Next time you're visiting a Montage hotel--like the Montage Beverly Hills that should be opening up in November--we want you to pay special attention to how the staff treat you. Because according to a weekend interview in the NY Times with Montage CEO Alan J. Fuerstman, his staff should have superpower-like skills in keeping guests happy.
According to Fuerstman, there are a whole range of training steps taken to make sure those staff are going to serve you at the highest level possible, and it even includes "Wow" training.
Driving through Beverly Hills last week, we were at a stoplight and noticed that the upcoming Montage Beverly Hills has unveiled a bit of its exterior. Looking pretty good!
The hotel is on schedule for a late Fall 2008 opening. The website is up but there are no guestroom shots yet. However, we did learn there will be a two signature restaurants, a flower shop, a barber shop and a 20,000-sq.ft. bi-level spa included in some of the hotel's amenities and services.
The Montage Beverly Hills slowly continues to rise over the ritzy city's Golden Triangle. We were driving by the other week and snapped this shot of the construction process from the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive.
But we're really curious as to what this place is going to look like when it's done. Thanks to Curbed LA we have a peek at a rendering (inset). Curbed reports:
Yes, the final rendering will likely change slightly again, a rep for the development tells Curbed, but you get the idea--there's a Spanish Colonial Revival thing going on. Set to open by November, the 201-room hotel will also sell condominiums and will offer two 2,000 square-foot fancy Presidential Suites. Just in time for the election.
All in all, it's not as bad as we were expecting the Montage to turn out. And this urban resort will offer a rooftop pool, bar and grill. Hear that Thompson BH? Better get yours open first!
Ali Kasikci shocked a lot of people in the hotel industry when he announced his retirement from the Peninsula Beverly Hills a few months ago. The man made famous for doing push-ups on the guestroom armoires cited a desire to move onto something new.
We have actually heard whispers that the hotel was upset with him over his lavish treatment of guests on the company dime. Although we respect a hotel's bottom line, isn't it his job to spoil the guests?
Anyways, it's been announced that Kasikci will join the new Montage Beverly Hills Resort, just a few blocks away from his old haunt, as the managing director when the hotel opens in Fall 2008. We're not sure if he's still at the Peninsula--he was expected to stay on through December--but it's clear that the Montage resort is right up his alley. The seven-story hotel will have 201 rooms including 55 suites, three restaurants, a rooftop pool and a full-service spa.
Montage Beverly Hills,the sister property to the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, is going up pretty nicely although an opening is still a ways off. The predicted date is Fall 2008 but who knows if they will make it. We certainly don't put any faith in opening dates.
Speaking of Young & Restless Manhattan Hoteliers, there's only 10 more days until Six Columbus supposedly opens but we thought we would give Jason Pomeranc a break from all that for now.
So we hit up his West Coast project, Thompson Beverly Hills.These pictures of Thompson Beverly Hills are encouraging. For one thing, the former Best Western has been shut down, finally. Two, construction has begun all over the building. Or at least scaffolding has been thrown up on every side of the building. Again, we say encouraging but we know Pomeranc usually falls apart when he's just a few months from opening.
However, maybe this picture of the gigantic Hotel Montage opening across the street will light a fire under Pomeranc's ass. The Montage is building from the ground-up and is predicting a Fall 2008 opening date.*
You think: the celebrities, the palm tree-lined streets, big mansions, and the glamorous stretch of Rodeo Drive with well-heeled shoppers prancing around carrying tiny dogs in matching outfits. But Beverly Hills has an actual community filled with real people, dammit, albeit real people with a nasty little Botox habit.
And this community has been split over an upcoming election in which a ballot for the proposed Montage Hotel Beverly Hills has taken center stage.
The Montage Hotel will be a 214-room hotel built on Wilshire Boulevard one block east of Rodeo and cost $200 million. The hotel will include a spa, retail shops, restaurants and an additional 25 condo units on the top floor. In addition, the hotel promises to add 33,000 square feet of public gardens and open space. Uh oh, looks like the CoTel craze is gripping the West Coast as well.
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by amandak
Ali Kasikci shocked a lot of people in the hotel industry when he announced his retirement from the 
