News for the Hospitality Executive |
Relevant
Brand Management?; Save the Belleview Biltmore Hotel;
The
Magical Americana of New York; Quote of the Month
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS, ISHC
August 1, 2011 1. Relevant
Brand Management? The following
thirteen new brands
were introduced in the past month which adds up to an astounding 92 new
hotel
brand announcements in the past 12 months:
Impertinent
Question: How many of the 92
newly-announced brands are relevant, authentic and differentiated? 2.
Save the Belleview Biltmore Hotel Legg Mason, who
had a $100 million
renovation plan back in 2007, defaulted due to the economic recession. In December 2010, they sold the hotel to
Daniel
and Raphael Ades of KAWA Capital, Miami, Florida for only $8 million. Legg Mason bought it for $30.3 million in
2007. Unfortunately
KAWA has no interest
in restoring the hotel and is currently trying to sell it for $14
million
including the Biltmore, the golf course and the Cabana Club on Sand Key. The Biltmore roof
which was damaged
during the hurricane season of 2004 has not been repaired since Legg
Mason
owned the hotel. Daily fines levied by
the town of Belleair are being accrued by KAWA which amount to over
$147,000. KAWA has not paid the fines or
restored the
damaged roof. Diane Hein,
President, Save the
Biltmore Preservationists, writes: “So currently
the
Biltmore is for sale again and therefore if you know of any investors,
developers, hoteliers or real estate companies to contact to purchase
the hotel
or if you know of investors who might be willing to help other
investors in the
renovation process, let me know as soon as possible!
We have spent a lot of time writing to
possible investors, but we need your help also again at this time to
help save
the Biltmore since the current owners unfortunately have no interest in
renovating this magnificent hotel!” (contact: [email protected]) 3.
The Magical Americana of New York The recent report
that the Sheraton
New York Hotel and Towers completed Phase One of a $150 million
renovation
brought back a flood of memories. This 50-story
full service
convention hotel was designed by Morris Lapidus & Associates,
developed by
the Loews Corporation and opened in 1965 as the Americana of New York. One year later, I
was appointed as Resident
Manager by Preston Robert Tisch, Co-Chairman of the Loews Corporation. At the time, it was advertised as “A legend
in its own time. No hotel in recent years
has been as eagerly awaited, as enthusiastically received as the new
Americana.” The Americana had its own
elegant night club: The Royal Box which presented many of the world’s
leading
entertainers. Among the star-studded
headline acts were Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Martin, Julie London, Donald
O’
Connor, Edie Adams, Buddy Greco, Rosemarie Clooney, Jack Carter, Wayne
Newton,
Don Ho, Pearl Bailey, Charles Aznavour, Woody Allen, Caterina Valenti,
Myron
Cohen, Phyllis Diller, Liberace, Peggy Lee and Harry Bellafonte. The Executive
Housekeeper was Emy
Lou Gardner who had been a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Womens Army
Corps
where she supervised 5000 WACs. My experience in
operating the
1842-room Americana under General Manager Tom Troy (a former Statler
manager) was
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that launched my hotel career into
orbit. 4.
Quote of the Month Here’s a verbatim
quotation from a
rare booklet published in 1899 by the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on
Fifth
Avenue and 34th Street (site of the Empire State Building): “Patrons are
invited
to inspect the Hotel. A visit to the
Kitchens,
Wine Cellars, Segar Humidors and Machinery Hall will be found
interesting. Guides are provided at the
office. The American
Audit
Company having a suite of offices on the ground floor of the Hotel are
prepared
to make financial examinations and to undertake every phase of expert
and
consulting accountancy for the accommodation of guests.
The American Audit Company acts as a special
fiduciary agent for lady clients. Stenographer
and typewriter in the Hotel. Patrons will
greatly accelerate the service
by using whenever possible the elevators at the Fifth Avenue end of the
building. Owing to the
magnitude
of the Hotel, we would advise patrons when expecting callers, to notify
the
office of their whereabouts in the building, and thus enable our page
boys to
locate them quickly. The pages, unless
the office is otherwise instructed, will go through the several rooms
on the
ground floor, and will call patrons by using the number of their rooms. Attention to the boys when calling these
numbers will facilitate your being quickly found. Owing to the
number of
thefts reported from various Hotels (due probably to sneak thieves) the
Management requests the Patrons to be particularly careful in the
disposition
of their valuables. Safes are provided
in the office for the above purpose, and the Hotel will not be
responsible for
losses.” PLEASE TAKE NOTE: My new book
“Built To Last: 100+
Year-Old Hotels in New York” will be published before the end of the
year. The circumstances that enabled many
of the
thirty-two hotels featured in this book to survive more than one
hundred years
are both surprising and unexpected. If you want to
reserve an
autographed copy, send me an email with your mailing address. I will notify you the when the book is
published and available. In 2009 Stanley
Turkel, published
his classic book, Great American
Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry. It
contains 359 pages, 25 illustrations and 16 chapters.
It also has a foreword (by Stephen Rushmore),
preface, introduction, bibliography and index. Ed Watkins,
Editor of Lodging
Hospitality wrote, “The lodging industry typically doesn’t spend a
lot of
time considering its past. Some may find
that odd since compared to many other businesses (computers,
automobiles,
aircraft), the hotel business is one of oldest if not the oldest, in
the
history of man. That changed recently
with the publication of….. Great American
Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry, a fascinating and
entertaining
series of profiles of 16 men who author Stanley Turkel argues were the
builders
of the modern American hotel industry. That’s
significant because due to the efforts of these
titans (and
others, of course), the American style of hotelkeeping long surpassed
the
European tradition that reigned for centuries. Some of the
profiles contain cover
names (Hilton, Marriott, Johnson, Wilson) familiar to even casual
students of
hotel or U.S. history. Sadly, just one
of the pioneers covered the book (John Q. Hammons) is still alive and
active in
the industry. To me, the more
interesting tales cover hoteliers about whom I knew little before
reading this
book but now have a great appreciation for their contributions. The most
compelling story focuses
on Kanjibhai Manchhubhai Patel who Turkel identifies as the first
Indian-American
hotelier. K. M. Patel arrived in San
Francisco in 1923
and soon began operating a small residential hotel in the city. The rest, as they say, is history; Today,
Indian-American hoteliers dominate the industry with their trade
association,
AAHOA, recently surpassing 10,000 members. As
Turkel says, this community represents a true American
success story. To order the
book, go to www.greatamericanhoteliers.com. “I heartily recommend it.”
|
Contact: Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC 917-628-8549 [email protected] www.stanleyturkel.com
|