Local hotels gear up for an onslaught of Olympic visitors
Hotels promise to be secure, but not to the point of being ‘unfriendly’
By BRUCE CONSTANTINEAU, Vancouver Sun
December 4, 2009
Pan Pacific general manager Tim Tindle, wearing red Olympic mittens, is ready to welcome the world to Vancouver. He says the Olympics will present new challenges and the hotel’s usual February complement of 375 workers will be expanded to 475.
Photograph by: Ward Perrin, Vancouver SunVANCOUVER - Supplies have been stockpiled, extra staff have been hired, finishing touches to new properties are underway and security arrangements are in place to protect visiting dignitaries.
Downtown Vancouver hotels are just about ready for the onslaught of Olympic visitors set to hit town early next year.
“It’s going to be a very different operating time for us because the average length of stay will be much longer than usual — about 24 days,” Pan Pacific Hotel general manager Tim Tindle said in an interview. “That brings different needs, like bigger bars of soap and bigger bottles of shampoo and extra coat hangers because guests will bring a lot more clothes.”
Olympic broadcaster NBC will take over about half the hotel during the Games, with other lodgers to include Asian media, the European Broadcasting Union and print organizations like Sports Illustrated, Reuters and Associated Press.
Tindle said Games-time check-ins will ramp up from around Feb. 5 and the hotel will be fully occupied by Feb. 10, two days before the Olympic opening ceremonies. The hotel’s usual February complement of 375 workers will be expanded to 475 during the Olympics.
Tindle hopes hotel food and beverage operating hours will expand from 16 hours a day to 19 or 20, depending on liquor authorities’ approval. Room service will run 24 hours a day as usual but with a larger staff and a wider menu selection.
“We’ve had a large request for Korean food and our culinary team has Korean-trained chefs so that’s something we can handle,” he said. “We normally don’t serve Korean food mainstream but for 21 or 24 days, we probably will be.”
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts regional vice-president Mark Andrew expects several international dignitaries will stay at Fairmont hotels during the Games. The company operates the Hotel Vancouver, the Waterfront, the Chateau Whistler and the Pacific Rim, which is scheduled to open in late January.
“When you see a head of state during the Olympics, chances are they’ll be staying at one of our iconic properties,” Andrew said.
He said security plans for the dignitaries have been coordinated with the RCMP and the International Olympic Committee and while the hotels will be secure, they won’t be secure to the point of being “unfriendly.”
The hotel chain recently hired about 350 people from more than 5,000 applications to staff the new Fairmont Pacific Rim, a 377-room property set to open next month near Canada Place. The new hotel receives its first Olympic guests in early February so deadlines are tight.
“You usually have a little time to get things going when you open a new hotel but in this case [general manager Randy Zupanski] has no time,” Andrew said. “He’s opening to the eyes of the world.”
He said the company has brought in experienced Fairmont employees from around the world to train new staff and be on hand during the Games to ensure the hotel offers “phenomenal” service.
Another new downtown hotel, the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel, also gets an Olympic trial by fire when the 220-room West Hastings property opens on Jan. 15.
Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside event planning and operations director Ed Murphy said his hotel will scramble to handle an expected 450 to 500 people a day for breakfast, more than double the usual demand.
Meeting and event space on the 19th floor will be converted to catering space to serve up 250 breakfasts a day while food and beverage facilities will extend their operating hours to accommodate the early-morning, late-night habits of Games visitors.
The 442-room Renaissance recently completed an 18-month, multi-million-dollar renovation that included physical and technological improvements to every guest room.
Murphy said the hotel will beef up security, including using dogs on hotel property patrols, to protect guests who will include IOC and European Broadcasting Union officials.
He said the hotel will be careful to display the right Olympic corporate brand names to reflect the sponsorship of the 2010 Games. The Renaissance, for example, normally sells Pepsi products but during the Games, it will also sell beverages made by Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola.
“Panasonic is a Games sponsor so when we renovated our revolving space on the 19th floor, we bought Panasonic televisions rather than some other brand,” Murphy said. “Maybe they’ll see we’re using their products in an awesome space.”
Four Seasons Hotel general manager Simon Pettigrew said the hotel will become a virtual 24-hour-a-day operation with all the activities and festivities scheduled during the Games.
He said the hotel will load up on non-perishable goods, like toiletries, in January and take daily delivery of fresh items in the middle of the night during the Games when traffic congestion is not an issue.
“Our storeroom guys will be taking deliveries at two or three in the morning instead of eight in the morning so their lives will be turned upside down for awhile,” Pettigrew said.
The hotel has spent the past few months training staff to multi-task so they can shift from one department to another as the need arises during the busy Games period. Pettigrew said the Podium Pursuit training program will ensure workers exceed guest expectations.
Hyatt Regency Hotel general manager Steve McNally said the 644-room hotel is still working out which Olympic sponsors and broadcasters it will host but feels confident its 450 employees can meet any challenge.
“We’ve told them to take advantage of this time,” he said. “They’ll work very hard but they won’t be working 24/7 so we want them to go to events and take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
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Also,
Mods, I have a suggestion. We are so close now to the Olympics that I, for one, would like a single super thread in which to put everything in much the same way we have the downtown developments thread. I suggest that this existing popular thread be it and renamed something along the lines of "2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games super-thread". Any thoughts?
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