Sucks to be Sick

There's no good time for a bad cold, but feeling lousy when you're away from home is especially awful. It does make you appreciate a nice hotel room, though. 

Let me count the ways the Delta Centre-Ville made my recent stay as comfortable as possible - while I was suffering from a stupid bug.

1. An easy-to-use thermastat allowed me to raise the temperature of the room to a cosy 25C. Quickly. Good for my chills.

2. A great bed: pillow-top mattress, crisp linens and puffy comforter. Bliss.

3. Excellent black-out drapes for day-time napping.

4. The room was also incredibly quiet, so I could really get the rest I needed.

5. An uncomplicated coffee maker, used to make pots and pots of hot tea. Jasmine Green Tea was my favourite.

6. A totally awesome desk/work space for when I did drag myself out of bed. I love that it wasn't cluttered with hotel propaganda; the room service menus and guest services guide were neatly propped up on a ledge. There was excellent task lighting, access to no less than seven electrical outlets, and all manner of computer cables, neatly retracted....

7. Oh - and getting onto the internet was easy! Yes, Delta does have the fastest connection.

8. When it was time to get cleaned up, I had a really, really long, hot shower. It was heaven. I liked the hand-held shower head and bar to hold onto, in case I was feeling dizzy.

9. High quality June Jacobs body lotion is always a nice treat.

10. Large bathroom with lots of counter space so I could spread out with all my drugs and paraphanalia.

11. Club Lounge advantages: I've never understood that "starve a cold, feed a fever" thing, and was so grateful that I'd booked myself a room on one of the Club Floors. Going to the Lounge, with its awesome, almost panoramic view of the city, got me out of my room to enjoy a substantial breakfast each morning - providing me with much-needed nourishment when I wasn't up to actually leaving the hotel. With my reduced appetite the complimentary hors d'oeuvres during the 'cinq a sept' hours were enough serve as dinner.

12. Delta Privilege advantages: I was too tired to go to the business centre to get a couple of documents printed so I emailed them to the Front Desk. There was no charge for them to print them for me. (I remember a few years ago receiving an extremely lengthy fax at the Delta Barrington - and the same thing - there was no charge). Also, late check-out was easily arranged so that I can stay in my lovely room right up until the time I had to go to the aiport and fly home.

New Gateway

Formerly the Sheraton Fallsview, the newly-flagged Marriott Gateway on the Falls joins the Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview & Spa as the two hotels closest to one of the most famous  natural wonders of the world: Niagara Falls.  The views from the majority of its 407 guestrooms are spectacular, and the new property gives Marriott as a brand a capacity to host much larger meetings and events.

In addition to its 23 meeting rooms/40,000 sq, ft. of function space, the Marriott Gateway is also the closest hotel to the brand new Scotiabank Convention Centre - providing an additional 288,000 sq.ft.

With the re-flagging comes a host of brand standards and features, such as the Marriott Revive bed, and Great Room lobby concept that encourages guests to interact over a cocktail or Starbucks coffee, take care of business with free Wi-Fi, or just chill and enjoy the contemporary, casual ambience.

Not Just for Cowboys

Spacious lobby bar ideal for delegates to unwind and network.
Nary a cowboy in sight!

The Fairmont Dallas *feels* like a Fairmont Hotel. There's thick, plush carpeting in the wide guestroom hallways graced with tasteful prints of Grecian urns. The guestroom doors are an unexpectedly bright shade of coral, but otherwise the decor is sedate, classic, and luxe: warm earth colours, plenty of wood, guilt-edged mirrors, and granite surfaces. Walk-in closets are reminiscent of the original railway hotels and resorts across Canada which had large closets to store steamer trunks for guests staying "the season".

I consult the hotel directory and learn that the building was originally designed as a kind of self-contained resort or country club.  It opened as a hotel in 1969 as the first luxury hotel in the great state of Texas, and has enjoyed a storied three decades built on the visits by celebrities, entertainers, Presidents, and foreign dignataries.

The pool and terrace provide an urban oasis, framed by award-
winning architecture, available for private functions.

Located in the Arts District (the hotel has its own artist-in-residence), anchored by the nearby Dallas Museum of Art, and within walking distance of West End restaurants the Fairmont Dallas is an outstanding conference hotel. It offers 545 guestrooms and over 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, with two Grand Ballrooms, stacked: the almost 18,000 Regency Ballroom and the more that 13,000 sq. ft. International Ballroom.

