Canadian Lodging News - February 2013

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LodgingNews February 2013 Vol. 10 No. 1

c a n a d a ’ s

l o d g i n g

b u s i n e s s

Skyline inks deal with Intrawest

n e w s p a p e r

$ 5 . 0 0

New Castle’s Autograph and Signature

A farm-themed hotel in Charlevoix, QC

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Hotel La Ferme has accommodation ranging from deluxe rooms to dormitory lodgings.

Tim Ostrem

Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40010152

Michael Sneyd and Blue Mountain Village

TORONTO—While those who have access to the Rockies or the Laurentians might scoff at Blue Mountain, Ontario’s largest ski resort is a destination for the six million people in the Golden Horseshoe area.

That’s what attracted Intrawest to the area in 1999, and that’s what’s prompted Skyline Hotels & Resorts to spend $20 million on a share of Blue Mountain’s retail and 136 acres of undeveloped land. The land is zoned for 1,200 units consisting of 360 single family homes and town home sites, and 840 condo sites.

Long-term ambitions The deal is expected to close at the end of February. Townhouses and condos will be top priority, with marketing to begin this year and construction as early as 2014. The project is long term, and could take 15 to 20 years to complete.

Local vs. vacation resorts Skyline Hotels & Resorts president Michael Sneyd, who was featured last year on Undercover Boss, remembers skiing at Blue.

While Horseshoe Valley was the regular hill for Sneyd, who hails from Orillia, ON, “Blue Mountain was The Mountain,” he told CLN in an interview. “The runs are shorter [than those in other parts of Canada], but that means you can concentrate on your technique. There are places that are your local ski resort and places you go for a one or two-week vacation.”

Blue Mountain is a major local resort for people in the Toronto area.

Partnership with BMR Majority-owned by Intrawest, Blue Mountain Resorts (BMR) is still in partnership with the original owners of Blue, the Weider family and

Gordon Canning, who was CEO and is now chairman. BMR will continue to run all the rental pool of existing condos and the hill operations including the Blue Mountain Inn and Grand Georgian hotels. They have a franchise agreement with Westin. And all the rest of the units are condominiums owned by third parties. The condos in the pool include Mosaic, Seasons at Blue, Weider and Historic Snowbridge.

Intrawest’s rental programs are geared towards the owner/investor, with personal use restricted, said Sneyd. Owners receive a percentage of the pooled revenue from rentals.

It was a model that was very successful when the economy was booming, and it is the model Intrawest uses at Whistler, Mont Tremblant and Blue Mountain, said Sneyd.

SHELTON, CN—New Castle Hotels and Resorts has come one step closer to re-opening the historic Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, NB by hiring Tim Ostrem as general manager. Ostrem has worked for the four-diamond Cambridge Suites Hotel in Toronto, the Mayfield Suites, an upscale suite hotel, conference centre and dinner theatre in Edmonton, and Delta Hotels and Resorts.

He currently heads up a team of eight key Algonquin employees in the basement of a staff residence on site. The $20 million renovation of the hotel is well underway, with a target opening date of June 1. It will reopen as the first Canadian hotel in Marriott’s Autograph Collection.

“We’ll start with a team of eight, build the team and build culture,” says Ostrem.

Members of the opening team include Kathleen O’Halloran, director of sales and marketing and Lisa Porter, sales manager, both of whom have been with The Algonquin since 2009.

Continued on page 3

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New Castle renews management of NS resorts and appoints Algonquin GM Continued from page 1

ment had issued a request for proposThey also have a controller, golf als, but failed to find any party interclub manager, and director of human ested in taking over the resorts. New resources, “because we’re knee-deep in Castle’s management contract was rerecruitment,” Ostrem says. newed until January, 2014.

At press time, Ostrem was looking All three resorts have been renofor an executive chef, food and bevervated recently, with money from the Government of Nova Scotia financing age and rooms division managers. the upgrades, noted Guido Kerpel, vice As an outsider, Ostrem is now getpresident Canadian region for New ting to know people in the community.

Castle.

“Every hotel depends a great deal on the community, but none as much as Kathleen O’Halloran, director, More than 29 hotels and we do. It’s as much about the success of Lisa Porter, sales manager, sales & marketing, Algonquin the community as it is about our own The Algonquin Hotel resorts in Canada and U.S. success. We are celebrating the fact that is part of our heritage and an important ecoBased in Shelton Connecticut, New this quaint, charming town has a lot to offer.” nomic driver for the entire region surrounding Castle Hotels & Resorts is an independent The hotel is expected to reopen in June.

Passamaquoddy Bay. I can’t wait to reopen, third-party hotel manager, owner and develwelcome back old friends and introduce first oper with more than 29 hotels and resorts and time visitors to a new and improved Algon- nearly 5,000 rooms under contract or in deBuilding gutted velopment. New Castle’s growing portfolio of At this stage, the Algonquin hotel has been quin.” hotels spans 10 states and three Canadian provcompletely gutted. The main building was inces and includes several of Canada’s historic never winterized, and requires new heating, Signature contract signed air conditioning and new fire, life and safety In other New Castle News, the company landmark resorts.

New Castle’s first historic repositioning systems. The Prince of Wales wing was already has renewed its contract to manage the three winterized.

Nova Scotia Signature Resorts. New Castle has venture was the 1996 acquisition of The Nova “Of all of the hotels in Canada, there is operated the three resorts—the Keltic Lodge, in Scotian hotel in Halifax, branding it as the first none more recognizable than the Algonquin,” Ingonish, NS; Digby Pines Golf Resort and Spa, franchise Westin in Canada.

Other Canadian properties include the said Ostrem. “For a Canadian hotelier, this is a Digby, NS; and the Liscombe Lodge, Liscomb Hampton Inn in Dartmouth, NS and the Resionce-in-a-career opportunity to have a positive Mills, NS—for the past 12 years. impact on a national treasure. The Algonquin Earlier this year, the Nova Scotia govern- dence Inn in Moncton, NB.

Keltic Lodge

Liscombe Lodge

Digby Pines

Blue Mountain plans don’t include hotel “Our vision is similar to what we have done at Deerhurst, Horseshoe and the King Edward.

People buy a condo or cottage from us, and then it’s up to them to determine when they want to use the rental program. It’s more in line with where the market is now in 2013 and where it will continue to be over the next few years. I don’t think the investor market will be as strong.

We tell people that the income expectations are up to them – they are looking at a vacation home with income potential rather than stressing ROI. “Families are within walking or shuttle distance of the activities at Blue. There’s a real market for people who want to have a place right at the hill. If you have to get in the car to go to the hill, it can be a major inconvenience. Some people are ready to go at 8:30, while some people are still sleeping.”

projects at Horseshoe Resort, Deerhurst Resort and Port McNicoll.)

“We are in discussions with a major brand regarding partnering with them on vacation ownership,” Sneyd said. “We are also looking at doing it ourselves.

“All of the major brands have vacation ownership, and to be truly successful in vacation ownership, you have to be a hospitality firm.”

Personally, Sneyd likes vacation ownership for family vacations. “You have a full kitchen, and a living room where you can congregate with the family, and separate bedrooms for everyone.”

For resort owners, bringing potential vacation ownership buyers onsite for mini-vacation trials helps fill the rooms during the off-season.

The Skyline deal includes 37,000 square feet of retail tenancies out of a total of 64,000 square feet. They also have the potential to build another 20,000 square feet.

Skyline looks vacation ownership

No other hotel planned for Blue

Blue Mountain Resorts is part of the Interval International vacation ownership network, and Skyline is also looking at vacation ownership. To that end, Skyline has hired Jude Carillo, who was senior vice president for Intrawest, as part of their team. (Skyline has also hired another former Intrawest VP, Dan Piggott, as vicepresident development to oversee development

Despite the fact that Skyline is primarily a hotel company, there are no plans for another hotel at Blue Mountain. “Until the market becomes strong again, we are focused on acquiring existing operations at significantly below replacement costs. It requires the economy to continuously improve before we are in position for a new build,” Sneyd said.

Continued from page 1

“Skyline is right now in the business of acquiring existing hospitality properties that are underperforming. The market today makes it very difficult for single owner hotel operations for two reasons. First, we don’t have the low Canadian dollar. And second, for the cost structure to compete with more efficient hotel firms, they need to centralize accounting, human resources, information technology, digital media, sales and marketing. Skyline has gone one step further, with its own call centre. Conversion rates have risen from one-third to over 50 per cent with the in-house call centre.”

He gives the example of Deerhurst as a good opportunity for Skyline. Before Skyline took over, it was owned by Mass Mutual out of the U.S. The third-party manager, in this case Atlific Hotels & Resorts, took three per cent of the revenue. “Without adding one body to our head office, we were able to take over management of Deerhurst and save three per cent. That gives us an enormous advantage,” he noted.

“We are in discussions with a number of hotel properties to come into the Skyline family,” he added.

Skyline is seeking opportunities on the east and west coasts, mountain areas and Southern Ontario. “They must be unique, and generally unbranded or able to change brands,” Sneyd stipulated.

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NEWS

BRIEFS

Starwood loses Ogilvie, Foster TORONTO—Two high profile Canadian Starwood Hotels & Resorts executives—Stephen Foster and David Ogilvie—will lose their jobs as a result of a company David Ogilvie restructuring announced last month.

“Both Stephen and David will be working with their teams to oversee a smooth transition. They have been valued leaders within our organization, and we thank them for their commitment to our guests, customers and associates over the years,” said Carrie Bloom, global communications, for the hotel company in an e-mailed statement.

Foster has been with the company for since 1985 most recently as SVP, operations. Ogilvie has been at Starwood since 1980, most recently as regional VP, sales and marketing.

Meanwhile, Starwood is planning to open six new hotels across the country in 2013, and expects to have 66 hotels and resorts in the Canadian portfolio by year’s end.

Gibson retires from InnVest In other news, Kenny Gibson, president and CEO of InnVest Real Estate Investment Trust, retired late last year. Gibson had been with the company since 1990 and involved in the Kenny Gibson Canadian hotel marketplace since 1994. Prior to joining the company, Gibson held the position of vice president operations for Texas-based Southwest Inns, a hotel development and management company.

Gibson has agreed to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of Trustees.

The board has started a search process and has appointed interim chief financial officer Anthony Messina to serve as CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

The board also announced the appointment of George Kosziwka as InnVest’s new chief financial officer.

Messina has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry including financial management, hotel development/ownership and privatization of public real estate companies. Since 2009, Messina has served as the managing director of Investments for Westmont Hospitality Group, responsible for various real estate investments, capital raising and reporting to institutional investors.

Kosziwka has over 20 years in the industry and has been involved in every aspect of InnVest REIT’s finances and has been an integral part of each of its major financial transactions over the last 10 years. Prior to joining InnVest in 2002, he held senior finance executive positions for predecessors of the REIT, including UniHost Corporation and Journey’s End Corporation. Kosziwka is also currently a director of Choice Canada. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and is a Chartered Accountant.

