August 2006
STRATEGIC HOTELS & RESORTS ANNOUCES AGREEMENTS TO ACQUIRE MARRIOTT LONDON GROSVENOR SQUARE
Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. announced that the company has signed an agreement to acquire the Marriott London Grosvenor Square from an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners for a purchase price of 103.0 million pounds Sterling ($192.0 million). The acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2006, remains subject to customary closing conditions.
The Marriott London Grosvenor Square is a 236-room newly repositioned upscale hotel overlooking Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair neighborhood of central London. The hotel is adjacent to the American Embassy and a short walk from Hyde Park. The hotel recently completed a 12.8 million pounds Sterling ($23.9 million) repositioning involving the renovation of guestrooms and lobby areas, expansion of meeting space and the creation of Maze restaurant, leased to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The hotel contains 10,000 square feet of high-tech meeting space and two premium food and beverage outlets.
A HOTEL GURU CHANGES ROOMS - INTERVIEW WITH IAN SHRAGER
What do you do when you wake up one morning convinced that the intangible hipness on which you based your enormous professional success no longer exists?
If you're hotel impresario Ian Schrager, you replace the proverbial velvet rope with a comfy velvet cushion.
Perhaps that's logical for a 60-year-old and for a nation that's going to be teeming with them. Schrager, who revolutionized the hotel industry in the 1990s with his highly designed boutique properties like the Delano in Miami, is back in business and looking to launch yet another lifestyle revolution with his idiosyncratic Gramercy Park Hotel, opening this week at that fabled Manhattan location. Schrager wants to restore the celebrity of that address with a $200 million, 185-room hotel and adjacent condominium property.
This time Schrager is selling a completely different look, one he calls the antithesis of hip. The sleek modernism he pioneered with French designer Philippe Starck has been replaced by an opulent interior designed by the artist Julian Schnabel. The idea is to create a space that looks like an artist's studio. Instead of three-legged stools and linoleum floors, there are deep velvet sofas, stuccoed walls and Giacometti-style cast-bronze doorknobs.
Schrager calls it eclectic bohemian, a very personal response to what he sees as an overdesigned, overbranded and perhaps overaccessible idea of luxury. "There's going to be a backlash against all this branding," Schrager said on a recent tour of the lobby. "Everything hip is now immediately co-opted by the mainstream. I wanted to make something very individualized and unique."
LUXURY HOTELS RACING TO ADD SPAS
It wasn't so long ago that luxury hotels were racing to add spas, realizing they weren't competitive without one. Today, luxury spas are racing one another. The pressure is on--and we're not talking about your massage.
As spa-goers become more sophisticated and better-traveled, they expect more from a spa experience than ever before, and they're willing to pay for it. The industry generates about $40 billion globally, according to SpaFinder, a New York City-based spa marketing and media company. So spas worldwide are adding private suites, Japanese baths, rain showers and an ever-more-exotic array of treatments, therapies and fitness programs, influenced by everything from the traditions of far-flung cultures to cutting-edge medical technology, in order to stand out, cash in and attract new customers.
Sure, you can still get a basic Swedish massage at any spa worth its bath salts. But some spas, like the Six Senses Spa at Soneva Gili in the Maldives, are now offering Abhayanga, a full-body massage derived from Indian ayurvedic medicine that is performed by two therapists. And forget the traditional facial. At the Terme di Saturnia Spa Resort in Tuscany, you can have a rejuvenating salicylic acid mask, which exfoliates away skin problems like wrinkles or acne and leaves the skin looking fresher and younger.
The demographic of spa visitors has shifted dramatically as a result. Men now constitute more than 31% of spa visitors, up from 24% in 2004, according to ISPA.
"Throughout the world, spas are really catering to men with special menus, treatments, facilities, mens' clubs, scotch on the rocks--all the trappings you associate as typically masculine--to put men at ease," agrees Ann Abel , executive editor of Luxury SpaFinder , a publication of SpaFinder. "They need to take care of their skin, and they enjoy massage as much as women do," Abel adds. And now, there are more places than ever for them to do it.
The Island Experience, a 100-square-mile private island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, is one example. The resort, which bills itself as an adventure spa, will introduce an "Alpha Adventures" program next winter, encouraging men to buff and beautify themselves in the most masculine way possible. Alpha Adventures will feature testosterone-filled activities like jungle hikes, sea kayaking, surfing, snorkeling, fishing and two nights of camping. (Lest that sound too much like roughing it, yoga and massage are available as well.)
