My Hotel Geek

After a tortuous two-decade endeavour to break into the world’s second-most-populous country, the founder and CEO of Toronto-based Four Seasons, Mr Isadore Sharp, is finally opening the finest hotel in Mumbai in the emerging Worli district of India’s largest city.

For those that have travelled to India, you know that ‘’emerging district’’ does not have the same signification here. Poverty is visible everywhere. When I stayed at a 4-star hotel in New Delhi, I did not go outside the gate. There are millions of people living on the streets and slums right next door.

Inside the Four Seasons Mumbai, the smallest room is 388 sq ft, much larger than many poor Indians’ homes. Each Four Seasons room comes equipped with a separate shower stall and bathtub; but across the road, many residents are lucky if they have running water for two hours a day, and flush toilets are, in many places, a frill. Social inequality confronts you everywhere you go in India. That does not stop the country to become a financial empire. In the same district, Deloitte are setting up offices as well as Goldman Sachs.

It took three different deals involving 22 prospective hotels for Four Seasons to close the deal in a country of congealing bureaucracy and inefficiency. India is one of the most difficult large economies in which to do business. The hotel was supposed to open 2 years ago.

To find the staff to work at such luxurious hotel is also a huge challenge. For every 50 candidates who applies, Four Seasons hires one.

I could have talked about the hotel’s 202 guestrooms, spa and restaurants but we all know it’s fabulous, it’s Four Seasons! My interest is the process in which western hoteliers have to go through to open a hotel in such a complex and fascinating country.

If you are interested, I checked for price online for next month and got a rate of 20 500 Indian rupees ($2000 USD) per night. Like the Indians would say: ”Chalta hai” roughly translated to ”that’s the way it is”. Four Seasons has more hotel projects for India but we’ll have to wait and see when, where and how long it’ll take to seal the deal!

IMEX 2008, a Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive travel, meeting and events, is kicking off on April 22 in Frankfurt for 3 days. This award-winning trade show will feature 3,400 exhibitors from 150 countries, present around 60 workshops and will attract over 8,000 visitors.

IMEX 2008 has introduced a number of Green initiatives, making it the greenest IMEX to date. Initiatives include the use of hydroelectric Green Energy for all electricity needs during the exhibition, the use of recycled and recyclable badges using corn-starch laminate (the badges are completely compostable in water), the use of bio-diesel fuel for 90% of hosted buyer buses, etc. Germans are leaders in environmental issues and we can all learn from them.

Many of my Fairmont colleagues from all around the world will showcase at IMEX: our Global Sales offices from London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Moscow as well as Fairmont hotels from The Quebec Region, Singapore, Monte-Carlo, The Canadian Rockies, etc. Click here to learn about The Fairmont Green Partnership.

Have a great show my fellow hoteliers and we look forward to hearing about the success of IMEX 2008!

Montreal’s largest convention hotel in Montreal is turning 50 years old tomorrow. The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, with its 1039 rooms and suites, has the best location in town on Rene Levesque Blvd and is situated right above the train station.

The George Drummond-designed hotel was named after Queen Elizabeth II who took the throne in 1952. In 1955, a petition was signed by 250 000 French-Canadians to call the hotel ”Chateau Maisonneuve” but the CN President, Donald Gordon, insisted to name the new asset for CN The Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

Back in 1958, a guestroom was $20 and a Deluxe $26. Nowadays, we are looking at $189-$279 depending on the time of the year.

The latest renovations were in 2003 when 40 million dollars were injected mainly for the lobby and the legendary Beaver Club, a 5 diamond restaurant. The hotel is currently renovating guestrooms (soft goods) a few floors at the time.

The Fairmont Gold at the ”Queeny” is Montreal’s best boutique hotel experience and I had the chance to try it a few years ago. The staff is fabulous and the food at The Montrealais or The Beaver Club, exquisite.

Happy 50th anniversary!

Just a few days ago, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and HCT Development announced a new luxurious resort project to be completed for the winter of 2011: The Fairmont Vail. This is amazing news for my company and myself as the best skiing in North America is in Vail with great terrain, powder as well as 300 days of sunshine a year!

Vail’s just about to wrap up its 45th winter season next week and welcomes over 1.6 million skiers a year. We will see amazing growth in Vail both in real estate and mountain development. Just this year, two new high speed quad chairlifts were installed on the eastern side of the mountain and other chairs were upgraded.

The latest 5-star hotel project to be completed in Vail is The Arrabelle at Vail Square, a ski-in ski-out property with 36 guestrooms and 66 condo units. The reviews are quite good on TripAdvisor despite the fact that it just opened in January.