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

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LodgingNews

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www.can-lodgingnews.com Editor Colleen Isherwood ext. 231 cisherwood@canadianlodgingnews.com Contributing Editors Marni Andrews marni@trolltales.com Larry Mogelonsky larry@lma.ca Leslie Wu ext. 227 lwu@canadianrestaurantnews.com Elaine Anselmi ext. 226 eanselmi@canadianlodgingnews.com National Sales Manager Dave Bell ext. 230 dbell@canadianlodgingnews.com Senior Account Manager Debbie McGilvray ext. 233 dmcgilvray@canadianlodgingnews.com Senior Account Manager Joe Couto ext. 229 jcouto@canadianlodgingnews.com Production Production ext. 0 pweber@canadianlodgingnews.com Circulation Manager Don Trimm ext. 228 dtrimm@canadianrestaurantnews.com Controller Tammy Turgeon ext. 237 tammy@canadianlodgingnews.com

Smuggler’s Cove, St. Lucia

TripAdvisor turnaround “Where are you taking me?” my husband Steve asked after reading a TripAdvisor report about Smuggler’s Cove, the St. Lucia hotel I had just booked. The report was scathing. In particular, it talked about an ant infestation that nobody fixed. What had I done?

Other reports were more encouraging.

“Do NOT be deterred from this resort by the negative reviews. IF there was any substance to the complaints, Smuggler’s Cove has rectified things. This is a lovely resort with excellent service, lots of activities and very good food and drinks. My stay was during the week of December 23 to 30 and after reading the negative reviews I expected a week in hell.”

We had paid our money and we went to the resort and we had a fabulous time. More importantly, the resort seems to be a textbook case for doing what is right when faced with negative reviews.

In our welcome letter from the manager, we

were given links to TripAdvisor and encouraged to share our experiences.

A day or two into our week-long stay, we got a questionnaire slipped under our door. It asked us to rate things such as speed of check in, hotel cleanliness, condition of grounds, housekeeping service and more. Then it asked us to list any deficiencies with our room. “Please return the questionnaire within 24 hours,” it said.

We had a few minor complaints. There was a “ghost” dresser drawer that kept opening, even when I had closed it tight. The drain in the bathtub wasn’t working—it took hours to drain. And Steve really wanted a digital clock for the room.

We returned our survey promptly, and witnessed results when we returned from a day of sightseeing.

The bathtub drained perfectly. And my ghost drawer problem had been ingenuously solved— by wedging a folded piece of paper between the drawer and the frame. No alarm clock—but af-

ter all, we were at a resort, and they did have a very efficient wake-up service.

In my opinion, the resort gets an “A” for effort. I laughed at the paper wedged in the drawer frame, but it did the trick.

We didn’t have a problem with ants, although I noticed there were lots of them outside our cabin. I made the mistake of putting leftover food on the porch, and within minutes it was covered with the tiny insects.

I’ve noticed that the management at Smuggler’s Cove responds to each TripAdvisor review—well considered responses too, not just cookie cutter ones.

Overall, the hotel ratings on TripAdvisor give it 3.5 stars. The 1,172 ratings consisted of excellent 322; very good 450; average 225; poor 108 and terrible 67.

Not perfect by any means. But I’d be willing to bet that those scores are headed in the right direction.

—Colleen Isherwood, Editor

How to reach us: Tel (905) 206-0150

Robert Mercure, GM, Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac

Are You An Ostrich or a Llama?

By Larry Mogelonsky, P. Eng.

Complexities of running an icon

Publisher Steven Isherwood ext. 236 sisherwood@canadianlodgingnews.com

Volume 10 No. 1 Canadian Lodging News is published 10 times a year by Ishcom Publications Ltd. which also publishes Atlantic Restaurant News, Ontario Restaurant News Pacific/Prairie Restaurant News, and Canadian Chains Directory and Canadian Lodging News Buyers’ Directory Address: 2065 Dundas Street East, Suite 201 Mississauga, Ontario L4X 2W1 Tel: (905) 206-0150 Fax: (905) 206-9972 In Canada (800) 201-8596 Subscriptions: Canada & USA: 1 year $39.57, 2 years $63.43 (PLUS APPLICABLE TAX) Single copy: $5.00 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Department, 2065 Dundas Street East, Suite 201, Mississauga, Ontario L4X 2W1 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jason Cheskes, Above The Line Solutions Vito Curalli, Hilton Worldwide Justin Friesen, Western Financial Group Philippe Gadbois, Atlific Hotels & Resorts Mark Hope, Coast Hotels & Resorts Elizabeth Hueston, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc. Dave Kaiser, Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association Brian Leon, Choice Hotels Canada Inc. Chris Lund, Deerhurst Resort Dr. David Martin, Ted Rogers School of Hospitality Christine Pella, Serta Mattress Company Tony Pollard, Hotel Association of Canada Sarah Segal, Informa Canada Andrew Chlebus, LG Electronics Publication Mail Agreement No. 40010152 ISSN 1710-145X GST number R102533890

When you have a property that’s more than just a hotel, but an icon for a city, calling the role of general manager complex is an understatement. Such is the situation that Robert Mercure finds himself in as one of the leaders of Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.

Approaching 120 years old, the property sits adjacent to federal government land containing the archeological site of Chateau St. Louis, the original seat of the French government in North America. It was from this location that the 1600s colonial governor oversaw operations that stretched from Louisiana to the Great Lakes. That building burnt to the ground in 1834 and it took some 60 years before the original portion of the current Chateau Frontenac was built in its place.

The present property, inaugurated in 1893, has been expanded numerous times and now comprises some 618 rooms on 18 floors. The property dominates the old walled city of Quebec, with a copper roof, multiple turrets and sloped peaks. To say that this hotel’s exterior appearance is totally unique is an understatement – it’s on practically every postcard of the city.

Inside, the property is anything but cookie cutter. The massive lobby looks more castle than hotel, with every surface symbolically carved or emblazoned. Each subsequent addition required careful architectural consideration. The result is a labyrinth of corridors, all heavily decorated. Just study the map on the elevator landing and you’ll quickly ap-

preciate that housekeeping efficiency was never the architects’ priority.

To prevent total bedlam, the hotel is simplified into 10-room rate booking categories, with significant variations in each category. My room was considered a mini-suite – windows on three sides and tucked into the dormers of multi-roof peaks.

Sure there are numerous chain properties available as alternatives. Yet, when in Quebec City, I can’t imagine staying anywhere else. Bragging rights come from sleeping in the location where Churchill, King and Roosevelt attended the Quebec Conferences of 1943 and 1944 where they planned the D-Day invasion, or, in more modern times, where Reagan and Mulroney discussed the early forms of NAFTA. The hotel oozes history from every pore.

My conversation with Mercure focused on the property and some of the unique challenges at work. He acknowledged that the property’s room stock needs upgrading to keep pace with everevolving luxury standards. With the last major remodel some twenty years ago, and further rooms upgrading several times since then, it’s time to re-up the ante in terms of being the clear No. 1 property in the marketplace. And, while the 4.5 out of 5 star guest satisfaction rating achieved in TripAdvisor would be considered acceptable by most hoteliers, Mercure has set his sights even higher.

Whereas summer peak traffic fills the property from May through September, and the world famous Carnaval de Quebec provides a two-week respite each February, the group segment is a critical component to off-season success. Even here, the property has a need to increase the available space for meetings.

To address these issues, Mercure was eager to tell me about a major expansion plan scheduled for official announcement coinciding with their 120th anniversary. The focus of this renovation, the 10th or 11th in its history, will see complete guest room revitalization and an expansion of meeting space, creating some of the most unique venues in North America or perhaps the world.

“This new work will go quite literally under the current property, linking our meeting space with the historic site that exists to the south under the Dufferin Terrace, a restored heritage site operated

by Parks Canada. In effect, this expansion will be part construction, part excavation and part archaeological dig. The plan is to create artifact displays and heritage expositions based upon local discoveries. Once completed, we’ll be able to hold events in a new facility that plays homage to our 400-year-old history. That is completely unique for what is typically called the new world.”

In terms of the guest rooms, Mercure was equally excited in saying, “Our guest rooms are the core of our business success. We want them to be the best in the market. But this will not be a run-of-the-mill hotel renovation. Almost every room has unique elements. We never know what we’ll find when we remove walls or try to change plumbing fixtures.

Each room, in effect, is its own mini-archaeological exploration, albeit only from the past 120 years.”

Food and beverage will also be a key element of this redesign. While our meal was in the illustrious Le Champlain dining room, the ambiance is nonetheless indicative of old world and the menu still rather traditional. Mercure and his culinary team have plenty of ideas for a full menu overhaul.

The hotel itself just completed a multi-million dollar roof replacement. This being a copper roof, recent increases in commodity prices caused some serious financial juggling. Nevertheless, rather than sending the old green-oxidized roof to the recycler, the owners – La Caisse de Dépôt – authorized donation of these panels to local artisans who created a unique series of artwork from these elements.

These remarkable sculptures, decorative panels and other art pieces are on display, with funds from their sales used to support young emerging Quebec artists.

The three pillars of Fairmont management are expressed as: unrivalled presence, authentically local, and engaging service. Mercure has a fourth axiom: protecting history. From all the postcards, you’d think that this property is a cash cow, regardless of who’s in charge. Clearly, this is not the case.

Not only must he keep pace with the heightened expectations of the modern consumer, but he also must appease the preservationists at large. With great historic presence also comes great expense and Mercure is hard at work to balance this delicate equation.

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

Hôtel La Ferme includes both luxe and dormitory guest rooms

BAIE-SAINT-PAUL, QC—The place is called Hôtel La Ferme, so it makes sense that each of its lodging complexes would be named after farm outbuildings. The main building is called Le Bâtiment Principal. There’s Le Moulin or mill, La Bergerie or sheep house, La Basse-Cour or chicken house and Le Clos, another agricultural word meaning enclosed field.

The hotel officially opened to great fanfare Sept. 20, with a party for 400 including the newly-minted Premier of Quebec Pauline Marois, owner of Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberté, and project visionary, former Cirque du Soleil executive Daniel Gauthier.

It’s all part of $300 million, decadelong project that includes Le Massif ski area, the Train of Le Massif de Charlevoix, and the hotel. The train travels a scenic route along the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to La Malbaie, with stops at Petite-Rivière-SaintFrançois for skiing, and right beside Hôtel La Ferme.

The hotel consists of 145 rooms from budget priced to deluxe, plus

conference space to accommodate 500 people.

There are three restaurants at different price levels: Les Labours for gourmet fare, Le Café du Marché for fresh quick service items, and Le Bercail, a bar and lounge.

