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Checking In On The Four Points by Sheraton's Chief Beer Officer
Forget Fashion Week, this week New York is celebrating Beer Week! As regular HotelChatter readers know, we have a bit of a soft spot for Four Points Chief Beer Officer Scott Kerkmans. So we were thrilled to drop into the Four Points Chelsea last week to celebrate the launch of the 2nd annual NY Craft Beer Week.
Sampling a variety of the microbrews on hand was a nice way to end a day, but even better was the chance to steal a few moments of the CBO’s time. Despite the other beer experts in the room, Kerkmans was by far the most popular dude at the party.
Tags: Chief Beer Officer / Four Points by Sheraton / Scott Kerkmans / Four Points Hotels / → All Tags
Holiday Boozin' Tips From Four Points' Chief Beer Officer
Nobody has very much money as 2008 draws to a close, so people are forgoing champagne and just reaching for some trusty cheap beer. According to a new study by Four Points by Sheraton, 80% of people who threw parties this year ranked beer as their drink of choice, beating out champagne and wine by a mile (this is pretty shocking — unless the survey was done at frat houses). Also, the study found that 66% of those surveyed see themselves drinking more this holiday than last year (hmmm, we wonder why).
So you've got beer, you've got a strong desire to get drunk and you need to do something creative to entertain your guests. Enter Scott Kerkmans, Four Points' Chief Beer Officer.
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Four Points by Sheraton Needs Your Non-Creepy Halloween Costumes
We all know about Christmas toy drives, but Four Points by Sheraton brings a twist to the doing-good field. Four Points has asked guests, hotel staff and communities to drop off new Halloween costumes to be donated to local children's hospitals. The program launched last year and resulted in hundreds of costumes donated to children's hospitals across the country.
Do note they ask for costumes "light hearted in nature," so no creepiness or serial killer masks, please. And costumes must be in their original packaging -- this isn't the time to go green by recycling your kid's Spiderman costume from last year.
We think this is a sweet idea - what kid doesn't like Halloween? And it lets those of us with puppies instead of children still take part in costume-shopping fun.
Visit the Four Points web site for a list of participating hotels.
[Ed Note: This reminds us: you can go ahead and donate that costume you bought, because you can probably use clothes already in your home closet to dress up as the Chief Beer Officer! We hear you don't even need a badge.]
Tags: Chief Beer Officer / Scott Kerkmans / Four Points Hotels / Hotel Swag / → All Tags
Four Points Chief Beer Officer Gets His Own Line of T-Shirts
Ok we have decided that being CBO at Four Points--Chief Beer Officer--is probably one of the most fantastical jobs out there. Kids in high school: Start aspiring for this role.
Since Scott Kerkmans took the position over a year ago, he's been traveling the country helping Four Points develop their Best Brews list. Aside from having all the ale and brews a man/woman could want, he also has an intern, a blog and now he's got a line of t-shirts.
Four Points is now selling the tshirt shown above that says "I Love CBO." There's also another t-shirt for sale that says, "Best Brews Intern--Here to serve you."
These are actually really cute (for hotel geeks and Four Points lovers that is) and they are made from super soft material so it's not a scratchy kind of t-shirt that you buy from your company's annual walk-a-thon fundraiser. Both t-shirts are $20 and are made for women (snug fit) and men. But we're guessing a lot of the men won't be buying the "I Love CBO" shirt.
However, we will warn you that the t-shirt is a bit of a deeper blue than shown on the website. Take a look after the jump. Man, it's good to be the CBO.
Tags: Labor Day Hotels / San Diego Hotels / Four Points Hotels / Good Rate / Bad Rate / → All Tags
Labor Day Hotels :: Good Rate, Bad Rate For the Four Points San Diego
Those of us who live in Southern California have beaches all year-round to visit so there's never any big rush to the beach over Labor Day Weekend. However, we love three-day weekends so we can be even more laid-back than we normally are Monday through Friday.
And San Diego is a perfect road trip destination in SoCal.
TravelZoo is offering rates at the Four Points San Diego for $130 a night. They are even saying it's $130 off the hotel's regular rate of $250. Sounds good right? But we found an even better rate via the hotel's website. Like, we know!
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Apple Pie at the Olympics :: Four Points Beijing Opening on August 1
Soon the citizens of Beijing might be able to smell the Four Points signature apple pie scents wafting through their very own Four Points Hotel. The hotel is set for opening on August 1, just in time for the Olympics.
Unlike other Four Points near airports in America, this one seems to be in the midst of all that is "happening" in Beijing:
Our hotel is located in the heart of Beijing’s technology district – Haidian District – a short drive from major government and business organizations, research centers, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, and universities. The Summer Palace, the Great Wall of China, and the Olympic Stadium “Bird’s Nest”, among other popular sightseeing attractions, are all within easy access.
The hotel also has three restaurants--a 24-hour cafe, an Italian restaurant and a Chinese restaurant--along with an indoor pool. And is it just us or does that building look like Aloft?
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OpenThread: Sheraton & Four Points by Sheraton Join the Non-Smoking Hotel Category
Where: United States
[HotelChatter OpenThreads are a place for readers to get in here and talk about hot stories and issues of the day in an open forum.
If you are already a HotelChatter member log in to comment, if not become a member for free and comment away.]
Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced the further de-smokification of their brands with 300 Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton locations in the US, Caribbean and Canada going smoke-free by December 31st, 2008. Previously in January 2006, Sheraton's sister brand Westin went smoke-free throughout the US, Canada and Caribbean - with the properties in Fuji, Australia and Scotland following due to its popularity, and Marriott announced a similar policy in 2006 as well.
