Where to stay when you leave.
Hollywood's Roosevelt Searching For Balance
7/22/2005 at 10:03 AM
Tags: Hotels, Jason Pomeranc
An article in today's Wall Street Journal details Jason Pomeranc's struggle to turn Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel into a celeb hot spot and a hotel people actually want to stay at.
Thus far, it sounds like the Roosevelt is 1 for 2. Celebs party hotel of choice, yes, good experience for run-of-the-mill guests, no.
Harriet Berman, a Newton, Mass., psychologist, who arrived at the Roosevelt for her daughter's July 3 wedding -- only to learn that she and her family weren't allowed to use the hotel pool or poolside bar most afternoons and evenings. The hotel asked the Bermans and other hotel guests to leave the pool area, which would be closing almost every day for the foreseeable future to accommodate celebrity-heavy private events complete with earpiece-wearing bouncers.
The capper came when hotel management told the wedding party -- with two days to go before the poolside event they had planned -- that the ceremony would have to take place instead in the Roosevelt's dimly lit lobby.
More Roosevelt Madness Post Break
A Mercer Hotel rep chimed in with some advice for hotels:
Making it simply a party scene with two or three DJs can be done -- but how does that work towards a hotel experience, other than making it a public-relations element?
Ah, we see. So what you are saying is you need to concentrate on the overall hotel experience, but have an employee take a phone to the face courtesy of Russell Crowe every once in a while?
Actually that strategy has been working quite well for the Mercer, though arguably not as well for the concierge who took the phone to the face, but let's wait and see how the lawsuit turns out.
One recent Roosevelt guest summed things up by saying:
"Even though it's Hollywood, service should be service"
A hotel experience isn't about how many times you can get a scantily clad celeb pool photo, with your hotel as the backdrop, into US Weekly--at least not totally. Service still trumps all. Don't get us wrong, we like scantily clad celebs as much as anyone, and the allure of a A-list hotel scene will definitely get people in the door, well, at worst you'll get the starf***ers. However, once you hand your guests a key, you have to treat them right, even if they aren't dating Jake Gyllenhaal...and if you don't, hell hath no fury like a hotel guest scorned.
Related Stories:
· Boutique Hotels' Dilemma [Wall Street Journal]
· LA's Roosevelt Hotel A Freak Show [HotelChatter]
· Denied Poolside [LA.com]
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