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Klaus Ortleib Dishes on Cooper Square to GQ:: "Everything Except Hookers and Drugs"

Klaus Ortleib, the man who has scooted in as the third "partner" in the beleaguered Cooper Square Hotel did a feature spot in GQ magazine (sorry, no online link) where he dishes on his favorite things--in and out of hotels.

What we learn about Klaus, the former manager at the uber-cool THOR Hotel on the LES:

· One of nine kids in a Catholic family from Germany. Umm..Fun?
· Trained under both Ian Schrager and Andre Balazs.
· He loves horses.
· He always wears pressed clothes.
· $5.99 glasses from Duane Reade make him happy.
· He drives a sick ride--a 2008 Range Rover.

Now about the hotel things. Rooms at Cooper Square will all have real live books inside of them. Guests can also expect some good service as this is important to Klaus who once worked at Claridge's in London.

I get very turned off when people say, "I can't do it." What do you mean? I tell everyone at my hotels: Provide everything the guests want except hookers and drugs.

Although, if you like to travel with your own ashtray (and if you do, you're a weirdo!) then be careful as Klaus admits he is a bit of klepto when it comes to cool astray designs.

[Photo: GQ]

Tags: Hot Hotelier News / Klaus Ortleib / → All Tags

Inside the House of Klaus

Some more hotelier news for you. The NYT Escapes section took a visit to Klaus Ortleib's upstate weekend house in Pine Planes, NY. Ortleib, if you didn't know, was most recently responsible for opening and managing THOR on Manhattan's LES. He also spent time working for other big hoteliers, Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager.

These days he's prepping the Cooper Square Hotel for opening but still makes time for his country house. Most of the article is about how Klaus fixed up the house but there were some interesting hotel tidbits in there, like this one:

He is currently overseeing five hotel projects; three, including Cooper Square, are new downtown Manhattan developments in collaboration with the architect Carlos Zapata, whose work includes the renovation of Soldier Field in Chicago.

No mention of Matt Moss here although we suspect he's involved in there somewhere.

Also, Klaus is krazy about his dogs, two vizslas named Duchess and Princess. “Now, everybody has to pass the dog test,” he said. Hmmm...we say he should focus on a black spandex test instead.

Related Stories:
· A Project, a Retreat, a Kennel . . . [NYT]
· Getting to know the Thompson Hotels Co-Owners [HotelChatter]