The nearby Perot Museum of Nature and Science (set to open January 2013) will be also be available for group functions for up to 2,300 people

Small Group ALTernative

The new ALT Hotel at Toronto Pearson Airport joins ALT Hotels in Montreal and Quebec in offering "no frills chic" service at a single price - any room, any time - wireless interenet always included.

ALT Hotels, with properties in Montreal and Quebec (and openings soon in Winnipeg and Halifax), is part of Groupe Germain Hospitality which also operates Le Germain Hotels. These include Hotel Le Germain Toronto and Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square. Both brands offer exceptional design features with limited services, or as they say "service light".

Whereas breakfast is included with your stay at Le Germain, you may purchase a wide range of hot and cold meals and snacks any time of the day or night from ALTcetera Eatery - to be enjoyed in the stylish and comfortable lobby, or in the privacy of your own room. Yes, alcoholic beverages are available, and you can get a pretty mean Americano should you so desire.  

The ALT Toronto offers 153 guestrooms and 6000 sq.ft. of function space comprised of 11 meeting rooms and "creative lounges" - with floor-to-ceiling windows, 55" television screens, and colourful names such as Rose, Fuscia, Cyan and Indigo.

I love the proximity of this hotel to the airport, too. No waiting around for a shuttle, simply take the Link train; the picture above was taken from the train stop. There's 'alt' signage inside Terminal 3 to direct you.

For more info go to:  http://pearson.althotels.ca/

Time is Money

If you're holding a meeting over several days in a hotel it's typical to ask for a "24-hour hold" so that whatever set-up you have stays in place overnight. From the hotel's point of view, that's often a missed opportunity if they can they can re-sell that space for an evening event and make more revenue.

A colleague told me a story recently where a hotel (which will remain nameless) wanted to charge her client $10,000 to keep their meeting room on a 24-hour hold. She was able to negotiate the charge away - of course! - but it's something to watch out for.

Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Prepared

That's the new Hyatt green initiative regarding food and beverages served in its more than 490 hotels and resorts worldwide. Driven by the farm-to-table movement, where the focus is on locally-sourced ingredients at their freshest and most desirable, this "philosophy" also supports small-farm economies and reduces the carbon foot-print of transporting food items over long distances.

At a dinner last night at the Hyatt Regency Toronto, Chef Chad Goudie introduced our delicious dinner comprised almost entirely from the bounty of Ontario's harvests. He was practically giddy talking about how wonderful it is for chefs to have free rein in the kitchen to create menus this way. 

Happy chefs make for happy guests, I think.

Oh - and I swore I wasn't going to eat dessert this week but the fresh Niagara peaches in a balsamic reduction served with a small scoop of Chapman's vanilla ice cream was irresistable!

Spamalot

Spam Spam Spam Spam
Spam Spam Spam Spam

Whenever I hear the word “spam” that Monty Python refrain starts running through my head - and I’ve been hearing it a lot lately, particularly as it refers to sending Requests for Proposals out to way too many hotels at a time, otherwise known as “RFP Spam”.

It’s a pretty hot topic. Now that the RFP process has become automated to the point that a planner can – with no more than a few clicks – send a request out to dozens of hotels at a time, the hotels are feeling inundated. The process of assessing which requests will fit, and which are most advantageous to the hotel’s bottom line, is getting bogged down under the sheer volume.

A recent article in the trade publication M&C referred to a panel discussion where “there was a general implication that the proliferation of e-RFPs was driven in part by inexperienced planners – that contacting so many properties for bids indicates a lack of focus”.

Obviously it’s vital to understand the needs of your group or program before thoroughly researching the options. ConferenceDirect has a pretty cool tool in its proprietary facility database. I can go into any hotel listing and not only review all necessary specifications, I can see which of my ~300 colleagues worldwide have booked that particular property and at what rate, when, and for how many rooms. Taking that a step further, I can reach out to a ConferenceDirect associate who may have more experience with that hotel than I do to get an unbiased “review” of everything from working with the sales office to the level of service during the delivery of the program.

All that intel helps to narrow the search to the most suitable venues, but when I’m looking to place a more, let’s say “challenging” piece of business I naturally have to throw the net a little wider. As my colleague Deborah Borak says in that same article: “I can’t send RFPs to six hotels and have five of them not have availability”. We live for giving our clients choices.

Save the Spam for John Cleese and the boys.