All this is arranged around a public square, gardens and pathways leading down to a pier.

The location at the edge of BaieSaint-Paul also offers two experiences—on the one side is the city experience of art galleries, theatres and restaurants, while the other side is fields. And the train pulls right up to the hotel.

“The farm is a mixture of simplicity and a circus theme,” hotel general manager Richard Germain told CLN.

Not a gated community “It is an open resort—the exact opposite of a gated community. The people who come to the market, who come to stay at the hotel, are people from here or from other countries.

“It’s one of the new places, still virgin and not very well known,” Germain added. “We are being careful with development, to keep the feeling of nature and the authenticity of the place.

“We had a few people from Europe last summer, and it was interesting seeing their expressions and hearing their comments,” he noted.

“Before there were a few B&Bs and inns, not big enough to attract clientele. People used to come to the ski resort for just one day. Now, with the hotel, they extend their stay in Charlevoix.”

Luxe and low-cost lodgings Le Moulin, the largest building with four floors and a tower containing seven lofts, was completed last fall. Larger than other buildings in the complex, the rooms have king instead of queen sized beds, some with baths and separate glass showers. Bathrooms are large with window views.

On the other hand, Germain recalled skiing in Europe with Daniel Gauthier in his early 20s, and being unable to afford the $150 to $200 they wanted for a room.

That’s one of the reasons Hôtel La Ferme includes 12 dormitory rooms at $49 a bed or $149 for a room with four beds. “It’s suitable for girlfriends, guys, a mother and father and two kids. People today tend to choose their experiences, and this is a new way of travelling.”

Dorms include four single beds, locking chests and a private bathroom with two sinks.

Photos: Top, Richard Germain welcomes guests to Hôtel La Ferme. Middle: dormitory accommodation.

Bottom: deluxe room in Le Moulin. Photos courtesy of Le Massif de Charlevoix.

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

Paul Verciglio: “The key to success is respect” “I feel sorry for those who never fail” On February 8th, 2013 Paul Verciglio, general manager of Park Hyatt Toronto will be retiring. Beginning his hospitality career as a bus person 52 years ago, Verciglio dedicated his entire career to the hospitality industry and has spent the past 24 years with Hyatt Hotels.

A young Paul Verciglio serves wine to guests.

“It takes incredible business acumen, genuine mentoring, charisma and style to help a company like Hyatt define its luxury hotel brand, and Paul Verciglio has done just that during his successful career with Hyatt. His ability to connect with guests and his teams over the years has truly been inspiring to me and our colleagues around the world.”

Fondest memories

—Rakesh Sarna, chief operating officer, Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

By Colleen Isherwood, Editor Paul Verciglio, general manager of the Park Hyatt Hotel Toronto strikes up a conversation with the man who has joined him waiting for the hotel elevator. He notes that he had met several people from the man’s company working out at the hotel gym. “And as a group, they were more fit than most people I meet at the gym,” he adds.

“I’ll pass that along to them,” the man says, beaming.

Verciglio was putting his management style into action. It’s conversations like this that make a person’s stay memorable and inspire them to return, he says. One of the few Toronto hoteliers who lives with his wife Trudy at the hotel, he doesn’t need an e-mail to tell him if there are problems in the gym or with the hotel breakfast—he’s on the scene.

“You can’t change the demands of the job. I have been on call 24 hours a day for the last 42 years.” He recalls one time when he was called back from fishing on the French River, south of Sudbury. Still wearing his flannel shirt and fishing clothes, he sat on a cooler in a van all the way down to Highway 401, where he was picked up by a limousine that took him to the hotel.

Early years Verciglio began his career in the hospitality industry 52 years ago, when he was hired by the Hotel Niagara in Niagara Falls, NY as what was then termed a “busboy” at the tender age of 15, earning 62 cents an hour. From there he progressed to jobs as bellman, banquet server and bartender.

After high school, he didn’t particularly want to go to college. “My father gave me a choice— and in those days kids did what their fathers

If there’s one quality that will ensure success, not just as a general manger, but also in life, it’s respect, notes Verciglio. “For you to be good at your job, you need to be extremely respectful of your staff, your guests and your colleagues.

You learn that in a traditional old Italian home.

If you don’t have respect, then you’ll probably have some issues.

“Your career never goes straight to the top; there are always ups and downs. If you haven’t had failure, you don’t have the same kind of humility. I almost feel sorry for people who haven’t had any failure in their life. You learn just as much by being wrong as by being right.”

said. If I didn’t want to go to college, I could join the army. I decided to go to college for hotel management.”

In the 1960s, that was an unusual thing to do.

There were only a handful of schools offering hotel management in the U.S. Verciglio avoided Cornell and other schools because they required chemistry—“which I knew was beyond me.” He ended up at University of Denver School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, simply because they didn’t require chemistry.

“I was not a directed sort of young person —in the neighbourhood I grew up in you had to figure your way out. My father was a factory worker,” Verciglio explains. “I basically got into the hotel industry because I didn’t know anything else.” He did qualify for law school after completing his undergraduate degree, but decided to stay in the lodging business.

When Verciglio retires he will not only be leaving his job but also the place he has called home for the past 19 years. “I can’t take the beautiful Park Hyatt Toronto with me, but what I can treasure is my fondest memories—notes and cards from people I have helped do well, kind notes when I said I was retiring. I’ve saved them, and at some point someone will look at them and know what kind of person their father and grandfather was.”

And what was the worst part of the job? “Fire alarms,” says Verciglio. “That goes with living in the hotel—there’s nothing worse than a fire alarm at 2 a.m.!

“Challenging things happen. There are a lot of life stories in a hotel, a lot of happiness and a lot of sadness, people starting their lives in hotels and people ending their lives.”

Technology the biggest change Technology is the biggest change by far, says Verciglio looking back over his career. “When I started there were no copy machines, no fax machines, no electronic calculators, and no PMS systems. Everything was manual. At budgeting time, we sharpened our No. 6 pencils, got big sheets of paper and started writing numbers down.”

The number of female travellers has changed as well. When Verciglio started women didn’t even represent 10 per cent of guests. “Hotels, especially in the Midwest, were strictly maledriven, with Willy Loman-type sales people exchanging product samples in the parking lot. The bars were busy, and people drank and smoked. Even the servers and cooks had an ashtray going.”

Both situations have reversed. “We have slightly more female than male travellers at the hotel, and of 346 guest rooms at the Park Hyatt, we only allow smoking in 12.”

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Verciglio says he doesn’t want to be a consultant, teach or trade this job for another one— that he is really going to retire. One of his friends put it well in a note to him recently.

“Paul,” he wrote, “I hope that you exchange your hectic life for one of leisure, long visits with family, and taking pleasure in life’s simple joys.”

By dividing his time between a summer home on Grand Island, NY and a winter home in The Villages community north of Orlando, FL, Verciglio plans to do just that. Retirement will also include visits to Cleveland and the Catskill Mountains to visit his two sons and their families, including a two-year-old grandson and a second grandchild due in May. “Considering where I started in life, as the son of immigrants, what I have ended up doing in life is so far away from what I thought I could achieve. I have never forgotten where I came from and always appreciated what I have.

“I have been a good steward for the Pritzker family that owns the Park Hyatt, and spent their money as if it were my own.”

F E B R U A RY 2 013

www.can-lodgingnews.com

Connect: BC’s new food, drink and lodging exposition launches in October 2013 VANCOUVER—For many years, the BC Hospitality Industry Expo took place in November and the BC Foodservice Expo in January or February.

Now, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA), the British Columbia Hotel Association (BCHA), and the Alliance of Beverage Licensees (ABLE) have announced that they are joining together to offer a new trade exposition for the hospitality industry in October 2013.

Connect, BC’s first food, drink and lodging expo, will take place Oct. 27-28 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West.

The BC hospitality industry generates approximately $14 billion annually for the provincial economy and is one of the largest employers with more than 200,000 direct jobs. Connect will bring together thousands of restaurant, bar, nightclub, hotel and motel operators from across the province for a tradeshow, and will also host educational seminars, workshops and networking events.

“This is a very exciting opportunity to bring BC’s

Devastating fire at Klondike River Lodge

food, lodging and drink purveyors together for what will be the largest hospitality tradeshow in the history of the province,” said ABLE chair Ron Orr. “We look forward to building on the past successes of the Hospitality Industry Expo and the BC Foodservice Expo. We believe we have brought together a great collaborative team to present a new event that will showcase the finest of BC’s lodging and foodservice industries,” said David Wetsch, president of the BCHA. “I’m thrilled that our associations have joined forces to gather the entire industry under one roof to learn, grow and celebrate together,” said Donna Dooher, CRFA chair.

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By Elaine Anselmi, Assistant Editor DAWSON CITY, YT—A fire that flattened the Klondike River Lodge in late December was deemed unsuspicious by the RCMP and local fire department.

The fire destroyed the main building that housed a convenience store, restaurant and motel.

The property has been in operation since 1974 but was closed for the winter season, Jim Regimbal, Dawson City fire chief, told CLN. The cause of the fire is “going down as undetermined, but probably leaning towards electrical,” said Regimbal.

“It was definitely not suspicious in nature at all.”

Regimbal estimated that the fire began around midnight on Dec. 30, with fire crews being alerted around 8 a.m.

Highway crews notified Dawson City’s municipal fire department, who also called into the Klondike Valley Fire Department, which is territorially run, said Regimbal. Klondike Valley responded with two trucks and seven firefighters, in addition to Regimbal’s one truck and five firefighters from Dawson City, who arrived to find that the fire was pretty well burnt out.

“There were more than enough men when we got there,” said Regimbal. “Nothing could be done, and that’s the hardest part of any emergency or fire, but sometimes it’s a necessity to stand back.”

After the fire, Regimbal said, “You were hard pressed to find anything made of wood. All that was there was the tin roof on top of filing cabinets, cooking equipment, bed frames, and all that.”

The 10-room motel was a regular stop for truck drivers, as well as over-flow visitors to Dawson City, proper. The lodge is located on the Klondike Highway at the Dempster Corner and is the last fuel stop along the Dempster Highway until Eagle Plains, 360 kilometers away. Luckily, the gas station was not affected by the fire, said Regimbal, and neither were the staff quarters or a garage that stood 40 to 60 feet away from the main building.

“I hope that the owner, [Brian McCarthy], rebuilds,” said Regimbal. “I would really love to see [the Klondike] back up and running.”

The restaurant and lodge were used both by tourists and locals from the surrounding area, he said. It was a landmark in the area that Regimbal said would be greatly missed.

“People talked about going to [the Klondike] all of the time,” he said. “Not just for a gas stop, but a place to get nice meal.”

