W for wow
When the W brand was launched a little over a year ago, it was just another stylish addition to the New York hotel scene. Now, at any one of the city's three W hotels, you can find movie stars such as Ben Affleck, Jack Nicholson or Michael Douglas, while parties for the media industry abound.
The chain is backed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, making it the USA's first boutique brand. Its creators say its popularity is the result of having a concept that is both friendly and chic.
And the brand is growing fast - there are eight in the USA and Hawaii, and 11 more are planned this year and next. It is the brainchild of Barry Sternlicht, president and chief executive officer of Starwood, which has more than 700 hotels worldwide.
Recipe for success
Sternlicht brought in architect David Rockwell, whose past design projects include Nobu and Monkey Bar in New York, and laid down some rules for his new brand: the focal point of the rooms had to be the bed; there should be hi-tech facilities; there should be an element of surprise for the guests.
"The bed is what Barry Sternlicht feels people come to the hotel for," says Diane Briskin, corporate director of sales and marketing. "He told David Rockwell to design a comfortable bed with a firm mattress.
"He also feels most hotels needlessly put very big, expensive armoires into the bedroom to cover the televisions, whereas at home we just have TVs. So he figured we should put the money into electronic products - high-speed Internet access, cordless telephones and mini-CD players."
Touches such as custom-made Aveda bath products, W CDs, "munchie boxes" of snacks and sweets, and coffee-table books on photography and film stars complete the trendy-but-comfortable feel of the bedrooms.
"There are some style hotels where the design is almost haute couture - they go to the extreme," says Briskin. "We wanted something that suited people's lifestyle, to surround them with things they'd enjoy."
The hotels' lobby areas are called "living rooms", with open fires, libraries and spacious seating. Each hotel has a different design and colour palette to give it an individual feel. And, true to Sternlicht's wish, each has its own element of surprise.
In W New York in uptown Manhattan, it is a wheatgrass theme - from motifs and containers of growing wheatgrass in the rooms, to liquid grass sold in the juice bar. In W Atlanta, it is a bowl of faux goldfish in the bathroom. In W New York - The Court, it is old-fashioned candy dispensers.
The term "boutique" belies the size of the hotels - W New York has 722 bedrooms - and they still seek to get close to the customers, as other boutique hotels do. This is evident with the "whatever, whenever" button on the telephone in guest rooms.
"It stands for whatever you want, whenever you want it," says Briskin. Back of house teams respond when this button is pushed for anything from non-allergenic pillows to last-minute tuxedo fittings. "One woman wanted to surprise her fiancé in a bathtub of chocolate," says Briskin. "Then we had a 2am phone call from a woman who wanted dry ice - she needed to send breast milk she had just expressed back to her baby."
The "whatever, whenever" team at W New York has grown from two to 11. But elsewhere, the button is proving a problem. Dan Bergmann, general manager at the newly opened W New York - The Court and its sister hotel, the Tuscany, says his guests don't understand the concept. "When they do press the button, it's to ask, ‘What is this?' Basically, we should explain the service when people check in."
The company culture revolves around "w" words. They talk about wanting to "wow the guest", that they're looking for staff who are "warm and welcoming". Phone for a reservation and you'll be greeted with: "Welcome to reservations."
Briskin claims the name came first, and the "w" themes followed. "The design began, and then the name came during an executive retreat. Barry Steinberg wanted to come up with a name that wasn't on any other hotel. Someone said, ‘There isn't one hotel in the world that has an initial as its name'."
The first to open, in December 1998, was W New York, formerly called the Doral Inn and converted for $100m (£63m). In its short life it has become a signature nightspot in the city, mostly by word of mouth, according to Briskin. A big pull is the hotel's bar, Whiskey Blue, which is operated by nightclub owner Rande Gerber - otherwise known as Mr Cindy Crawford.
Bringing in Gerber was a clear act of nose-thumbing towards rival hotelier Ian Schrager - Gerber already runs the Whiskey Bar at Schrager's Paramount hotel in New York, and the Sky Bar at Schrager's Mondrian hotel in west Hollywood.
When W saw the number of trendies and celebrities hanging out at Whiskey Blue, it redrafted its architectural plans for the Court and the Tuscany, which opened last November, to give more emphasis to the public spaces.
Gerber was again brought in to run Wetbar at the Court, for which he retains a portion of the profits. Bergmann will not go into financial detail, but says the bar's sales are "considerably more than we expected". Similarly, the 95-seat Icon restaurant at the Court is achieving 300 covers a day at its busiest, and average spend is $55 (£34) for dinner.
Bergmann has the challenge of running the 202-bedroom Court and the 122-bedroom Tuscany as one hotel. Formerly the Doral Court and Doral Tuscany, the hotels occupy separate buildings on the same street just off Lexington Avenue, and although each has its own staff, there is one management team.
W's target market is the high-spending corporate traveller, particularly in the entertainment, publishing, fashion and hi-tech industries - the split is 90% business, 10% leisure. But Briskin says W is "trying to break the mould" by having staff who, although black-clad and beautiful, are not arrogant. "We want our service to be unobtrusive. We don't wear name tags - we wear a W pin. The service is there as you want it. But we want them to welcome you with a smile because we're trying to break the opposition."
Robert Mandelbaum, director of research at PKF Consulting in Atlanta, praises Starwood's initiative. "This is its attempt at making the first chain of boutique hotels," he says. "There are about 200 boutique hotels in the USA, but you never knew if they were part of the same company. W has the power of Starwood's marketing and reservations to roll out the brand. However, what customers like about boutique hotels is that they're not a chain. W needs to be careful not to make them all cookie cutters."
So far, guests are responding well, particularly in New York, where occupancy levels have exceeded 80% at W New York, and 75-78% at the Court and the Tuscany. They are staying loyal, too. Figures from Starwood's Preferred Guest Program, which offers air miles and discounts at hotels, shows a repeat redemption figure of 41% among W guests - double the numbers in other Starwood brands.
And with a stated commitment to expand in European capitals, the next "w" phrase on everyone's lips is: "Where next?"
FACTS
W Hotels
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
777 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
Tel: 00 1 914 640 8300
Web site: www.whotels.com
Room rates: $289-$399 (£180-£250) (standard rooms), $599-$1,100 (£375-£690) (suites)
The hotels: W New York, W New York - the Court, W New York - the Tuscany, W Seattle, W San Francisco, W Los Angeles
Future openings: W Sydney (February 2000), W Washington DC (2001), W Chicago City Centre (June 2000), W Chicago Lakeshore (May 2001), W New Orleans (two to open in 2000), W Suites, Newark California (May 2000), W New York Union Square (November 2000), W Miami (2001)
Expansion: hotels in London, Paris, Milan and Tokyo
Parent company: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide - 700 owned and leased hotels with brands including Sheraton, Westin, St Regis/Luxury Collection, Four Points
Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 24 February - 1 March 2000
