California�s Orange County. The property, which promises to be one of the
finest in the country, is slated for an early summer opening. McManus is
no stranger to openings, having performed two for Four Seasons (Washington,
DC and Boston) and one for Mandarin-Oriental (Honolulu). At Meadowood,
McManus� job will be assumed by Ken Humes, who started as Chief Operating
Officer of Pacific Union�s Hospitality Group (of which Meadowood is the
main part) in June 2000. Humes was previously with Carefree Resorts. |
| Michael Patton resigned his position
of Executive Chef at Bacara in Santa Barbara. He had previously been the
Executive Sous Chef at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills. |
| Jean-Louis Dumonnet is �out� as
Chef of Jean-Louis Palladin�s restaurant at the Time Hotel in New York
since the owners, the Chatwal family, decided to shutter the restaurant
and turn it into a less sophisticated concept. |
| Jean-Yves Benoit is the new Chef
de Cuisine at Five Sails, the award-winning restaurant at the Pan Pacific
Vancouver. Benoit previously worked at the 3-Michelin-starred El Bulli
in Spain, as well as at Arpège in Paris, another 3-Michelin-star
winner. |
| Jonathan Tisch has announced the
promotion of Jack S. Adler to President of Loews Hotels. Tisch himself
becomes Chairman and retains the title of Chief Executive Officer. Adler
had joined Loews in 1989 as Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration
and was instrumental in Loews¹ accelerated growth in the nineties. |
| Over the past year, there have
been several Sales and Marketing additions to SRS-Worldhotels� team. Kevin
Barreto was appointed Director of Sales and Marketing in SRS-Worldhotels�
sales office in São Paolo, Brazil in August. Prior to his
current position, Barreto spent a few years at United Airlines where he
worked as a reservations agent, a ticket agent and as a supervisor for
the reservations department. He also spent seven years at American
Airlines where he worked as an International Sales Representative.
Daniel Melchiorre was named Director of Member Services for the Americas
in July. Before joining SRS-Worldhotels, he was Revenue Manager for
the Boutique Hotel Group in New York. Edward Perry, Director of Sales
for the Northeast Region, was hired by SRS in May. Perry�s
extensive and varied travel and restaurant management experience includes
being General Manager at Cyberworld Café, an internet café
in San Francisco. Margaret Watson, who is based in Chicago,
was appointed Regional Director of Sales for the Midwest Region in Fall
2000. Chicago-based Watson was previously Director of Corporate Travel
for the Sheraton Gateway Suites O�Hare in Chicago, IL. Watson has
also been a Senior Sales Manager at the Sheraton Suites in Elk Grove Village,
IL and a Director of Sales at the Holiday Inn Express, Arlington Heights,
IL and the Radisson Schaumburg, Schaumburg, IL. |
| Randy Kolls, Senior Vice President
of Benchmark Hospitality, has announced the appointment of Greg Parsons
as General Manager for the new Stonewall Resort, a $50 million., 196-guest
room lodge, resort and conference center currently under development on
Stonewall Jackson Lake in Weston, West Virginia, scheduled to be completed
Spring 2002. Parsons joined the Benchmark organization in 1997 as
General Manager of The Northland Inn in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Parsons
has over 20 years of senior-level management experience in the hospitality
industry and prior to his current position, worked as GM of Radisson Hotels
International¹s properties in Minneapolis, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan.. |
| John P. Caparella, Jr. has been
appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager of Opryland Hotel
Florida. Caparella has served as Executive Vice President Planning,
Development and Administration and President of PlanetHollywood.com for
Planet Hollywood International Inc. in Orlando since September 1997.
Caparella was also Hotel Manager for Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in
Orlando and GM of the Sheraton Manhattan Hotel in New York City. |
| EUROPE |
| Olivier Robinet is now the GM of
Fortaleza do Guincho, a Relais & Chateau outside of Lisbon, Portugal.
French 3-Michelin-star Chef Antoine Westermann is Culinary Consultant.
Robinet was previously with Millennium Hotels in Paris first as GM of the
Commodore, then of the Copthorne Charles de Gaulle. |
| Patrice Bensalem is Regional Director
for New Hotels in Toulon, France, directly responsible for the New Hotel
Tour Blanche and the New Hotel Amirauté. He was previously the Resident
Manager at the Radisson Plaza Golf Resort in Mauritius, which he helped
open. |
| Mary Gostelow, publisher of the
much sought-after Gostelow Report now has a most informative e-column dubbed
All-Hotels Insider, which can be viewed at http://www.all-hotels.org |
| Xavier Lablaude is the new Director
of Sales and Marketing at the famed Hôtel de la Cité in Carcassone,
France, an Orient-Express property. He just served three years in the same
capacity at Hawk¹s Cay Resort in Florida. |
| Jose Silva is the new General Manager
for the Four Seasons Ritz Lisbon. He was previously the Hotel Manager. |
| MIDDLE EAST |
| Bernard Villain has resigned his
position of Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton Dubai, after one year.