The Fairmont Vail will offer 128 guestrooms as well as 73 Fairmont residences and a 10,000 sq ft Willow Stream Spa. Dozens of projects are on their way: The Ritz Carlton Residences, Vail to be completed in 2010 with 71 luxury condos, Solaris with 75 condos, Four Seasons to open in the fall of 2009 with 120 units and 25 residences, etc.

The Bavarian-style pedestrian village is transforming itself into a world premier ski destination with great neighbours such as Beaver Creek Mountain and Keystone Mountain helping to bring more traffic into the region.

Watch with me the great videos on the website of Vail and dream about your next trip to powder paradise…

Looking for luxurious accommodation in Vegas without smoking and gaming? The Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas is the place to go. Defined as the next generation of luxurious hospitality, the 64-storey, floor-to-ceiling windows hotel, will be the destination of choice in Vegas for the cultivated traveler.

Neighbours include The Fashion Show Mall and The Wynn. The hotel has 1232 ulta-luxury suites & penthouse suites ranging from 515 to 3,500 sq ft. Prices are starting from $379 for next week end for instance.

There is only 2460 sq ft of meeting space so the focus of this 2 billion-hotel will be the wealthy leisure travelers. They’ll love the spa, fine dining and Trump Attaché service. If you go, I would love to hear your comments on my blog.

If you are looking for an investment opportunity, prices for hotel condominium units at Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas range from the $700,000s to $7 million. This is the second project completed this year in the Trump Hotel Collection. Earlier in February, The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago opened up and created a lot of interest.

Viva Las Vegas!

I have not written in weeks since The Plaza in New York reopened. I actually got married last week so we have been quite busy. I am glad to post a new article today about our trip to Singapore last year at this time of the year. It was our first time to South East Asia and we stayed at The Raffles Singapore and the Swissôtel The Stamford.

After a very long flight, it was lovely to be picked up at the airport in a Bentley with Evian water and a cold face towel. It’s hot and humid in Singapore, over 30 degrees with daily rain showers. Upon arrival at the magnificent colonial 103- suite Raffles Singapore, we were escorted to our James Michener Suite and received a Singapore Sling. During our entire stay we had a butler service which we are not used to. You are not a hotel guest at Raffles but a resident and the service we received was amazing. The Raffles hotel is Singapore’s jewel, dating from 1887 and has gone through a S$160 restoration from 1989 to 91.

We enjoyed a massage at the Amrita Spa and one of our best memories is our evening at The Raffles Culinary Academy with Master Chef Tan Yee Hoo. We cooked a great meal with great company.

The Swissôtel The Stamford, the tallest hotel in Singapore at 226 metres and 73 floors, is a large 1263- room business hotel that offers a totally different experience than the Raffles. We had a fabulous meal at Jaan, featuring Modern French food, located on level 70!

Singapore is a unique multi-cultural destination that welcomed 10.3 million visitors in 2007. All of the best hotels in the world are in Singapore: Fairmont Singapore, Conrad Centennial Singapore, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, Shangri-La Hotel, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, The Meritus Mandarin Hotel Singapore, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, Grand Hyatt Singapore, The Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, etc. The average daily rate is supposed to hit S$230 in 2008 with an annual occupancy rate of over 88%.

Another fabulous destination for a hotel geek like myself with amazing growth…

The Plaza, a Fairmont managed hotel, is officially reopening after a long 2 year restoration. I had the chance to stay at the grand icon back in 2000 and hope to go back one day… when and if the staff rate opens up!

The Plaza is owned by Elad Properties. The hotel was bought for $675 million in 2004 and $400 million were injected to return The Legend to its original glory. Some details I was able to find on the net: 30 million dollars were spent for the roof and 4.5 million for the Grand Ballroom restored to its 1929 opulence.

Since opening in 1907, the Plaza has been bought and sold eight times, once by the Hilton family in 1943 and once by Trump in his Ivana- infuenced ’80s.

The Plaza hotel will offer 282 distinctive Louis XV style guestrooms (including of 152 pied-à-terres) and is the first hotel in the world to have 24-carat gold plated Sherle Wagner designed sinks and fixtures in every guest room and suite. I guess only the megawealthy community can really appreciate 24-carat gold plated sinks, I’d be happy with a regular marble sink and brushed nickel faucet…

Another interesting part of this project is the conversion of guestrooms to private residences. Sales for the 19-story Beaux Arts building went better than expected. From floor plans alone, 75% of the 182 residences were sold. Twothirds of the buyers were American, with 66% of those from the metropolitan area. The biggest buyer, real estate developer Harry Macklowe, bought an entire floor of the Plaza for around $60 million. New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft also purchased in the building, as did several international billionaires.

The restoration of The Plaza, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh’s Beaux Arts masterpiece, has been overseen by an award-winning design team including Gal Nauer Architects, Costas Kondylis and Partners, Walter B. Melvin Architects and Rani Ziss Architects.

