The just-ended first (and final, we hope) season of The Real Housewives of New York City was the latest reality TV show to feature a hotelier and/or a behind-the-scenes look at a hotel.
But if you look at some of the other reality shows about hotels and how they work or who's running them you will see a not-so-startling pattern: reality shows featuring hoteliers and hotels suck.
That may be a harsh statement but let us now present the evidence: Casino, Party @ the Palms With Jenny McCarthy, Inn Love, Welcome to the Parker and Real Housewives of New York City.
· Everyone's favorite househubby/hotelier Simon Van Kempen and his wife Alex McCord have a family website. At first we thought this wasn't real but we actually think it's legit now. Poorly designed but legit nonetheless. Here a bio Simon wrote for himself. Note to users: Skip the bios of their young sons. You will feel guilty for having even clicked on those pages.
· The Handlery Hotel charges $10 a day in the tech-centric city of San Francisco. Local hotel chains like Personality Hotels and JDV Hotels, along with Kimpton don't charge for WiFi.
· The Luxor showed some promise earlier this year of actually being a cool place to stay with the LAX nightclub, the CatHouse bordello lounge and the Company restaurant with actual Top Chefs in the kitchen. However, Eater LA reports the chefs at Company have all left. CatHouse also shut down in February for structural damage. Yikes.
· Hotel Indigo expands the brand with a location in Wilmington, No. Carolina which will also be the official accommodations for the nearby convention center. But it will still retain its boutique-y feel with only 160 rooms.
Simon Van Kempen, general manager of the Hotel Chandler and star of The Real Housewives of Manhattan, better get his pipes checked. We mean, at the hotel of course.
A 79-woman is suing the hotel for negligence to the tune of $79 million after a too-hot shower caused her to faint. The Houston Chronicle reports:
Ethel Tropez, a Hurricane Katrina refugee from New Orleans who lives in Live Oak, Texas, says in court papers she was badly burned and suffered scarring and disfigurement in the mishap on March 29, 2007, in the Hotel Chandler. The hotel, where deluxe rooms go for up to $510 a night, is on East 31st Street near Fifth Avenue, three blocks south of the Empire State Building.
When the paper interview Van Kempen, he said "no idea about any of this." His response is still being awaited.
Apparently, someone at Bravo decided that the "Real Housewives of Orange County" was such a good show that they should do the same thing for Manhattan.
In theory, this should be a better show. Manhattanites dress better. They go to better parties and they fight for spots at prestigious pre-schools before their spawn is even born.
But yet, we couldn't even bring ourselves to watch this spin-off despite having seen a preview. Really, any show with "Housewives" in it from now on should be banned.
Gawker has a nice summary of the show so you shouldn't have to watch it but since one of the househubbies is Simon Van Kempen, who "runs"/is the general manager at the Hotel Chandler on E.31st, a rather unknown, so-so hotel in Murray Hill, we might be forced to watch it now.
Yet before we do, we wanted to know more about the Simon and the Hotel Chandler and thought you might want to too.
· His Housewife: Alex McCord, a former actress from Kansas who now works as a visual merchandiser. · Official Website:: Eh. · Studscore: Daily News only gave the Aussie a 4 out of 10. · Hotel's Secret Past: Ok it's not so secret. But it was once the Hotel Le Marquis. · Rude Manager?: The TripAdvisor reviews are pretty solid although one said, "The Manager could not have been any ruder." · Opera Lover: Simon Van Kempen says belonging to the Metropolitan Opera will help the couple move up in NYC Society. Totally unrelated question: Any one know how much money a GM at this sort of hotel would make? · A Favorite?: The NY Mag (and a few other places) think Simon is their favorite character. Some reasons why: He's an Aussie but named his children François and Johan and force them to speak French. He says to Alex, "I can see you at the Met in that!" when she tries on a leopard-print Cavalli dress. And he throws lavish compliments at his wife for her beauty.
The just-ended first (and final, we hope) season of The Real Housewives of New York City was the latest reality TV show to feature a hotelier and/or a behind-the-scenes look at a hotel.
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by juliana
Apparently, someone at Bravo decided that the "Real Housewives of Orange County" was such a good show that they should do the same thing for Manhattan.
