“Experience counts, as de-flagging is much more taxing than flagging,” says Alex van Gastel, general manager of The Pulitzer in Amsterdam.
The 225-room hotel had been part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection for 20 years when the decision was made in September 2014 to take the hotel even further up the luxury ladder, which meant taking it independent. Fortunately van Gastel had de-flagged what had been the Westin Rotterdam, now the Marriott Hotel Rotterdam, and he knew what to do prior to The Pulitzer leaving Starwood in April 2015.
“One of the first things is to start working on a new website, as that takes much longer than expected, and in fact we built two sites as we needed to implement a temporary website before launching the new brand of Pulitzer Amsterdam,” he recalled. “Starwood were really helpful and provided a three-person IT team to help with all system changes. The hotel’s then 160-strong team were initially shocked when they heard about the de-flagging but they quickly built into the opportunity to make this one of Europe’s iconic lifestyle venues.”
After the de-flagging came a complete new look, without closing the hotel. “Linking the historic Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht canals, the hotel is a conversion of 25 Amsterdam merchants’ houses, some dating back some 400 years and each of them unique. This was obviously going to bring a multitude of challenges but the big advantage was that we could close one area and then another,” van Gastel said. Again, experience counted as he had done two refurbishments before. Here, remarkably, the renovation was completely finished three months ahead of the original schedule.
“We made the decision in April to accelerate the work as September to November is prime time. By paying extra for an acceleration team we finished August 15, 2016, instead of the intended November 15, 2016. This meant we saw occupancy September through November this year of 75% to 85%, which more than made up for the additional construction team costs,” he explained.
“There were actually more labor costs all round. During the renovation we took on an additional 60 team members, bringing our full complement to 220, who have four full-time HR professionals helping each and every one become part of a very special culture,” the GM said. What had been a two-person distribution and communications team was extended to five, and van Gastel had signed with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, which has been really helpful: The hotel is also back in Virtuoso’s portfolio and now he just wants American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts.
“We managed to delete all online reviews prior to September 2016, since when we have risen to TripAdvisor’s number 4 in Amsterdam. What was, under SPG, a 40% leisure mix has risen to 55%. Our U.S. market has remained stable, at around 40%, with the U.K. second, at 20%. Overall repeats are 35%, with average stay, depending on season, from 1.8 to 3.2 nights. Average rate is up €40 on two years ago,” the Dutchman shared.
Designer Jacu Stauss, who has filled the new-look hotel with original art and antiques and modern furniture, some of which he designed, has hung a grand piano high over the Prinsengracht outer lobby, but it is the GM and his team who brought in, to that same space, a working flower shop (metal pots, with ribbons to carry them, are filled with gorgeous lilies and orchids, each pot color-coded for price).
“I love coming up with ideas, and walking around; my only hate is sitting in an office,” he declared.
This entrepreneur started in hospitality at age 15 by serving weekend breakfasts. He joined Starwood in 2002 and in 2010 moved to The Pulitzer, where he followed a succession of four GMs in the previous ten years.
“To lead this hotel is a dream and I feel very privileged to come to work every morning. Who else has an owner (London-based Global Holdings) prepared to spend so much and have a long-term strategy for this property? Now, my initial goals are to double F&B revenue in 2017, stabilize the team and the entire business, and establish this as the custodian of Amsterdam’s hospitality.”