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Main >> News Listing >> August 2004 >> Article ID 6311
 Ready to check in | Type: Internet Article |
| | Ready to check in: Attracting celebrities to a hip hotel means a promise of disc | Aug 23, 2004 | by Daniel Craig
Summary:
...Fortunately, she did. So did Christina Aguilera, who arrived in a whirlwind of handlers, then ditched them to walk her dogs in Yaletown. Sadly, Cher opted to sleep on her tour bus, possibly scared off by what may have sounded like hundreds of screaming teenagers but was only the general manager and me, unabashed fans....
Read on for the whole article. |
For the rest of the summer, we will be excerpting the daily diaries of creative Canadians. This week's correspondent is a harried hotelier, director of sales and marketing at Vancouver's upmarket Opus Hotel.
- - -
I'm meeting with a client in Opus Bar when Shakira walks by. He doesn't notice, and neither does anyone else, and it drives me insane. I want to leap from my seat and shout, "Look everybody! It's Shakira! At Opus!"
Celebrity sightings have a certain cachet in the hotel industry, and as director of sales and marketing, part of my job is to perpetuate Opus Hotel's reputation as an uber-hip celebrity hangout. If it were up to our publicist, a media release would be issued on the spot, paparazzi notified, Shakira hit up for an endorsement. But as hoteliers, we understand that part of appealing to stars is respecting their privacy. Which rules out standing up and shrieking like a teenage girl. So I refocus attention on my client. He's being a tad difficult.
"$210 is a little over our budget," he says.
I try to contain my outrage. He's at Vancouver's premier boutique hotel, with Shakira so close she's practically sitting with us, and he can't pay more than $200 for a room? My eyes wander in her direction. Perhaps if he sees her ...
She's staying in the penthouse suite, which racks up at $1,750 -- the approximate value, I estimate, of product in her hair -- yet she's paying a fraction of this. There's a currency attached to having celebrities in-house, and some hotels demonstrate a shocking willingness to prostitute rates to get this business.
Fortunately, Opus doesn't usually play this game. Since opening in 2002, we've had great success in attracting stars by virtue of our merits. It helps that more and more travellers are bypassing the big chain hotels in favour of smaller, independent boutiques. Celebrities love Opus because no one bothers them here. In fact, no one seems to notice them.
Which frustrates me. If I'm going to offer a rate so low I feel used, J.Lo better damned well make an appearance in the lobby.
Fortunately, she did. So did Christina Aguilera, who arrived in a whirlwind of handlers, then ditched them to walk her dogs in Yaletown. Sadly, Cher opted to sleep on her tour bus, possibly scared off by what may have sounded like hundreds of screaming teenagers but was only the general manager and me, unabashed fans.
But one can't fill a 96-room hotel every night with celebrities. The bulk of our business comes from corporate and leisure travellers -- attracting such diverse markets has its challenges. Staying next door to Ozzy Osbourne may be a thrill to some, but it's not likely to appeal to a pharmaceutical sales rep from Boise who's got a 7 a.m. conference call.
Speaking of which, a while back the media caught wind that Sharon Osbourne had stayed at Opus, and the L.A.-based producer of a show about fabulous lives and fabulous people called in a complete frenzy: "I'm sending up a crew. We'll need to film where she stayed, what she ate, hear the quirky things she did and said." |
 Source: Canada.com | |
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