Villain�s past experience includes five years at the Chateau Grand Barrail
Lamarzelle in St. Emilion and stints at Arpège in Paris, and Les
Jardins de l�Opéra in Toulouse. |
| Laurent Voivenel is GM of the Royal
Méridien Bahrain, one of the most lavish properties in the Middle
East. Prior to that he was Hotel Manager at the Paris Hilton. Still
at the Royal Méridien Bahrain, Mohamed Hassan just joined as Director
of Food and Beverage, coming from London�s staid Langham Hilton. |
| ASIA |
| David Feinberg is now Vice President Operations
for Crown and Champa Resorts in the Maldives. This is Feinberg�s umpteenth
island assignment. Feinberg has worked and lived in Tahiti, Turks
and Caicos, the Cayman Islands, Belize, Moorea, Micronesia, Tioman Island,
Taiwan, Bonaire and Palau. |
Hotel of
the Month: Rajvilas Jaipur
...as experienced by The Boutique Search Firm�s
Helen Berger |
| Jaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, is
also known as the Pink City, thus named for its pink city walls and structures.
The city�s glory as the center for polo playing, affluent maharajas has
faded and the streets are now filled with an ordered chaos that leaves
the Western traveler a bit dizzy. Vendors peddling their wares generally
use the hard sell tactic and unless you know your price for the famed blue
pottery or block printed textiles, you will end up paying triple the actual
price, if not more. However, there is an oasis to it all, a throw back
to those days when the maharajas built palaces for their handmaidens and
everything was handed to you on a silver platter... Rajvilas, an Oberoi
Resort.
�You are lucky you came to Rajvilas this week,�
my check-in clerk said through a smile as he walked me to my bungalow.
�If you had come last week, you would have been staying at the fourth best
resort in the world. This week you are staying at the number one resort
in the world.� One could sense the great pride he had in the property for
which he worked, and who could blame him? Rajvilas is not your typical
Indian hotel. Since its opening, the accolades have been pouring
in. Most recently, Rajvilas was awarded �Hotel of the Year 2001� in Tatler
Magazine December 2000. In November, 2000, they were voted �Best
Exotic Hotel in the World� (Critic�s Choice of Great Hotels, Town &
Country Magazine), and before that, Fourth Best Inland Resort Worldwide
1999 by Gallivanter�s Guide.
The clerk, clad in traditional Rajasthani clothes,
headed a stroll through lush grounds which gave way to clusters of rooms
surrounding individual courtyards. Once at the deluxe room, conveniently
located next to the floodlit tennis courts, the clerk performed the check-in
procedure. The room was perfect and, like the whole check-in process,
intimate. I cannot remember exactly what was said before he left but the
gist was �your wish is our command,� and so it was.
| The overall impression
was one of awe. Finally someone got it right! After spending the day within
the hectic city walls of Jaipur, this seemed like heaven. There is a button
within arm�s reach from the king-sized bed that reads �Butler� and
although I did not use it, I was comforted by its presence. Water in sealed
bottles along with choice fruit, an assortment of newspapers and |
Rajvilas, an
Oberoi
Resort
Goner Road, Jaipur
Rajasthan - 303 012, INDIA
Telephone 91-141-680 101
|
fresh flowers are some of the complimentary amenities
offered. Within each suite there is an entertainment center including a
DVD player. Although there is an extensive assortment of videos offered
at the concierge desk, each room comes with �Ghandi� starring Ben Kingsley�a
nice touch, I¹d say.
The most important part of any hotel room is the
bathroom. It can be reason alone for choosing a hotel. Let me take
a moment or two to rave about this particular chamber, which contains a
glass wall, looking out into my own private garden. I would gladly return
to Rajvilas to experience the luxury of the marble sunken bathtub, large
enough for two grown adults, perhaps a child or two. Three candles sit
patiently atop ornate silver candle holders to be lit in case of a romantic
encounter.
The one restaurant in the hotel serves continental
fare, such as shellfish fricassee with caviar butter sauce and grilled
Australian lamb cutlets on a honey-spun potato with a peppercorn
sauce. Regional Indian specialties includes safed maas, a traditional
Rajasthani white lamb stew. There is a healthy array of vegetarian dishes
and a spa menu for the health conscious. The restaurant, in which you may
dine al fresco, hosts traditional Rajasthani entertainment nightly. I chose
to dine in, not wanting to leave the intimacy of my room. The desert made
my evening complete: walnut tamarind pie with a healthy portion of chocolate
sauce alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I checked out early, 5am, and there was fresh
juice, croissants and a car waiting for me as I left. Because all Rajvilas
employees do not accept tips, check out time is when you can leave your
gratuity. Although $330 is quite a bit to pay for a hotel stay by Indian
standards, I would have paid more. That is how perfect it was. |
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