HotelChatter

Hotel Hype

CitiStay Has Hotel Uniforms Ready But Still No Hotels

November 28, 2006 at 11:43 AM | 0 Comments

Citistay Hotels is nowhere near opening anytime soon, but the company is intent on keeping you updated with their progress.

Their latest press release reveals that they are still in the process of securing two properties for a 2007 opening in either New York, Miami, Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. The other three will open sometime in 2008. They are also looking at some hotels that may want to re-brand their properties as Citistays.

Additionally, the company has hired Deepak Kapadia as their Vice President of Corporate Development and the infamous Citiscreens technology (a sort of virtual concierge) is making some headway.

But who cares about all that boring development stuff? What's really exciting is that Citistay is unveiling the uniform collection for front line service employees in the next few weeks. Ohmygosh, we wonder which fashion designer will do these unis--Marc Jacobs or Balenciaga or Hugo Boss?

Does it matter that there's no actual hotel for these employees to work in? Apparently not. This just seems to be part of the latest boutique hotel trend--putting the boutique before the hotel.

Related Stories:
· Citistay Hotels Revamps Website But Doesn't Have an Actual Hotel [HotelChatter]

Hotel Hype

Citistay Hotels Revamps Website But Doesn't Have an Actual Hotel

October 26, 2006 at 3:20 PM | 0 Comments

The Hotel Hype machine is in effect. Citistay Hotels has unveiled some changes to their website that includes more room renderings with catchy phrases like, "Having lots of one-night stands? Maybe it's time for the right commitment."

The renderings are so-so and they don't really give an insight into what these hotels will look like. Miami is the location for the flagship Citistay Hotel but with the company still looking for a CFO and a hotel operations executive, we say its going to be sometime before this opens.

Maybe Jason Pomeranc will even get his hotels finished before Citistay.

Related Stories:
· Hot Hotelier News: Citistay's Gregory Tubeck [HotelChatter]

Hotel Hype

Hot Hotelier News: Citistay's Gregory Tubeck

September 7, 2006 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

Here's a fresh new face to the hotel scene and do we mean fresh. Gregory Tubek is the 24-year-old hotelier of Citistay Hotels, a New York-based budget chain of properties expected to open in metropolitan cities like Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Washington D.C.

Back in 2005, Tubeck, a "seasoned travel industry employee" wanted to create a hotel where "his generation of young professionals and leisure travelers could feel completely at home and in style."

Since Citistay's target client base is 18 to 39-year-olds, the hotel rates plan to be "well-under" prevailing local rates. Naturally, this won't be a full-service joint and the hotels will have to make do without restaurants and bars but Tubeck-- along with another 24-year-old, James Lewis, who is the co-founder and vice-president--plan to implement an in-room technology called Citiscreens. Citiscreens will be a concierge service/communications system that provides numerous services found in a full-service resort but without overhead costs, and presumably without having to tip people for everything they do.

Additionally, the company used the design team of Qubed (pronounced "cubed") Design Studio in New York to create a functional, simplistic and modern style.  But the winking smiley face was all Tubeck's idea:

We picked our smiley logo as one of our initial brand logo's to describe in one picture what our company is all about. Fun is what drives us. I mean, you might not get too excited about hotels, but we sure do. And the wink? Well lets just say we think you'll find our hotels a lot more satisfying then those boring old "inns".

So how did Gregory Tubeck pull this off? Obviously he's getting financing from private equity investors, but maybe he's made some good money from his old modeling days?. Actually, we're not really sure that's the right Tubeck, but we're kinda secretly hoping it is.

Related Stories:
· Citistay Hotels Penciling in Mid-2008 Arrival in San Diego [SD Biz Journal]
· Two Twenty-Somethings Create CitiStay Hotels, A New Hotel Brand To Rival Industry Leaders For The Competitive Gen X Market [News Blaze]