Square-foot prices started in the $5,000 range and increased to an apex of $6,500. A one-bedroom with a view of Central Park costs around $7 million. A three-bedroom is on the market for $20 million.

You must go on the Elad page and and click on the video and dream you were a guest of The Plaza for a few minutes…

Last week end, we went skiing at Tremblant. The snow conditions were amazing and the mountain busy for a Sunday but it did not feel too crowded. I’m always amazed when I look at the business success of Tremblant, one the greatest resort development project in North America.

Since Intrawest acquired the station in 1991, Tremblant has gone through many changes: new skiable terrain, quad chairs, gondola, golf courses, golf academy, convention centre, thousands of accommodation units, etc. It went from 350,000 visitors per year to a projected 4 million visitors per year by the end of 2010 once all phases are completed.

Tremblant is a paradise for whole or fractional ownership opportunities and is home to many top hotels and luxurious accommodation. Two of them are worth mentioning: The Fairmont Tremblant, a 5 star ski-in ski-out property. Great hotel for your meetings or incentive programs year round. For higher budget and smaller groups, Quintessence is the premier luxury boutique hotel and was named
“Most Excellent Small Hotel” in North America by Condé Nast.

Continental Airlines offers non-stop service from New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Mont-Tremblant, Canada (YTM) from December 14, 2007 to April 5, 2008. The flights will certainly be quite full these days with President’s week in the US.

I look forward to going back to Tremblant to ski and see my friends living and working at the resort. What a great place to be!

Since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt, the most visited country in Africa with well over 9 million ++ visitors a year. Population is 78 million people and in Cairo alone 17 million.

Cairo is the largest city in Africa (built in 969 A.D.) – a unique fusion of millennial remains and contemporary vibrancy. On one side, you’ll find a citadel dating from medieval times; on the other, office buildings sporting cutting-edge architecture – while in the middle, the timeless Nile flows round the islands of Roda, Abu El-Dahab and Gezira.

Egypt has alway been a popular destination … Prince Andrew was in Luxor with his daughter last month, Nicolas Sarkozy spent Christmas there (with Carla) and so did Tony Blair with his son a few days later. Even Charles Aznavour gave two concerts in January in Cairo. Tourism is one of Egypt’s four key foreign currency earners and despite the unfortunate but frequent ‘’incidents’’ tourism is doing very well.

Today, my company announced the official opening of The Fairmont Towers, Heliopolis, a contemporary new hotel with 247 luxurious guestrooms, extensive conference facilities, a spa, atrium garden and dining outlets.

The property is located in the central Heliopolis area (Greek, for city of the sun), five minutes from Cairo International Airport and a perfect base from which to explore popular attractions such as the Mohamed Ali citadel, the Egyptian Museum and pyramids.

A second property located adjacent, the Fairmont Heliopolis, will embark upon a renovation program beginning first quarter of 2008, whose design will result in a relaxed and inviting space complementing the elegant Towers.

And it’s not over, there is another project that will be completed in June 2008…The Fairmont Cairo, Nile City, located on a prime site overlooking the Nile and just 30 minutes from the Sphinx and great Pyramids at Giza. Stay tuned!

Remember Bill Rancic? He was the first winner of The Apprentice season one in the spring of 2004 and had chosen to take charge of the construction of the Trump Tower Chicago in his native Chicago. Well the TV reality show project is now a real life phenomenal 92 stories (1362 ft to the tip of the spire) skyscraper in Chicago and 4 floors of the hotel side just opened a few days ago.

The 750 million dollars project is located on the site of the demolished Chicago Sun Time building and was Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. When this project was originally announced, it was proclaimed as a future world’s tallest building. After the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 the plans were scaled down a few hundred feet.

Trump International Hotel provides a unique opportunity to own an elegantly appointed hotel guestroom in the heart of downtown Chicago. When in residence, owners will have full access to the five-star amenities and services of a luxurious hotel. Trump International serves as the perfect in-town pied-a-terre for those who would like a second, or even third home, but without the responsibility of maintaining a residence.

Situated from floors 14 through 89, residences and hotel guestrooms will offer stunning panoramic vistas of the surrounding city, Lake Michigan and Chicago River. There will be 339 five-star luxury condominium guestrooms and 486 super-luxury condominiums. Prices range from 3.3 to 9 million dollars for a penthouse from 2350 to 6850 sq ft while guestroom rates will go from $300-500 a night.

Upscale prime real estate in Chicago is not over with another 150-story twisting tower, Chicago Spire, selling at $4,000 USD per sq ft, the most ever for a Chicago condo. The Santiago Calatrava designed master piece will be completed in 2011.

Chicago, my kind of town! Check out the following video…