E-MAIL CHRIS   PRINT   2008 COLUMNS   ARCHIVES   SEARCH ARCHIVES SPIFFING UP THE HOTEL ON THE HILL By Chris Barnett May 22, 2008 -- The new general manager of The Fairmont San Francisco is an old-style hotelier with an up-to-the-nanosecond mindset on how to treat travelers: Give them everything they want even if they have to pay for it and emblazon your brand of hospitality in their brain so they never forget you. "Businesspeople want recognition, speed, flexibility, security, choice, comfort food, generous beverages and fine dining when they have a meeting," reels off Tom Klein, a GQ kind of dresser with an Aussie drawl and three decades of hotel-keeping under his belt. "Actually, our business hasn't changed since the days of Cesar Ritz. We provide shelter, a bed and pampering services." Today, Klein says, speed is tallied in minutes. He "wants to speed up check-in from five minutes at point of arrival to three minutes." How? He has staff at the 102-year-old, 591-room landmark atop Nob Hill updating guest files to ensure accuracy. Three to five days before arrival, a newly hired guest auditor double-checks details, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, personal preferences and other intelligence. Accurate data shaves time off check-in and, adds Klein, "A guest's top priority is to get into their room fast." What's more, he also posts a "lobby ambassador" to roam around the hotel's public areas. "This is nothing innovative, but when you have a manager approaching a guest and asking, 'How can I help you?', that's aggressive hospitality and we practice it." Klein isn't an armchair general barking orders to staffers. At 5:30 a.m. every morning--he lives in the hotel--he's prowling around with a broom looking for dust and dirt and searching for dead lightbulbs. He gets cracks patched up and repainted. Over coffee with me recently, he spied some torn fabric on a floor lamp and jotted it down in those little notebooks that general managers inevitably carry. The Fairmont chain also has been writing checks to spruce up its flagship property. Guestrooms have been renovated with better beds, Frette linens and 37-inch flat-panel TVs. The Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar, Fairmont's version of a Trader Vic's, got a million-dollar makeover and a new menu. (Tonga's main fixture, a nightly buffet, is $9.95.) A new dining option, Caffe Centro, is a three-way partnership between Fairmont, Italy's Illy coffee and Ghirardelli, the famed San Francisco chocolate company. Located near the corner of California and Powell Streets, the restaurant has its own door to the sidewalk. The menu is Italian-themed casual fare. Next up for a makeover: the high-ceiling, tall-pillared, ornately gilded Laurel Court, a bar-restaurant off the lobby. Not to be outdone by newer, hipper hotels, Fairmont has gone "green," too. In collaboration with Lexus, it has opened an "eco chic" Hybrid Living Suite. The rate: $869 a night, including the use of a Lexus. Another clever idea: no parking charge for any guest who parks a hybrid car in the downstairs parking lot, where the overnight tariff is $50. Klein, who's also regional vice president for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, came out of Hyatt Hotels' general managers factory of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hyatt was a magnet for competitive hotel lords on the fast track and its best and brightest managers became lodging kings with unrivaled power. Among his former Hyatt compatriots: Horst Schultze, who went on to build Ritz-Carlton's reputation and cachet as its president, and Stan Bromley, who became a star running Four Seasons properties in Washington and San Francisco. Besides Hyatt, Klein has run hotels or held senior posts for Raffles, Swissotel, Ritz-Carlton and properties from Africa to Australia. A chatty chap, Klein is also opinionated about hotel-keeping. "You must hit all the senses, so we put pecan pastries in restaurants for the aroma. A hotel must be spotlessly clean and fresh, so we use fresh flowers everywhere." Klein also obsesses about the hotel staff. "We're in the theatre business with a 'show' 24/7 so we make sure our actors are happy and our dressing room is inviting." Translated, Klein means that the hotel's staff dining room is getting a major modernization. And every four to six weeks, he takes a group of employees into a meeting room and discusses problems. "Within 48 hours, we get a solution to every problem," he claims. As a chain, Fairmont doesn't have a frequent guest program, but its President Club loyalty program is rich in perks. In San Francisco, Presidents Club members can take advantage of separate check-in line and pre-registration services. They receive free use of the fitness center (the hotel charges other guests $15 a day) and free WiFi Internet access (the hotel socks other guests $14 for 24 hours). And while the Fairmont San Francisco doesn't have a club-level lounge à la Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont Presidents Club members have a different perk worth noting: I found prices for Club members starting at $149 a night. Currently, Fairmont's moderate rooms are fetching $339 a night for non-members.

ABOUT CHRIS BARNETT Chris Barnett writes about business-travel tactics and strategies that save time and money and help minimize hassles. He is based in San Francisco and has written for a wide variety of major newspapers and national magazines. Barnett on Business Travel is syndicated by Copley News Service. THE FINE PRINT Joe Brancatelli makes this space available to Chris Barnett in the spirit of free speech and to help encourage editorial diversity and the wider discussion of important travel issues. All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property of Barnett. This material may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Chris Barnett. A NOTE TO EDITORS Barnett on Business Travel is available biweekly through Copley News Service. Contact: Glenda Winders. This column is Copyright © 2008 by Chris Barnett. JoeSentMe is Copyright © 2008 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.