Klondike River Lodge before the fire

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Profiting From hotel and restaurant partnerships

By Marni Andrews

Background photo: Metropolitan Hotel’s Truffle Spaghettini

CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

hoteliers are not in the restaurant business, says Andrew Higgs, senior associate with HVS, which offers hotel consulting and evaluation. The return they potentially get from F&B compared to rooms is minimal, but they have the majority of the operating headache.

It’s seen as a necessary evil because the consumer expects a restaurant within the hotel, says Higgs.

A good restaurateur, on the other hand, is in tune with local markets, resourceful and quick to adapt with menu changes to current food trends.

One of the big shifts in dining is to more transparent eating, nose to tail.

This shift also marks a higher profit on the restaurant side because they’re using more of an animal.

“You are probably not going to see those trends picked up by a typical, 365-day hotel restaurant that’s also empty six nights a week. It’s the hotels that have partnered with chefs or fulltime restaurateurs who can really embrace those new concepts,” says Higgs.

There can, however, be drawbacks to outsourcing a food and beverage program. The biggest disadvantage of having someone else running the restaurant operation is that if it is not done well, the hotel can suffer by implication, says Dover. “Guests don’t see the difference between the restaurant and the hotel. If the focus of the restaurant is not the same as that of the hotel, it might be negative for the hotel. You want a market focus that matches your hotel. And you have to

Work with a feeder market A limited service property without a restaurant can gain a competitive advantage by bringing in a branded restaurant. The operating controls that are in place are much better when working with a chain, says Dover. For co-branding to be successful, both brands must bring something to the table: the hotel gets more guests because of the restaurant, while the restaurant benefits from the captive hotel market. They must have a similar brand presence and similar customer focus.

This situation was the case at the Blue Mountain resort in Collingwood,

Case Study: Casey’s & Algoma’s Water Tower, Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Steve Halliday, managing director of Vancouver’s recently opened 156-room Rosewood Hotel Georgia, knows what a successful hotel restaurant looks like. The hotel rents space to onsite Hawksworth, a farm- to-table contemporary restaurant run by chef/owner David Hawksworth. Despite only being open since May 2011, it was named Restaurant of the Year last October by Maclean’s magazine.

Halliday says that Hawksworth is mentioned by guests as a bonus to staying at the hotel almost as much as the hotel’s Bentley car and driver.

“It’s seamless to the customer because they can charge their dinner at Hawksworth to their guestroom,” he says.

Delta Land Development, which was behind the reopening of the Hotel Georgia, was responsible for bringing David Hawksworth on board. Halliday says that Delta sought out a great local chef so that he would have a personal stake in the success of the restaurant.

“When you buy a chef ’s name from Paris or New York, it’s not the same.

That may work in Vegas or New York but not in Vancouver,” says Halliday.

At the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, about 40 per cent of revenue comes from food and beverage (including room service, a lobby bar called 1927, a seasonal patio called Reflections and banquet facilities, but not Hawksworth). Prohibition, a music lounge/ club, will open in a year and will skew that ratio further.

“That percentage is high for a hotel of our size. The average room to F&B ratio is more like 80/20. We have a lot of liquor-selling seats. You don’t tend to find that outside of cities like New York or Vegas or somewhere in Asia,” says Halliday.

be able to handle breakfast, room service and catering and deal with the hotel’s F&B standards,” he says.

“Generally a hotel/restaurant partnership is done with a lease agreement of base rent with possibly some profit sharing. With or without profit sharing, there is the guarantee of a monthly stipend from the lease and that monthly income is valuable,” says Dover. “Restaurants within the hotel are more common with full service properties while suburban markets and limited service properties can do well with a branded restaurant because it can draw customers in what is often a competitive market.”

Ultimately, though, Higgs emphasizes that flexibility is required for the decision to outsource or not since every market and every hotel is different.

Casey’s Bar & Grill (left).

Donna Hilsinger, GM, Algoma’s Water Tower Inn, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Leasing out Traditionally, hotel restaurants did not make money, but as long as the rooms division made enough to cover the losses, it was considered an acceptable arrangement, says Gabor Forgacs, associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in Toronto.

In recent years, financial pressures have placed hotel management under heightened scrutiny and now each revenue stream must be profitable.

“The main advantage for leasing out a restaurant instead of operating it is in the elimination of a headache – [that] of an operational challenge and of a loss-producing unit,” says Forgacs. “As a business, rooms are a lot simpler to sell. One can sell a room online and let guests check themselves in. Provide a room attendant to clean the room and that seems just fine for budget or even midmarket operations.”

Jeff Dover, vice-president of fsStrategy, notes that hotels are very good now at yielding their rooms but they don’t do food and beverage well.

“Depending on whether a hotel has meeting space for catering revenue or not, F&B is typically only a 20 to 30 per cent contribution,” estimates Dover.

The major advantage of a hotel partnering with a restaurateur is that

Who: Donna Hilsinger, general manager, Algoma’s Water Tower Inn & Suites (176 rooms) Approach: Over the years Algoma’s have had a combination of their own restaurants and a couple of franchise opportunities to handle foodservice. They have had a 250seat Casey’s Grill Bar franchise since 2008. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and room service daily.

History: Algoma’s Water Tower Inn was opened by Donna’s father James John Hilsinger in 1974. He started his career in the early 1960’s by reviving a bankrupt KFC, ultimately ending up with five stores which were sold in 1985 and were known by the name of JJ’s Chicken.

A building renovation in 1989 added 12,000 square feet of public space to the hotel including additional banquet facilities with a hall to feed 350 and meeting rooms. A pub location was also added, which was developed in 2008 as the 180-seat Water

Tower Pub to provide two distinct F&B opportunities for guests.

Results: On the revenue side, we’re approximately 60 per cent rooms, and 40 per cent F&B including banquets.

Growth is certainly a challenge.

Since 2008 and the global economic crisis, we’ve grown but it’s very slow.

It’s simpler to deliver profit in a limited service hotel compared to full service but you need F&B to attract room clientele.

Day Parts: We have a bakery based in the pub kitchen where we make our own granola, cinnamon buns, granola bars and healthy muffins. For the morning and throughout the day, we have a Starbucks We Proudly Brew on site. Within the Casey’s there is a coffee counter where Starbucks is served with a grab and go cooler of prepared foods. Or breakfast can be ordered in the restaurant. Lunch and din-

ner are available in the pub and in Casey’s.

Communication: We make sure that all staff receive employee bulletins and newsletters. It’s so much easier with digital, not like the old days with paper spreadsheets.

Operations: Casey’s has recognition from both local and regional clientele in northern Ontario, in part due to the fact that Prime started in that region. We’ve always endeavoured to ensure our concepts within the hotel are liked and used by locals as much as hotel guests. The building was designed with a separate entrance to the main parking area so it can operate on its own. Because we own the franchise, there is no arms’ length.

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ON. In November 2005, The Westin Trillium House Blue Mountain opened in conjunction with Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill, Blue Mountain, a 60-seat restaurant with 10,000 sq. ft. meeting space. O&B paid rent to Intrawest Commercial (now Skyline Hotels), which managed several restaurant and retail spaces within the resort village. O&B also pays fees to the condo corporation that owns the hotel (similar to common area maintenance fees) and marketing fees to the Blue Mountain Village Association, says Andrea Sire, general manager of Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill.

A percentage of sales from in-room dining and from the banquet operation is paid to the hotel directly.

“Partnerships [like this] allow operators to focus on their core business,” explains Sire. “Often in hotels the F&B is a cost or loss centre. With this sort of relationship, the hotel is guaranteed profit via fees/commissions paid by the F&B operator.”

Stacy Manning, director of sales and marketing for the 224-room Westin Trillium House Blue Mountain, says, Westin chose O&B as their restaurant partner because O&B worked with Westin to incorporate certain Westin brand standards. As well, Toronto, where O&B is headquartered and has a number of popular restaurants, serves as a feeder market for both the hotel and the restaurant.

“The Blue Mountain O&B location has more destination diners, so they pulled items from some of their other locations such as Jump and Canoe because people are often eating there several times in a row and want more selection. They’ve tweaked the destination for the consumer who’s here,” she says.

The O&B name also serves as an attractive draw for Toronto-based group conference traffic.

“It’s a huge sell. They know it, they live it, some of them already dine there twice a week,” explains Manning. “It’s a very positive relationship.”

The hybrid approach: hotel as restaurant franchisee At the 391-room Four Points by Sheraton in Niagara Falls, director of operations Anthony Lucisano is confident that the approach his property has taken—franchisee or licensee of four well-known foodservice outlets on the premises—was the solution that gives everyone what they want.

There is a Starbucks, IHOP, East Side Mario’s and a Ruth’s Chris steakhouse located inside the hotel to provide “control and one-stop shopping” for the diverse range of clientele who visit, says Lucisano.

The hotel has no kitchen but room service is available from IHOP for breakfast, East Side Mario’s for lunch or dinner and from Ruth’s Chris. Starbucks coffee beans are also provided in every room with the coffee maker.

“We chose franchises that were recognized and popular. It’s the trust and credibility,” he says. “If customers have a favourite dish, they know they’ll get it every time. We save by not having a hotel kitchen, but we pay royalties through the franchises. It’s not about savings as much as it is giving our customer what they want.”

Lucisano does not see any negatives with franchises. In fact he says they are

www.can-lodgingnews.com actually an amenity for the hotel.

To maintain control over communications between the different concepts and the hotel, there is a weekly meeting with the different restaurants’ general managers. Changes in hours of operation, a monthly special or something exciting going on at one of the food concepts is passed along to the hotel who may communicate it to the customer at check-in, through an inroom directory or email confirmation, or even via reader boards or an easel in the lobby.

Kim Cunningham, director of foodservice, Starbucks Coffee Canada, says that after 20 years or so of focusing on the lodging channel, there are now about 300 hotel properties across the country that use their We Proudly Serve Starbucks program or the Serving the Best, Seattle’s Best coffee program. About 10 properties have a retail location within their hotel. For example, The Delta Bow Valley in Calgary has a Starbucks banquet program, a restaurant program, and a retail store.

The Hyatt Vancouver offers Starbucks’ Torrefazione Italia program in-room, and for their banquets, restaurants and the retail store in the lobby.

“One of the things that has given us leadership in the channel is that we consult on solutions from stem to stern. We have a team of coffee experts for quality assurance audits,” she says.

“It doesn’t have to be all one roast profile; it’s about offering the guest choice so F&B doesn’t have to think about coffee at all.”

Keeping it in the family Peter Fowler, CEO and president, SIR Corp. with 12 restaurant concepts, has run a number of restaurants within hotels in his career and has also been approached to build restaurants within hotels. None of SIR Corp.’s restaurants are located within hotels.

“The challenge with operating restaurants within hotels is that hoteliers are looking for a restaurant offering that works for all dayparts across a broad spectrum of guests. However, the same restaurant atmosphere that works for lunch, dinner and late-night tends not to work for breakfast offerings. And breakfast is the least profitable daypart,” explains Fowler.

