Last week while I was in Philadelphia and Chicago, my staff, led by Danielle Ross and Cheryl Cink, managed an event for our client Nokia in San Francisco.
Intercontinental San Francisco GM Peter Koehler knows how to run a hotel there. He's much like pal and hotel mentor to me, Steve Pagano, now at the San Diego Marina Marriott and Towers who has always demonstrated to me how a hotel needs to be run. Steve and I go back to his days at the Del Mar Marriott that he built and opened back in 2002 and still grab the occasional glass of wine and a good meal somewhere.
The event, which was a breakfast meeting that was flawlessly executed and no needs were unmet. The broadband worked as expected and at every turn my team reported to me that the hotel did everything that was requested. What's more the entire sales and banquet process was first rate, professional and provided excellent value per dollar, simply because they knew what to do. I even got a call from our client who said how perfect her room was.
I'm happily in SF the next five days or so, and looking forward to my second stay this year at the InterContinental. The first stay was so perfect I took my bill and hand wrote "Perfect" on it and handed it to Mr. Koehler.
Like the Hotel 1000 in Seattle's GM Denny Fitzpatrick, Koehler craves the tech savvy/work space needy business guest in his hotel. His letting me know that resulted in three more happy room nights from my staff and client as well as a tech thought leaders breakfast that had over 25 media, bloggers and executives in the room, who all had a professional experience, that was all first class.
Based on my past stay and the reports from my team, the San Francisco InterContinental is WORKING ANYWHERE APPROVED!
The 888 bar is nice, but it's dotcom era overpriced alcohol.
Or, well, a business hotel.
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | August 09, 2008 at 08:42 AM