What this means is over 8,000 rooms where guests were previously allowed to smoke will undergo extensive cleaning, public spaces will undergo the same process. Not to worry, those who just cannot bear to be away from a smoke will still be able to utilize designated smoking areas at each property.
What will this mean for Sheraton's convention business? Lately Starwood has been repositioning their Sheraton brand as a convention hotel, and according to some of our members who posted on our OpenThread for Marriott's No-Smoking policy, Marriott lost some business due to this change.
What do you think? Will you be more or less likely to book a room in a Sheraton or Four Points because of the non-smoking policy? Does it make a difference to you one way or another? Chime in this OpenThread and let us know!
Tags: Loyalty Program Guide / Starwood Preferred Guests / Four Points Hotels / → All Tags
Stay at Four Points, Earn 4,000 Points
In continuing with our Loyalty Program Guide we just stumbled across this offer from Starwood Preferred Guests program encouraging new members to stay at a Four Points.
Why? Because you can earn up to 4,000 points. According to this latest promotion:
Just stay four nights at any Four Points by Sheraton hotel worldwide now through November 18, 2007 and receive 4,000 Starpoints®.
If you're already an SPG members you can also register online to take advantage of the offer. That's pretty cool. We just wish we had four nights to kill at a Four Points somewhere.
Related Stories:
· 4,000 Bonus Starpoints [Starwood Hotels]
· HotelChatter's Guide to Loyalty Programs:: Starwood Preferred Guests [HotelChatter]
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Tom Sizemore Caught With Crystal Meth at Four Points Hotel
More celebrities doing bad things at hotels!
Rehab failure Tom Sizemore was busted for crystal meth at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Bakersfield, California.
Bakersfield police say the 45-year-old actor was arrested outside the Four Points Sheraton hotel after officers responded to the hotel and found methamphetamine in his vehicle.
A police spokesman says Sizemore and another man -- identified as 33-year-old Jason Salcido -- had become involved in an argument in the lobby of the hotel when they were not allowed to check in.
The officers found two bags of methamphetime and drug-related paraphernalia in Sizemore's car. We guess Tom Sizemore wasn't impressed with the hotel's Best Brews program and need something a little...um...stronger.
Related Stories:
· Tom Sizemore Arrested on Drug Charges [ABC7]
· Interview with Four Points' Chief Beer Officer [HotelChatter]
Tags: Four Points Hotels / Scott Kerksman / New York Hotel Reviews / Beer / → All Tags
Chief Beer Officer's Work Obviously Just Getting Started
So about that new beer guy at Four Points Hotels. He's got some work to do at the Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea. We stopped in to the hotel's restaurant and "lounge"--U and Mie--for a couple brews.
We've got no idea where the name comes from, but it's about as bad as the place itself. The centerpiece of the small, poorly lit space is a giant flat screen TV, tuned to Girlfriends. Our lovely bartender did a good job of keeping our mugs full, though she's "Not much of a beer person," and couldn't warn us off what turned out to be a terrible Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. The only local/"interesting" choices on the beer menu were Brooklyn Lager and Brooklyn Pilsner--available in tons of bars around the city.
What would normally be a bright spot--the happy hour discount--wasn't really that great either: It's comparable to loads of seedy midtown bars with the same amount of character as U and Mie. The place does have cute novelty cocktail napkins, though. We're filling ours out to read like a memo to Scott Kerksman: There's plenty more work to be done.
Related Stories:
· Interview with Four Points' Chief Beer Officer [HotelChatter]
· Four Points Hotels coverage [HotelChatter]
Tags: Interviews / Scott Kerkmans / Four Points Hotels / Hotel Jobs / Chief Beer Officer / → All Tags
Interview with Four Points' Chief Beer Officer
A HOTELCHATTER EXCLUSIVE
It is safe to say that Scott Kerksman is one of the luckiest men in America right now. He's just been appointed (actually voted for out of 7,800 other applicants) the Chief Beer Officer for the Four Points by Sheraton's Starwood Brand. He spent a "whirlwind" week in New York, meeting all the Starwood hotel execs and even ringing in the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Now, he's gearing up to tour all the Four Points hotels and host their Happy Hours along with hitting up Beer Festivals, and touring local beer breweries. "I think I've made a lot of people jealous" with this new job, Kerksman says in the understatement of the year.
Then again, life was not all that bad for Kerksman before the CBO gig.
A native of New Mexico, Kerks got his first exposure to beer brewing when his brother gave him a home brewery kit at the age of 21. (Legal drinking age, of course.) Together with his brother and a friend, the trio started experimenting with different flavors and after a while, Kerkmans felt confident enough to start working as a brewer at a local brewery where he worked himself up to head brewer. This set off a career of traveling all over to brew, including to Alaska where he was one of six brewers behind Alaskan Amber.
For the past few years, however, he has been working in Phoenix, Arizona overseeing the Draft magazine, a publication he co-founded with two friends, and judging beer.
The Full Q & A with Scott Kerkmans after the jump.
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Snapshot: Four Points' New CBO Sets His Myspace Profile to Private
Scott Kerkmans is Four Points by Sheraton's newest Chief Beer Officer aka CBO and despite his youthful age of 27, he wisely knows that he can't have his MySpace page public for all the world to see. Darnit we were hoping for some nude shots of Kerks doing a keg stand or even playing beer pong in his boxers with a cardboard Burger King hat on his head. Instead we got a picture of a pick-up truck in the sunset and this quote:
"Many people fish all their lives, never realizing it is not fish they are after."
Whatever! Luckily we can put a face to the name, thanks to these promo shots of him in his newly installed position as head of the hotel chain's Best Brews program. Kerks is obviously the man for this job having started up the beer enthusiasts magazine, Draft Magazine, whose MySpace page is not set to private. Sadly, it only has three friends.
MORE pictures of Scott after the jump.
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