Furthermore, because the guest base is so broad, hoteliers often request that key parts of the concept be altered, such as turning lights up for older guests who can’t see, turning down the music for business meetings, and/or accommodating families within a lively bar space, he says. All of these aspects are often in conflict with providing a compelling restaurant experience that attracts guests from outside the hotel.

“Successful restaurants in hotels in larger cities such as New York and Toronto [succeed] because they have not tried to satisfy all of the guest base across all the dayparts. Restaurant concepts can be a help to hotels by driving excellent food and a great experience so long as they are not hamstrung by satisfying a broad range of guests,” says Fowler.

Metropolitan Hotels operates Diva at the Met in Vancouver and Senses at the SoHo Metropolitan in Toronto.

Metropolitan’s chief operating officer Nancy Munzar Kelly explains that the company’s restaurants have always

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Case Study: Ricky’s All Day Grill & Best Western Seven Oaks, Regina Who: Stacy Hansson, vice-president operations, Ricky’s All Day Grill, says the success of the Best Western Regina location really launched their hotel partnership program.

They have 65 restaurants across the country, 10 of which are partnered with hotels.

When: Ricky’s All Day Grill is 52 years old. Hotel partnership program is officially six years old though there was one partnership done 10 years ago with Best Western in Saskatoon.

Approach: Conversion if there’s an existing independent restaurant.

Otherwise if they’re building and want to build a restaurant shell, we go in there new.

On Hotel Brands: Best Western is a brand we work really well with.

We also have two Econo Lodges that do well. Have a Ramada Inn, and independent resort in Banff, a Super 8 and we will soon have two Holiday Inns. One group has a Holiday Inn and is building a Pacific Inn on the property in Vernon, BC. Results: Sales have tripled or quadrupled in all locations except one, where we doubled sales because it was already an outside chain concept.

Day Parts: Breakfast is a requirement for a hotel. Continental breakfasts cost hotels quite a bit to execute depending on how lavish they are so they get away from having to do that. Or they may offer guests a voucher to use in the restaurant.

Guests don’t tend to stick around been operated in house since they opened their first property in Toronto with Lai Wah Heen and Hemisphere’s Bar and Bistro almost 19 years ago. She says that Metropolitan’s restaurant clientele are both travellers and locals.

“Having first class restaurants that are not only a part of the hotel but have a place in the community is important. This community recognition and support takes our restaurants beyond being a ‘hotel restaurant’ to becoming a noteworthy part of the cities and neighbourhoods in which they are located in Toronto and Vancouver,” she says.

“As an independent Canadian hotel chain, we’ve worked hard to set ourselves apart from other hotels. One way that we have done this is through our food and beverage. For us, the advantage of not outsourcing is twofold: it allows us to be local and relevant in the community as well as allows us to have creative freedom.”

One aspect of that creative freedom is a trend that Andrew Higgs is seeing in Europe and increasingly in North America: the pop-up restaurant.

“Because hotels are so vast and capital put into them is so intensive, a lot of planning goes into their design and the space can’t be shifted overnight. Pop-up restaurants offer that versatility. Opus in Vancouver did one and it was wildly successful. By using a space not otherwise being used to

for lunch but we have strong lunches from locals and businesses. And then those people say ‘When my relatives are in town they can stay here.’

It’s nice to have a dinner so people feel they don’t have to leave.

Communication: We work with the restaurant manager and provide them with training and support.

Sometimes the hotel owners want to take a step back and not be involved with day to day. We give them a turnkey. For the first six months, we’re in contact every week or two with the restaurant manager. We go in and help them run it for a few weeks if necessary.

Operations: The hotel owns the Ricky’s as a franchise but charges rent to themselves so it’s a revenue stream. Occasionally a hotel owner has a family member who can run the restaurant. If not we bring in a manager. We run the franchise as a business within a business. Since they’re already franchisees with a hotel, there may be certain rules we have to accommodate such as kids eat free with the Holiday Inn. We drive revenue and by continuing to adapt that space to something new, people are drawn in to check it out,” says Higgs.

The SoHo Metropolitan in Toronto did a series of pop-up dining experiences last fall that were very successful, says Munzar Kelly. During the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Senses Bakery staged a 20-seat dim sum pop-up featuring Lai Wah Heen’s master chef making dim sum on site and in the open. During November, Senses played host to the GwaiLo pop-up that featured a local chef, Nick Liu.

Liquid gold and mini-meals A few key trends further driving hotel/restaurant profitability is the emergence of beverages as a driver as well as the rise of all-hours mini meals preferred by many younger urban professionals.

Andrew Higgs of HVS has noticed the beverage side of hotels really picking up in urban centres on the West coast.

“There is a lot of potential profit in beverage revenue,” he says. “People are looking for design-oriented spaces, often in newer hotel bars, to go after work or after hours. I didn’t expect to see this happening. Also the way that people are eating now is not traditional. No longer is it a dinner at 6 p.m.

They may have a snack at 3 p.m. or 4

work it out in an agreement.

Marketing: We have a lounge in Fort Saskatchewan and an 80-seat RJ’s Lounge which is almost like a bar. They have UFC nights so we created a huge marketing package they use for UFC nights that we wouldn’t do anywhere else. In Banff, they have an outdoor skating rink across the street.

We invite parents to sit outside and watch their kids by offering a special menu with hot chocolate and appetizers.

Employees: The two partners in the Regina Best Western made significant changes and they needed foodservice. That Ricky’s was number one in Canada three times last year. They created a four-person company by bringing in the Ricky’s GM Tammy Wright and the Red Seal chef, who now each have onequarter of a booming business and are incredibly dedicated.

Tammy Wright, general manager/proprietor of Ricky’s All Day Grill in Regina, says “I have been in the hotel industry for over 20 years.

Having a franchise allows guests to feel comfortable with the food quality, consistency and atmosphere.

At our hotel, all food and beverage aspects belong to Ricky’s so there is no confusion as to responsibilities.

The operations team conducts area meetings four times a year. This is where your voice and opinions are heard. They work alongside you to give you what the customer wants.” p.m. and a few cocktails later. Hotels are capitalizing on that.”

“Some hotel brands have recognized the changes in eating habits of their target segment, especially lifestyle hotels targeting young professionals 25 to 45,” agrees Forgacs. “This generation eats differently. They eat at odd hours, they may want a grab and go item or may want to work while they eat. However, they don’t want junk food. They want nutritious, wellpresented and creative food and they don’t mind paying for it. It’s not a pizza at midnight. It’s teriyaki glazed salmon with salad wrapped in an organic fajita at 2 a.m. with a no-whip, tall mocha made with soya milk and an extra shot of espresso.”

An article in the Wall Street Journal from April 2012 confirmed that there is an army of sophisticated mobile workers, especially in urban locations, who are abandoning crowded coffee houses and embracing the free WiFi that many downtown hotels are offering in order to create desirable buzz in their lobbies. Once there, many are racking up substantial F&B tabs of high quality food. They say the convenience and the overall ambience is worth the cost.

Put simply, lobby guests are another revenue stream. It’s one more thing to add to the already complex decision making process for hotel/restaurant partnerships.

www.can-lodgingnews.com

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Silver Star’s mile-high bowling, bistro and bar SILVER STAR, BC—It’s a cosmic bowling alley, bistro and bar, with retro decor and the latest electronics when it comes to ordering food or scoring your game. There’s a bistro with comfort food like meatball sandwiches and gourmet hot dogs. There’s a bar with signature martinis and a selection of the finest Okanagan wines. And it’s all located at Silver Star Resort, elevation 5,280 feet or a mile high, 20 minutes from Vernon, BC. Duncan Miller, an Australian reality television star who comes to Silver Star with his wife and four sons for seven weeks every Australian summer, is the owner of Pinheads Bowling and Final Run Bistro & Bar. He bought the long, narrow 8,000 square-foot commercial space at the bottom of Silver Star’s Firelight Lodge a few years ago, but the recession meant it was hard to attract tenants.

Miller and his wife came up with the idea of 10-pin bowling. Located in “kid’s alley” near the skating pond and tube rides, it would provide an alternative to skiing and entertainment at night, especially since winter days at Silver Star are short and the lifts close at 4 p.m. They added in the bistro and bar idea, and opened their doors in December.

“We’re busiest in the evening after the lifts close. And probably 49 out of 50 people who walk by on the way to the pond and Tubetown say, ‘Oh, look at the bowling alley,” Miller told CLN. Miller has hired some local talent to run the operation. Heather and Mark Angel, owners of two Out of Bounds coffee restaurants, are involved in the management. Ricardo Scebba and Sue Miller (no relation), owners of Ricardo’s Mediterranean Kitchen, 20 minutes south of Vernon, pro-

CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

at Duncan Miller, owner of Pinheads, Canada’s first ski-in ski-out 10 pin bowling alley.

vide wine and food expertise.

Bistro entree items include The Big Lebowski gourmet hot dog at $9, and Chef Ricardo’s handrolled award-winning meatballs on flatbread for $9 to $14.

Signature drinks include Nut Warmers, made from Amaretto, Frangelico and coffee. “The best seller is called Up Your Alley, which is very appropriate,” said Miller. “It’s made with Bailey’s, Kahlua and chillied [not chilled] espresso.” Prices range from $3.25 for beer to $12 for a martini.

Hester Creek and Haywire Crush Pad wines are available by the glass, and there are 25 other Okanagan wines on offer.

Pinheads has four bowling alleys, three reserved and a fourth open for walk-in traffic. “It’s 10-pin because that’s what the Aussies want to play,” Miller said. Australians provide a significant contingent among Silver Star guests and staff.

Scores are displayed on 70-inch plasma screens. The latest in scoring technology automatically puts side bumper pads in place when it is the children’s turn to bowl. And in addition to scores, the screen displays the speed at which bowling balls travel down the alley.

An epicurean stop on the way to the Stratford Festival

By Katherine McIntyre NEW HAMBURG, ON—A stately yellow brick mansion, now the Puddicombe House and Restaurant in the town of New Hamburg, is a delightful get-away just 20 minutes drive from Ontario’s famous Stratford Festival.

This imposing Italianate style home, built in 1868, had been a feature in the town until it was converted into a six-unit apartment building.

Karen Cressman, who had lived in New Hamburg all her life, knew the house well. When it came up for sale, she and her husband Lyle bought it with the idea that they could convert this worn out building into their dream—an inn with a gourmet dining area.

But before their dream could become a reality there was plenty of work to be done.

The whole house needed upgrading and restoring, which included retaining many details of its late 19th century charm. The yellow brick had weathered the test of time, but the wide verandah which is now a delightful summer dining area, had to be rebuilt, the green lawns restored and an upgraded parking area installed.