And at Chiva Som, an exclusive destination spa in Hua Hin, Thailand, men get a spa menu of their very own, which includes specialties like the Volcanic Pumice Polish, a body buffing treatment done with Italian pumice, or the Executive Hand Treatment, which tends to the cuticles and nails (which are shaped, but not polished), and ends with a hand and arm massage.
Now that's pressure we can handle.
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HRCI has appointed a new consultant at his London office
Olga Zinovieva will be in charge of the East European Market Senior appointments.
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JOB OF THE MONTH
(small selection)
all jobs available here
Restaurant Manager, London UK
General Manager, Surrey UK
Revenue Manager, Moscow Russia
Human Ressource Manager, Italy
Chef De Cuisine, Mexico
General Manager, China
Head Pastry Chef, London UK
Financial Controller, South UK
Restaurant Manager, London
Bar Manager, South Of France
Financial Controller, Spain
Head Chef, London UK
STAFF MOVEMENTS
Didier Montarou has transferred as Executive Chef from the InterContinetal Cleveland to the soon-to-open InterContinental Boston. Montarou has previously been the Executive Chef at InterContinental hotels in Spain, Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, England and his home country of France.
Christian Clair left the Sofitel Water Tower in Chicago where he served as Executive Sous Chef to hold the same title at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.
Robert Singer has been named Director of Sales for the Hotel de Rome in Berlin scheduled to open in August. He was most recently the Director of Sales at the Ku' Damm 101 Hotel.
Carole Tahar has joined Concorde Hotels as Director of Revenue and Yield Management. She spent the last seven years with Meridien, including five years at the company's London's headquarters.
Fabien Riviere has joined MIX in Las Vegas as Restaurant Manager, taking over for Gilles Kolakowski. He was most recently a Food and Beverage Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas and previously served as Dining Room Manager at Aureole, also in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Richard Schilling is now the General Manager of the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, filling the post left vacant by Sylvain Ercoli (now at London's Claridges). Schilling is a man of many travels whose General Manager postings included the early days of the Sofitel Los Angeles and the launch of the Park Lane in Jakarta.
Franck Farneti has been appointed General Manager at the Mas de Pierre in St. Paul de Vence taking over from Oliver Pollard who is going to Dubai. Farneti was most recently the General Manager at the Hotel Juana in Juan Les Pins, and is a former Director of Sales and Marketing for Boscolo and the Carlton InterContinental in Cannes.
Lionel Richard has joined the spanking new St. Regis Bora Bora as Director of Food and Beverage. He was most recently the Director of Restaurants for the Imperial in Delhi and previously served as Food and Beverage Manager at the Lausanne Palace.
Guillaume Brillatz has joined the Sands Resort in Mauritius as General Manager. He was most recently the General Manager at Pointe Venus, also on Mauritius.
Frèdèric Vidal has been appointed General Manager of the Maia Resort in the Seychelles. Previous employers includes the Thermes Marins de Monte Carlo and Le Mèridien Bali.
Christine Chevalaz is now in Mauritius as the Resident Manager at the Beau Rivage Resort. She was most recently the Executive Assistant Manager at the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort, where her successor is Xavier Bessou.
LOVING THE JOB YOU HATE
You know the feeling: Getting out of bed Monday morning is a struggle, followed by five long, bleak days.
You're not alone. About a million people a day phone in sick--and it's not the bird flu. Some surveys have found that 87% of Americans don't like their jobs.
"We spend our highest-energy hours working, and families get what's left," says Jane Boucher, author of How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century. "Most of us can't just quit our jobs."
The problem of being stuck in a lousy job is compounded by the feeling that we are what we do. This attitude is prevalent among men and becoming more common as more women earn professional degrees and climb the corporate ladder higher. If you hate what you do, your self-worth is likely to take a hit.
It's just part of our culture. When you meet someone new, one of the first questions asked is "What do you do?"
Job loathing is more than just a punch in the gut. Boucher says it costs the nation an estimated $150 billion per year in treatment for stress-related problems, absenteeism, reduced productivity and employee turnover.
"There are three basic motivators for employees, and money isn't No. 1," says Boucher, who is also an adjunct professor at the McGregor Graduate School of Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a professional speaker. "Workers are motivated by people they like and respect. A happy employee needs to feel that work is important. There has to be a sense of empowerment and independence--people don't like to be micromanaged, because it chokes creativity."
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