The NYT has an article today on the boutique hotel business in which they interviewed several hotel execs and got them to sound off on why boutique hotels are so successful these days.
Yes, it's 2008. No, you are not reading a post from 2004 that we mistakenly put up.
There's not much of interest in the article except the paper managed to interview a few big hoteliers like Ian Schrager (who is ok with selling out to Marriott), Jason Pomeranc and Michael Achenbaum of the Gansevoort Hotel Group, along with Thomas F. O'Toole, chief marketing officer for Hyatt Hotels.
However we did like Achenbaum's description of what his hotels aim to do:
“I want guests to think, ‘I got five-star service, but it was a fun version of five-star service,’ ” Mr. Achenbaum said. That means providing ample meeting space, free Internet access and staff that is responsive whether a guest needs dinner reservations or a computer cable, he said. It also means offering signature touches like a rooftop pool and wow factors like the 50-foot shark tank in the lobby in Miami.
Shark tanks! We're so easy to please over here.
As we write, all the big hotels and hoteliers are wrapping up the final day of the Tisch Center Hospitality Conference taking place at a non-boutique hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria.
We checked the G'voort website and saw they were still accepting reservations for February 15th. Although if this opening did get pushed back to March we wouldn't be that surprised, considering all the construction we saw over there the other week. If anything, we bet the hotel will open a few rooms with the public spaces and pool to come later.
Two weeks we ago, we just happened to be driving by the Hotel Gansevoort South in Miami Beach and we noticed that the hotel still had some construction left. Of course it was nothing like the W South Beach next door which was in bad shape but we were surprised to see the front entrance of Gansevoort still fenced off with tons of junk behind it.
And then a commenter tipped us off that the hotel would open after February 15 and not January 28th as was initially planned. Sorry folks if you were planning an early February escape to the Gansevoort South. Hope you can reschedule your vacation days.
Now in this hotel gig of ours, we are learning that construction generally blows and nothing ever seems to go as planned. But the Gansevoort folk better open this place soon as they will be missing out on valuable "in season" customers.
Way back when, like a year ago, Page Six reported on various hotelier rumors--one being that the Gansevoort Hotel would open a second NYC location on Park Ave South and 29th Street.
Then not too long ago, the DBTH blog reported that this was even more likely. Finally, the Gansevoort people spilled the beans to the NYT confirming that the Gansevoort Park is in the works and a 2009 opening date has been set. The hotel will include:
a 19-story glass-and-limestone building with 225 rooms, which will cost $200 million....
A wide 150-foot-tall glass column containing light-emitting diodes will display mutating colors along the corner of the building's facade, in a nod to four similar 15-foot columns at the Hotel Gansevoort.
Gansevoort Park's top three floors, open to the public, will cover 8,000 square feet. They will include bars, decks and a pool, though the exact configuration is being kept secret, Mr. Achenbaum said, to prevent a competitor from trying to install a similar feature before the hotel is finished in the spring of 2009.
Guest-only areas will include a 3,500-square-foot catering space on the third floor, an outdoor deck and a 2,000-square-foot mezzanine-level spa.
Hmmm...we are sooo curious about this competitor. Could it be Jason Pomeranc?
Nevertheless, we are kind of unexcited about this new Gansevoort. Room prices will probably start at $500 making it another place most people can't afford in NYC. And what's up with the "mutating colors" on the building's exterior? That doesn't seem very Park Ave South to us.
We confess. We had pretty much forgotten about Gansevoort West which was to open at 9th and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, thanks to a severe news drought on the property.
Anyways we inquired about the property's future and got carefully-worded reply from developers WSA Management and the Chetrit Group:
WSA Management will wholly own and manage the Gansevoort South hotel and condominium development in Miami. The Chetrit Group will develop the 9th Street/Grand Avenue project in Los Angeles under a different brand name; WSA Management will not be involved.
Later, we found LA Curbed's post on the hotel death.
Anyways, WSA Management is William Achenbaum's development group and he is the owner of the original Hotel Gansevoort in NYC. The Chetrit group is also based in NYC.
So there you have it. Gansevoort West is dead. Now, we just need to know what kind of hotel brand the Chetrit Group is putting in. Hopefully, not another Thompson Hotel.