But it was the interior of the house that required the most extensive renovations. The oak staircase was still in good condition and was maintained as is. In the downstairs area, the

Cressmans discovered handsome light fixtures, intricate and ornate fine plaster cornice mouldings and painted detailing under an ugly false ceiling in the original living room. They decided to expose these historic features. Walls were restored and painted.

They added a full service kitchen and restaurant. Now the main floor houses a restaurant that seats up to 75 guests and in summer the large verandah has space for 35. When I was visiting the inn on a warm summer day, I enjoyed the best scallops I have ever tasted and a fresh strawberry shortcake that defies description. It has become a popular place for weddings, family parties and local business events.

Converting the second floor into five bedrooms required a whole other set of careful plans.

Each room is furnished in period furniture, and has its own bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.

New Hamburg is famous for its quilt auction which takes place each year in May at New Hamburg’s local old time hockey arena. At the 2012 auction, 200 quilts sold at prices ranging from $40 to $6,000.

Every bed at Puddicombe House boasts a magnificent handmade quilt. While at the quilt auction, I noticed Karen Cressman bidding and winning a handsome white quilt, which no doubt will appear on one of the beds either in her home or the inn.

Puddicombe’s is family-run. Daughter Amber is in charge of the hair salon and spa in the lower level. Karen, Lyle and son Nicholas meet and greet the guests, as well as running the business and restaurant.

Special activities in the area include the quilt auction, and the Stratford Festival, which runs from April to November.

We continue to be inspired by our customers’ desire to create distinctive experiences for their guests. That’s why we offer an exceptional selection of brand-name personal care items that make it easy for you to find the perfect fit for your décor and budget. Choose Sysco Guest Supply for the quality amenities, textiles and lodging products that make the difference.

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PEI’s emerit grads Groundbreaking vision.

The value we bring to a project begins long before the first phase of construction.

Our clients – like the owners of the new Element in Vaughan, Ontario – leverage our considerable development power to make their new builds go smoothly.

Our clients also trust us for guidance in choosing the appropriate brand, as we did for the owners of the newly renovated and re-branded Sheraton Red Deer.

From left to right: The Hon. Allen Roach, Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning, Patricia Buote and Bev Campbell from Brackley Beach North Winds Inn & Suites, and Kathy Livingstone, director of HR, training and education, TIAPEI.

CHARLOTTETOWN, PE—In 2012, close to 50 employees from fifteen tourism businesses on the island had the opportunity to participate in a training project, which was initiated by the Tourism Industry Association of PEI and funded by The CanadaPEI Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA) and Labour Market Agreement (LMA), which is managed by Skills PEI. Upon successful completion of the project, the individuals earned nationally-recognized, emerit professional certification for their chosen occupations.

Training is an important component of any employer’s HR Strategy and leads to greater retention of employees who are both knowledgeable and competent.

“We use emerit training to ensure a consistent professional product to our guests and to give our staff confidence in their work,” said Murray MacPherson, owner of the Brackley Beach Northwinds Inn and Suites.

To become an emerit Certified Professional, individuals must have the required experience in the occupation and through a formal assessment process, demonstrate a strong

understanding of the National Occupational Standards. emerit National Occupational Standards exist for more than 50 occupations within the Tourism Industry and Professional Certification credentials are available for 25 of those occupations. emerit training solutions are available anytime of the year and are designed for self-study.

The Tourism Industry Association of PEI offers various industry training opportunities each year and is PEI’s only provider of emerit training solutions.

Best Western Plus KW wins twice KITCHENER, ON—Best Western Plus Kitchener-Waterloo in Kitchener has received the Best Western Chairman’s Award, the hotel chain’s highest honour for outstanding quality standards for the second time.

The Chairman’s Award recognizes Best Western International hotels with a cleanliness and maintenance inspection score of 1,000 points out of a possible 1,000.

Hotels must also meet Best Western’s requirements for design and

high customer service scores to qualify for the award.

“Receiving the Chairman’s Award from Best Western is a tremendous honour,” explains Shuker Ismail, general manager.

“This award demonstrates the Best Western Plus Kitchener-Waterloo management’s commitment to providing quality accommodations for our guests.

“Our housekeeping and maintenance departments have worked

hard to achieve this level of excellence. Winning this award two times, in 2011 and 2012, is a great reward for the hotel and our dedicated staff.

It shows them first-hand what can happen when you go above and beyond.”

Located at 2899 King Street East, Kitchener, Ontario, the Best Western Plus Kitchener-Waterloo features 97 rooms and complimentary hot breakfast, free WiFi, business centre and fitness room.

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We help our clients manage some of the country’s most successful hotels, including the Victoria Marriott, the Wingate by Wyndham Regina, the Lord Elgin in Ottawa, Le Westin Montréal and the Holiday Inn Stephenville. We do it with passion, professionalism and dedication.

We consistently deliver great returns for our owners.

And we’re always breaking new ground.

www.atlific.com

T: 416.646.1081

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

Executive Hotels & Resorts is on a roll in Canada/U.S. Salim Sayani, CEO, Executive Hotels & Resorts

VANCOUVER—Vancouver-based Executive Hotels & Resorts is on a roll, with projects in the pipeline in Whistler, Lloydminster, Regina and New York. And like many hotel companies, Executive is expanding its focus to include the commercial and residential sectors.

CEO Salim Sayani is confident and upbeat during an interview in his Vancouver office—in the Executive Place Tower, owned by another division of

The Executive Group of Companies.

First on the list of projects is Mountainside Lodge, which was acquired by Wyndham from Shell Vacations last year. Executive will manage the Executive Mountain Side Hotel Whistler, which is directly beside the Executive Inn Whistler Village.

Sayani cites “ease of operations” and “economies of scale” and “cost reduction opportunities” when talking about the synergies of the adjacent

properties, which will be run as one.

“We needed their meeting space and pool,” he noted.

The Mountain Side wing of the hotel has 70 rooms, many of which have lofts and full kitchens. Executive finished renovations late last year.

Executive worked with the Royal Hotel Group, owners and operators, to open two franchised locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Executive Hotel Lloydminster

will be on the Alberta side of the border-straddling city, and has 80 rooms and suites. The heavy oil capital of Canada, Lloydminster has 28,000 people.

The Executive Royal Hotel Regina will be located at 4025 Albert Street, two kilometres from Regina International Airport. It includes 105 rooms and suites, 5,000 square feet of full service convention and meeting space and the Green Fields restaurant.

Traditionally based in the western provinces and west coast United States, the company is now moving eastward.

Executive opened the Executive Hotel Le Soleil at Hornby and Dunsmuir in the heart of Vancouver’s financial district last year.

“It’s a four diamond boutique hotel,” said Sayani. “And now Executive has undertaken construction of a sister hotel in mid-town Manhattan to be called Executive Hotel Le Soleil New York.”

The original building is being demolished and rebuilt as a hotel. Sayani described it as similar to the Vancouver Le Soleil, but larger. The New York property will have 162 rooms and suites, while Vancouver has 119.

‘It’s located at West 36th Street and Fifth Avenue—and should be good for business and leisure travellers as well,” Sayani said.

The first Executive Inn hotel opened in 1986—just in time for Expo—at the Vancouver Airport. In 1998, they took the management division public. Once the New York prop-

erty is completed, Executive Hotels & Resorts will operate 17 properties, six of them in Vancouver.

“Many of our employees have been with us more than 10 years; over the past 12 to 15 years, we have assembled a good team,” Sayani told CLN. “One of the plusses is that we have a good mix of cross-border experience. There is a different operating environment in some of the U.S. cities we work in, and it’s good to have that depth of knowledge,” he added.

Executive’s U.S. properties are in San Francisco, Seattle and now New York.

Executive Hotels & Resorts is a division of The Executive Group, which also owns Executive Group Developments. Sayani described it as “a different team of people focused on development of multiple-family residential and commercial properties.”

Some of Executive’s hotels have a residential component. For example, the Executive Hotel Vintage Park in downtown Vancouver is an 18-storey tower with nine floors of hotel rooms and nine floors of condominiums, and two separate lobbies.

The development company has just launched The Residences at False Creek Waterfront, a new emerging neighbourhood with condos, shops and office buildings. While there is no hotel in the area, Executive’s current plan is for retail and residential units.

“We’re working through what’s under development, ensuring what’s currently under construction goes well,” Sayani said.

Jared Sissons: Moving from downtown to resort GM

SQUAMISH, BC—Although Jared Sissons has lived in Squamish, BC for six years, he spent five of those years commuting to Vancouver—one hour south along the Sea-to-Sky Highway in good traffic.

He worked as GM of Executive Hotel Vintage Park, a 124-room winethemed boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver.

A year ago, he switched to the Executive Suites Garibaldi Springs Resort in Squamish, an Executive-branded property managed by Atlific Hotels & Resorts.

“Running a resort and a hotel in Vancouver are two different animals,” says Sissons.

For one thing, tourism and hotel

management are much more closely related in a smaller centre. Sissons joined the Tourism Board a year ago and serves as president.

“Resorts are lots more aggressive in marketing. In a destination like Vancouver, customers pick the destination, see what it has to offer and then pick the hotel. [Here] you are marketing the destination as well as the resort.”

Fifteen years ago Squamish boasted just a few hotels, and most people simply drove through it to Whistler, another hour up the road. Pulp and paper, not tourism was the major economic driver.

But the last of the mills closed in 2006. The population has grown as residents move from more costly centres such as Whistler and Vancouver. And tourism is an increasingly important part of the town’s economy, with an emphasis on outdoor recreation.

Executive Garibaldi provides an example of this outdoor focus—billing itself as the “largest rafting resort property in Canada” and partnering with Canadian Outback Adventure Tours.

The partnership allows guests to suitup at the hotel, get transportation to and from the river’s edge, enjoy a day of rafting and come back to the hotel for a hot tub or swim.

Certainly, the Olympics affected tourism in Squamish—for example, signs on the highway now celebrate the area’s First Nations heritage.

The Sea to Sky Gondola, going up The Stawamus Chief, one of the largest granite monoliths in the world, will open in 2014. The Chief is already popular with hikers and climbers looking for a challenge.

“Over the last year, leisure travel has doubled—the amount of leisure travellers stopping and staying in Squamish has certainly changed,” says Sissons.

Other tourism developments include the following: o Squamish is now called “The Outdoor Adventure Capital of Canada”; o There will be more promotion of the Squamish First Nations—over the next few years the Tourism Board will work closely with the Squamish Lilloet First Nation;

BY THE NUMBERS...

Executive Suites Garibaldi Springs Resort includes: o 111 studio, one and twobedroom suites; o The Living Room restaurant with 75 seats; 40 in the lounge; o Outdoor hot tub and pool open year round; o Conference Centre—100 seats downstairs and 120 upstairs.

o Other First Nations initiatives include the highway signage and a First Nations bridge readily visible on the approach to the town.

