Ever since it opened in June 2017, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills has found its 13th-floor rooftop outdoor lounge bar extremely popular with local residents as well as hotel guests. To cope with the sun there were small beige floor-standing umbrellas but, as one server admits, they constantly needed moving around. This caused more work for all servers in a space that can easily seat 150 – and often does.
In August, a management thinktank resulted in a solution: The smaller, portable beige umbrellas were replaced by permanently fixed, large green umbrellas. Their extra height, at just under 10 feet, means even the tallest basketball player does not have to stoop. The fact that the new, made-in-USA umbrellas completely cover the area beneath eliminates the risk of some guests not having cover. And servers are now protected from the sun, even in high summer.
The 170-room Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, predominantly owned – like the neighboring Beverly Hilton – by entrepreneur Beny Alagem, has quickly become one of the most stylish places in the well-endowed confines of Los Angeles. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is actually currently without a GM (Peter Bowling left last week) but South Africa-born Director of Sales and Marketing Vanessa Williams says return on investment in these larger, full-cover umbrellas is more than justified. Additional tables can be accommodated, and the sales increase.