Hotelier. The word is so romantic, so eccentric, so...French. However, run-of-the-mill real world hoteliers don't always live up to the etymology.
Always looking to bring you the most pertinent information on the worldwide hotel scene, we figured when we found hoteliers that were worthy of the French pronunciation of the word, we would let them speak to you directly. Besides, before you dropped a bunch of cash to stay at someone's house, wouldn't you want to get to know the owner a bit? Exactly. We, always oh so full of ourselves, are calling this series Hoteliers That Matter and we are sitting down with these hoteliers and letting them tell you, straight from their mouths to web ears, what you need to know about their hotels.
Tim Dixon is new to this hotelier profession. A rather successful real estate developer in Milwaukee, Dixon has made the leap to the hospitality industry with the Iron Horse Hotel and what a leap it is.
The Iron Horse hotel is set to be the first modern luxury boutique hotel geared towards high-end motorcycle enthusiasts. It's a place where bikers can have all the modern comforts they are used to as well as have a place to hang their boots and helmets at the end of the day. And since it's located across from the upcoming Harley-Davidson Museum, it was a no-brainer Dixon says as to what the theme of the hotel should be.
However, Dixon also doesn't want the Iron Horse Hotel to be pigeon-holed as a motorcyclist's hotel. Rather he sees the hotel as a place where a different kind of road warrior--the business traveler--can also enjoy a modern luxury hotel stay. Apparently Milwaukee is lacking in such hip places to spend the night.
Yesterday, we showed you a sneak peek of the rooms at the hotel which will open sometime in July 2008. After the jump, we quiz Tim Dixon on how this all got started.
Hotelier. The word is so romantic, so eccentric, so...French. However, run-of-the-mill real world hoteliers don't always live up to the etymology.
Always looking to bring you the most pertinent information on the worldwide hotel scene, we figured when we found hoteliers that were worthy of the French pronunciation of the word, we would let them speak to you directly. Besides, before you dropped a bunch of cash to stay at someone's house, wouldn't you want to get to know the owner a bit? Exactly. We, always oh so full of ourselves, are calling this series Hoteliers That Matter and we are sitting down with these hoteliers and letting them tell you, straight from their mouths to web ears, what you need to know about their hotels.
Having to work for Le Meridien Hotels in French Polynesia is not a bad gig at all. Nicolas Orget (a real live Frenchman!) is the Director of Sales and Marketing for the two Le Meridien Hotels in Tahiti and Bora Bora. Granted, he's not a hotelier of his own brand of hotels but he does need to pitch these places as part of his job. And we imagine this is not a hard sell.
Nicolas: "Come to Tahiti!"
Us: "Um...Ok!"
But alas, we couldn't go to Tahiti to meet Nicolas. Instead we caught some afternoon snacks with him at the Westin LAX airport lounge, a sister brand in the Starwood family.
After the jump, Nicolas explains which Le Meridien in Tahiti is right for you.
Hotelier. The word is so romantic, so eccentric, so...French. However, run-of-the-mill real world hoteliers don't always live up to the etymology.
Always looking to bring you the most pertinent information on the worldwide hotel scene, we figured when we found hoteliers that were worthy of the French pronunciation of the word, we would let them speak to you directly. Besides, before you dropped a bunch of cash to stay at someone's house, wouldn't you want to get to know the owner a bit? Exactly. We, always oh so full of ourselves, are calling this series Hoteliers That Matter and we are sitting down with these hoteliers and letting them tell you, straight from their mouths to web ears, what you need to know about their hotels.
Former intern Jenna skipped on down to her hometown of Plano, Texas over Christmas break to spend a night at the newly opened NYLO Plano Hotel. While there she was able to check-out the entire property from top to bottom. We'll have her full review tomorrow, complete with hotel judging skills acquired from nearly four years in attendance at the Cornell Hotel School.
But we're even more excited to show you this clip of Patrick O'Neil, the general manager of the hotel as well as the Senior VP of operations for NYLO Hotels. O'Neil spoke with us on NYLO eve, just before the Plano hotel opened and you can read what he had to say then here. To see him talk live and in living color, watch the video above.
Big thanks to Jenna for getting the vid and bigger thanks to Patrick for overcoming some nervousness to pitch NYLO Hotels to HotelChatter.
Hotelier. The word is so romantic, so eccentric, so...French. However, run-of-the-mill real world hoteliers don't always live up to the etymology. Many hoteliers tend to talk about their rooms as commodities that they hope to sell by the click to you, hotel mavens. Others constantly complain that the online hotel review game has made it extremely difficult to get their hotel message to guests.
Always looking to bring you the most pertinent information on the worldwide hotel scene, we figured when we found hoteliers that were worthy of the French pronunciation of the word, we would let them speak to you directly. Besides, before you dropped a bunch of cash to stay at someone's house, wouldn't you want to get to know the owner a bit? Exactly. We, always oh so full of ourselves, are calling this series Hoteliers That Matter and we are sitting down with these hoteliers and letting them tell you, straight from their mouths to web ears, what you need to know about their hotels.
Nicholas Clayton of Kor Hotels speaks from his heart without practicing whatsoever.
Today we unveil our second installment of our Pitch Your Hotel series with Nicholas Clayton, president of Kor Hotels. Clayton joined the company about eight months ago and since then he has been hard at work at spinning off Kor Hotels' strongest properties, The Viceroy in Santa Monica and Palm Springs and The Tides in South Beach.
We knew that The Tides was expanding down in Mexico but the plans for the Viceroy caught up by surprise. Thus, Clayton gave us an informative presentation on how Kor Hotels will be shaping up in the future. You can hear what he has to say by clicking on the video above.
Our question to you is this, with Kor expanding aggressively to places like New York and San Francisco what would you like to see in their new hotels? Let us know in comments. As for the company-wide wireless internet policy issues that we are all well aware of, well click through to the Q & A to learn more.
Hotelier. The word is so romantic, so eccentric, so...French. However, run-of-the-mill real world hoteliers don't always live up to the etymology. Many hoteliers tend to talk about their rooms as commodities that they hope to sell by the click to you, hotel mavens. Others constantly complain that the online hotel review game has made it extremely difficult to get their hotel message to guests.
Always looking to bring you the most pertinent information on the worldwide hotel scene, we figured when we found hoteliers that were worthy of the French pronunciation of the word, we would let them speak to you directly. Besides, before you dropped a bunch of cash to stay at someone's house, wouldn't you want to get to know the owner a bit? Exactly. We, always oh so full of ourselves, are calling this series Hoteliers That Matter and we are sitting down with these hoteliers and letting them tell you, straight from their mouths to web ears, what you need to know about their hotels.
Quick Clip: Click To Play Watch as Chip Conley, ever the media professional, skillfully ignores his vibrating cellphone to tell us about JDV Hospitality.
To kick off our series, we were fortunate enough to sit down with San Francisco-based Chip Conley of JDV Hospitality. Conley started his hotelier career when he was 26-years-old with the Phoenix Hotel in San Fran's Tenderloin neighborhood. He succeeded into turning this hotel, in an otherwise dingy city neighborhood, into the hotel of choice for rock n' rollers and musical acts playing in the city.
Since then, Conley has spent the past 20 years building up his brand from this one rock n' roll hotel to more than 40 boutique hotels, restaurants and dayspas.
On the horizon for Conley is naturally, the ever-popular hotel and brand expansion. But don't expect JDV to hit the East Coast. For now, Conley is content to keep JDV a California experience.
The full Q&A with JDV Hospitality's Chip Conley after the jump.
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by juliana