“The Squamish First Nations have their arms outstretched to say, ‘welcome’. Certainly that was the message sent forth by the Olympics. It set the course for a very interesting experience,” says Sissons.

The Executive Garibaldi was the first major tourism build in Squamish in many years when it opened in 2009, “allowing customers to experience the destination in a beautiful, natural setting,” Sissons adds. The hotel has 111 fully-equipped, studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites, all with balconies and mountain views.

In the winter months, the resort

offers snowshoe, snowmobiling and cross-country ski packages with Canadian Outback Adventure Tours.

They also take groups to Whistler for the Winter Zip Trek experience. There is easy access to the Whistler Olympic Park, and the hills at Whistler/Blackcomb.

The Pemberton Rock Music Festival has migrated to Squamish and summer events also include Test of Metal, a 67-kilometre, cross-country, mountain-bike race held annually in late June.

Weddings and corporate team building are also popular at the Executive Garibaldi Resort. “And our Living Room Restaurant just won awards for Best Late Night Staff and Best Social Event or Party venue,” Sissons says.

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| 15 Breakfast at the Comfort Suites Saskatoon

OP E N I NG S,

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R E NO VAT IONS More Openings, Sales and Renos on page 17

Pool at Best Western Plus Headingley, MB

Corporation.

The property is located in downtown Kitchener, close to shopping, and just 10 minutes from both Highway 401 and downtown Waterloo. It is strategically located in the area’s “Technology Triangle,” home to companies such as Research in Motion (RIM), Google, Toyota Motors, Sun Life Financial and the University of Waterloo.

Holiday Inn Express Timmins opened in mid-January Best Western Headingley has hot tub, pool and waterslide Headingley, MB—The brand new 100-room Best Western Plus The Inn & Suites Winnipeg West is now open. The hotel is located just off the Trans-Canada Highway, only 13 kilometers from the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG) and two kilometers from Assiniboia Downs and the MTS Iceplex.

Amenities include free WiFi, free local phone calls, free breakfast and free parking, an on-site fitness facility, a salt water hot tub and a pool with a waterslide.

The owner of the property is Bob Fitcher.

Rod and Jody Hazard open Comfort Suites Saskatoon SASKATOON, SK—Rod and Jody Hazard, owners of the Braemar Group, opened the doors of the new build Comfort Suites hotel in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Dec. 21.

“Saskatoon is a growing, vibrant city with a great future,” the owners said. “Building a Choice Hotels product here makes sound business sense. We are excited about the future for our new hotel, and look forward to it being part of the Saskatoon community.”

The hotel is a four storey building nine minutes from the airport and adjacent the Credit Union Centre. It features 84 suites with an indoor pool, waterslide and hot tub. Additional conveniences include 42-inch flat screen TVs in all suites, a business centre, meeting room, laundry facilities, cardio fitness room, wireless Internet and complimentary hot breakfast for guests.

It will be suitable for business, leisure, sport and group travellers.

Dominion Grand Hotel Group Inc. will provide strategic management services for the Comfort Suites hotel.

Michael Jackson, president & COO of Dominion Grand Hotel Group said “I am very excited about this project not only because we will have presence in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but because it supports our vision to grow our portfolio of managed and owned hotels in Western Canada.”

The addition of the Comfort Suites Saskatoon makes this the fourth Braemar Group hotel managed by Dominion Grand Hotel Group Inc.

Colliers is agent in KitchenerWaterloo Delta Sale WATERLOO, ON—Colliers International Hotels served as advisor and exclusive agent to Delta Hotels Limited in the sale of the 201-room Delta Kitchener-Waterloo to Vista Hospitality Company. Colliers acted in its capacity as asset manager for the beneficial owner, bcIMC Realty

TIMMINS, ON—A new 108-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites opened last month in Timmins, ON. Located in the city’s downtown area, the new hotel opens following a multi-million dollar investment by Northern Cove Investments Ltd. Guests will experience a comfortable hotel environment ideal for both business and leisure travelers. The hotel is within walking distance of popular restaurants and a short drive to Timmins Square shopping centre, and Hollinger Golf Course.

Bayview Hospitality buys Metropolitan Hotel Toronto TORONTO—Metropolitan Hotels, one of Canada’s premiere luxury boutique hotel operators, completed the sale of the Metropolitan Hotel Toronto to Bayview Hospitality Group on January 10, 2013. The hotel will continue to operate under the Metropolitan Hotel Toronto name and conduct business as usual while the property undergoes a refresh of all guest rooms and

rebranding.

The sale follows 19 years of ownership of the Metropolitan Hotel Toronto. The luxury hotel chain continues to own and operate two boutique properties and their award-winning restaurants—still within its portfolio are SoHo Metropolitan Hotel and Senses in Toronto and Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver and Diva at the Met. Metropolitan Hotels will maintain a strong focus on elevating the service and offerings of its remaining high-end properties.

“We have spent many wonderful years growing the Metropolitan Toronto with our dedicated staff who have brought success to the hotel and its restaurants with their commitment to high-quality guest services and their professionalism,” said Henry Wu, president of Liverton Hotels Inc., parent company of Metropolitan Hotels. “This move represents the next step in the evolution of our company and we wish Bayview Hospitality Group much success as they take the helm of this landmark hotel.”

Also included in the sale agreement is Lai Wah Heen, one of Toronto’s most esteemed traditional Chinese fine dining restaurants, and Hemispheres Restaurant and Bistro, both located in the hotel.

Holiday Inn Express, Timmins, ON

Delta Kitchener-Waterloo was sold to Vista Hospitality Company

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

PEOPLE

Tim Reardon, general manager, Sheraton Gateway Airport Toronto

Alex Schterenberg,executive chef, Sheraton Gateway Airport Toronto

Ralph Grogan, president and CEO, Bentley Prince Street carpet

Julie Montmaneix, chair, Best Western International board

Beth Campbell, vice chair, Best Western International board

Brendan Gibney, director, franchise operations, Choice Hotels Canada

Mark Storey, catering sales manager, Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport

Brian Hadley, sales manager, Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport

Fariyal Hope, general manager, Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport

Lori Hughes, director of marketing, Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport

David McMillan, president, AXIS Hospitality International

Peter Altabef, president and CEO, Micros Systems, Inc.

Gunter Griwatz was chair/governor, Ontario Accommodation Assn.

Esther Lee, VP HR for MTCC joins the OTEC board of directors

Nancy Rosset, executive director, NOTO joins OTEC’s board

Takashi Sonoda, president, Rinnai America Corporation

executive chef at the Sheraton Gateway Airport. He started at Starwood Hotels as an apprentice at The Westin Prince Hotel.

After receiving culinary training in Switzerland and Russia, he returned to Starwood at The Westin Harbour Castle. Most recently he held the position of executive sous chef at the Intercontinental Toronto Centre Hotel.

Best Western Kings Inn in Corona, CA. Beth Campbell, board director for northwestern United States, Alaska and Canada’s western provinces was elected board vice chair for 2013.

Campbell was elected to the board in 2008 and served as its chair in 2010. For the past 30 years, Campbell has owned and operated the Best Western Plus Inn at Penticton, a threediamond resort–style property in Penticton, BC.

Tara Colpitts, director of sales and marketing, Hilton Whistler Resort

Tim Reardon has been appointed general manager for the Sheraton Gateway Airport Hotel Toronto. Reardon’s journey with Starwood began in 1999 as food and beverage manager at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel in Florida. He was named director of operations, new builds and transitions for Starwood North America in 2007. In his most recent role he served as GM for Le Méridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

Alex Shterenberg is now

Bentley Prince Street announced the appointment of Ralph Grogan to the position of president and chief executive officer of the company. Grogan brings more than 30 years of relevant experience in the carpet industry having served in senior management positions with several carpet manufacturers, including chief operating officer of Tandus Flooring.

Best Western International has elected Julie Montmaneix as board chair. Montmaneix is the owner and operator of the

Brendan Gibney is now director, franchise operations at Choice Hotels Canada. Gibney joined Choice as franchise performance consultant in Eastern Canada and for the Ascend Hotel Collection properties. With more than 15 years of hospitality experience across divisions including front office, operations and food and beverage, his impact has been immediate at Choice. Before joining Choice, Gibney worked with

both independent hotels and familiar brands.

Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport has a number of new appointments.

Fariyal Hope is the hotel’s new general manager. She brings several years of experience to her new role, including managerial positions at Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Best Western, Plaza 500 and Sandman Signature.

Lori Hughes is now director of sales and marketing. She joins the Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport team with more than 20 years of experience within the hospitality industry. Lori has held positions with other major hoteliers including Northland Properties, Vrancor Group of Companies, Regal Constellation Hotel, Holiday Inn and Journey’s End Corporation.

Mark Storey has been named catering sales manager at the hotel, moving up from

his former position of sales coordinator. Storey has also worked with well-known hospitality brands including Shangri-La, Cara Corporation and Carnival Corporation.

Brian Hadley is now sales manager, responsible for association and government business. He has seven years of experience at well-known properties in Halifax and Toronto. Most recently he was sales manager at Toronto’s Delta Chelsea hotel.

David McMillan is now president of AXIS Hospitality International consulting, which deals with turn-key hotel projects, resort, design, brand selection, concepts and development planning, development budget reviews and preopening planning. Since 1995, the company has completed projects worth in excess of $1 billion in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean, North Africa, India, Bangladesh and China.

Fairmont has announced a number of appointments.

Don Fennerty, takes the helm as general manager, The Fairmont Empress. Fennerty brings a wealth of hospitality experience to this position and most recently was general manager at sister property The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald.

Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York has tapped Tim Morrison as hotel manager. One of Morrison’s more notable posts was managing director/general manager for the Olympic and Paralympic Village for 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler. Most recently, Morrison was general manager at Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier in North Vancouver.

Fairmont Pacific Rim has promoted Rudi Gimmi to the position of hotel manager. Gimmi brings over 18 years experience to this position and most recently was the hotel’s director of operations. Gimmi has travelled the world throughout his career with stops in Germany, France, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Loews Hotels & Resorts has announced the appointment of Tracey Gamble as vice president, acquisitions and development. Gamble joins the Loews development team as part of the company’s goal to substantially grow its portfolio over the next five years. She will work to identify opportunities to acquire hotel properties in major gateway cities, as

well as resort destinations.

Michelle Cosh, director of human resources at the Westin Ottawa has received The Odgers Berndtson Vision Award for Human Resources Professional of the Year. Established in 1999, the Vision Awards is the premiere Human Resources recognition program in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

The board of directors of Micro Systems, Inc. has elected Peter Altabef to succeed A.L. “Tom” Giannopoulos as president and CEO. Giannopoulos, who served as the company’s CEO since 1993, will continue as executive chairman until June 30, 2014.

Altabef served as president and CEO of Perot Systems from 2004 until 2009, when Perot Systems was acquired by Dell, Inc. Upon Dell’s acquisition of Perot Systems, Altabef served as president of Dell Services until his departure in 2011.

Ontario Accommodation Association past chair and governor Gunter Griwatz passed away Dec., 10, 2012. He chaired the OAA in 1999-2000. He and his wife Sophia owned and operated the Woodlands Inn, Longlac, for many years. They had been married 58 years. In the words of fellow governor Robert Melo: “Gunter was a special human being with a big heart. I am privileged to have known him.”

OTEC has added two new members to its board of directors. Esther Lee, vice president of human resources and administration at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and Nancy Rosset, executive director of the Northern Ontario Regional Tourism Organization.

Takashi Sonoda, a 30-year veteran of the company, was recently appointed president of Rinnai America Corporation, which manufactures gas appliances including tankless water heaters, a wide range of kitchen appliances and heating and air conditioning units.

Bringing a wealth of leadership and industry experience from some of Canada’s top resort areas, Tara Colpitts is the new director of sales and marketing at Hilton Whistler Resort & Spa. A Whistler resident for three years, Colpitts was previously director of sales at the Coast Blackcomb Suites at Whistler.

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Super 8 Red Lake is the 2,300th hotel in the chain Op e n i ng s,

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Holiday Inns for Sault and Bonnyville a $23M investment

A Journey to the Centre of Winter at Hôtel de Glace QUEBEC, QC—Saturday Jan. 19 marked the official opening of the 2013 Hôtel de Glace. The preceding weeks of hard work paid off, and the hotel kicked off its 13th season, which extends until March 24.

Its original design, Grand Ice Slide, Ice Bar and family activities are just a few of the reasons to visit this ephemeral work of art.

With A Journey to the Centre of Winter as its theme, the Hôtel de Glace is designed to sweep

visitors twenty thousand leagues away from home.

This year’s Hôtel de Glace features Behind the Scene, a guided tour behind its frozen façade. Visitors can visit the ice workshop, where they can make their very own ice glass.

The tour is offered Saturdays and Sundays by reservation only on the Ice Hotel website.

Starting with its Grand Opening night, the Hôtel de Glace has lined up a number of activities and events including Normandin spring break, DJ dancing at the Ice Bar and an old-time sugar shack.

Holiday Inn Epxress Sault Ste. Marie, ON

CanadianLodgingNews_Feb '13_QuarterPageHorAd_CTHRC emerit_FINAL_Outlines_v2.indd 1

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON/ BONNYVILLE, AB— InterContinental Hotels Group spent more than $10 million to renovate and convert the Holiday Inn Express in Sault Ste. Marie. The 75,000 sq.ft. property offers a variety of amenities such as an indoor pool, fitness centre and free breakfast for guests.

The surrounding area also offers various activities within walking distance, such as The Essar Centre, a sports and entertainment centre, and Agawa Canyon Train Tours. It’s a short drive to OLG Casino Sault Ste. Marie and Roberta Bondar Place, an outdoor venue for local concerts, festivals and conventions.

The Holiday Inn Express Sault Ste. Marie is owned by Best Value Motel Inc. and managed

by Diamond Hotels Management Inc., under a license agreement with a company in the InterContinental Hotels Group. The hotel is located at 320 Bay Street.

Meanwhile, IHG recently opened the Holiday Inn Express in Bonnyville, AB. This renovation cost $13 million.

In Bonnyville, AB, the 65,100 square foot property will be the only hotel in the area to offer an indoor swimming pool and sauna system. Located at the east end of town, guests will experiencing a comfortable and smart hotel environment with innovative preferred guest upgrades while being near the Centennial Centre, a multi-arena leisure and conferencing facility, and Cold Lake.

The Holiday Inn Express Bonnyville is owned and managed by P7 Construction Ltd. and managed by 1619904 Alberta Ltd. Cindy MacLeod is the general manager.

Holiday Inn Express Bonnyville, AB

RED LAKE, ON—Superior Lodging Corp, the master developer of Super 8, recently celebrated a milestone opening of the newly built, Red Lake, ON property—the 2,300th hotel to open in the Super 8 global system. This brings Canada’s total number of Super 8s to 136 hotels with 8,882 rooms.

Recently named Canada’s 3rd largest developer, Superior Lodging Corp, a Calgary-based privately held hotel development and investment company has gained a reputation for providing high-yielding return on investor capital in the hospitality sector.

Since 1993, Superior Lodging Corp has completed over 140 hotel investments at a total cost of approximately $750 million. Other milestones included the Calgary Shawnessy Super 8 and the Cochrane, AB Super 8 as the 1,800th and 2,000th openings respectively.

“We continue to locate new development opportunities throughout Canada and expect our current growth to continue,” says Marc Staniloff, president & CEO, Superior Lodging Corp.

Upcoming openings will include Fox Creek, AB and Lloydminster, SK along with many others in 2013.

“The newly built Red Lake location brings much needed modern, contemporary accommodation to this area of northwestern Ontario.

Travelers to Red Lake are thrilled by the high quality of this new hotel, the level of conveniences offered and the customer service,” says Carol McPherson, general manager.

Super 8 offers guests in all of its hotels a range of in-room amenities, free parking and a complimentary Super Start breakfast. The majority of hotels offer water parks, pools, many with waterslides and other recreational facilities.

Super 8 also participates in a North American reservation system and the WyndhamRewards program.

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CANADIAN LODGING NEWS

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PMA remakes hotel in Estrimont, QC RECEPTION AFTER

RECEPTION BEFORE

HALL BY WASHROOMS AFTER

HALL BY WASHROOMS BEFORE

SPA AFTER

C OM ING

Mar. 3-5: The CRFA Show, Direct Energy Centre, Toronto. Tel: 416-923-8416 or 800-3875649. E-mail: info@crfa.ca. Website: www.crfa. ca April 2-4: Online Revealed, Caesar’s Windsor, Windsor Ontario. Contact: Patricia Brusha.

Phone: 905-990-0079 ext. 103 or 888.235.6009 ext. 103. E-mail: pbrusha@acoupleofchicks. com. Website: www.onlinerevealed.com April 14-15: ApEx 2013, Exhibition Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Contact: Ellen Scanlan.

Phone: 1-877-755-1938 ext. 102 or 902-4250061 ext. 102. E-mail: escanlan@eastlink.ca.

Website: www.apextradeshow.ca April 14-16: Alberta Hotel & Lodging Asso-

ESTRIMONT, QC—When new owners took over the Auberge Estrimont Suites and Spa near Mount Orford, QC, they decided to transform the tired decor into something more modern, and uplifting. They hired Montreal-based PMA Design, which had done work on other resort properties including the Fairmont Chateau Montebello and Mont Tremblant hotels. PMA’s mandate was not only to raise the quality of the suites, but to position them to be sold as condo/hotel units.

The guest rooms were spacious, about 434 square feet, with terraces or balconies of 110 square feet. PMA used seethrough dividers to separate the rooms into a bedroom and a sitting room. The rooms, which have kitchenettes, can sleep four people, and all areas of the rooms are now well-lit, according to Patricia McClintock, principal, PMA Design.

The rest of the property was modified as well, including the lobby, lounge area and dining room. Before, the entrance to the public washrooms was “in your face”, said McClintock.

The new design provides a more discreet entrance. The lobby was opened up, and a reception area was added to the spa.

E V E N TS

ciation Convention and Trade Show, The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Contact Tina Tillapaugh at ttillapaugh@ahla.ca.

April 15-16: Saskatchewan Hotel & Hospitality Association 2013 Conference & Tradeshow Delta Regina Hotel. Contact: Tom Mullin, SHHA, #302-2080 Broad Street, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 1Y3, 1-800-667-1118 (SK), (306) 522-1664, Fax: (306) 525-1944.

May 28-29: Canadian Hotel Investment Conference (CHIC), Hilton Toronto Hotel, Toronto. Contact: Orie Berlasso. Phone 416-9242002 or 866-887-4453. E-mail: orieberlasso@ bigpictureconferences.ca. Website: www.hotelinvest.ca.

What’s in store at the CRFA Show March 4-6, 2013 TORONTO—Anna Olsen will again be on the Inspiration Stage at the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show, running from March 4 - March 6, 2013.

The CRFA’S Breakfast with Champions will be hosted by the CBC’s George Stromboulopoulos and held on March 5.

This year’s show will host more than 1,200 booths exhibiting a variety of food, beverages, equipment, technology, smallwares and services.

Show attendees are also invited to the Industry Night Out reception at the Liberty Grand, Exhibition Place on March 4.

10

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Ten habits of bad management

By André de Waal If you’re looking to run a “high performance organization,” or ‘HPO’, it’s imperative to be able to recognize the signs of bad management. If non-HPO managers are not checked and dealt with, an organization will never be able to achieve excellence.

Here are 10 habits to look out for, that HPO managers will never put up with: 1. Bad managers clean up the mess of their predecessors—even when there is no mess.

2. Bad managers are always busy, busy, busy. They are involved in many, many projects; in fact, they’re so busy that there isn’t enough time to work on regular tasks!

3. Bad managers know how to play the goals game. They know that departmental goals should be loose, with lots of slack, which means the targets will be very easy to achieve.

4. Bad managers only manage from a distance. Bad managers love to use performance indicators because these make it possible to practice hands-off management.

5. Bad managers always blame somebody else. Bad managers have a host of excuses at their disposal when they don’t achieve departmental targets.

6. Bad managers make lengthy, impressive plans. When writing up the latest game plan, bad managers know that expansive, wordy, and complex plans always impress top management because it gives the impression that they are on top of their game and have thought of everything.

7. Bad managers only communicate in one way. The bad manager only feigns interest in employee feedback, and won’t actually act on what he or she hears.

8. Bad managers only have eyes for the shareholder.

9. Bad managers are real Machiavellians, and know how to practice effective “divide and conquer” strategies in the organization.

10. Bad managers have an exit strategy every three years. When the organization is on the verge of holding a bad manager accountable for his or her (in)actions, the bad manager moves on to another organization.

It goes without saying that these 10 habits don’t exist in HPOs. But as most organizations are not HPO yet, it is good for you to be able to recognize the signs of bad management. This way you can deal with these ‘bad managers’ quickly…which is, after all, also a characteristic of an HPO manager.

About the author André de Waal is associate professor strategic management at the Maastricht School of Management and academic director of the HPO Center (http://www.hpocenter.com). He started a five-year research project (involving 1470 organizations in 50 countries) examining the factors of sustainable high performance. The result of this research, the HPO Framework, will be published in his upcoming book ‘What Makes A High Performance Organization - Validated Factors of Competitive Advantage that Apply Worldwide’.

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