“Five months ago, we had 57 simultaneous check-ins on our opening day,” say Luc Delafosse and Vanessa Williams, respectively managing director and director of sale and marketing for the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, which opened on schedule on June 1.
The pair never interrupt each other but talk, as if in unison, as the perfect team.
“Although I had only arrived on site October 2016 I had been working from afar, at The Conrad Seoul, South Korea. This is geographically 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles, which meant a lot of middle-of-the-night telephone calls and Skypes as I recruited my 12-strong team. But with the support of the Waldorf luxury brand team we got the hotel into American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program, plus membership of both Signature and Virtuoso Preview, a year before, which helped considerably in driving initial awareness, Williams explained.
She actually had been courted professionally by Luc Delafosse more or less as soon as he had arrived in Beverly Hills, in mid-2015. “I knew what would be a stunning hotel, with prominent balconies for all its 170 rooms and suites, needed the best,” he said. “I wanted a sales and marketing colleague who had traveled the world and understood a variety of cultures. The relationship between GM and DSM requires compatibility and respect. I knew I needed someone who has all the qualities to go to professional war. Vanessa is very honest, very open, with a really good heart, and she is full of ideas.”
After graduating in marketing in her home city of Johannesburg, South Africa, Williams worked in industrial cleaning. At a private dinner party, a Japanese guest asked if she would help open his hotel, Hotel Nikko Beverly Hills (now SLS Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Beverly Hills), and she has been in hotels ever since. This is her fifth opening.
Delafosse, by contrast, had set his sights on a career in the French military, but he diverted to hotel school. Years later, with five new-build and renovation projects behind him, he was about to re-open the Rosewood-managed Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, France, when he was headhunted to open what would immediately become Waldorf Astoria’s brand flagship.
The pair forecast 70% average occupancy for the first year, with typical stay three nights. In fact, in only five months the hotel is achieving high-70s, typical stay 3.5 nights, and, already 20% is repeat business. Average rate is exceeding expectation and trending ahead of the competitive set.
Sixty-five percent is leisure and 70% domestic, with weekend staycations popular: Suites sell extraordinarily well.
“We have 51 suites and we are going to differentiate those even more noticeably. We are evolving personal concierges into butlers, and top suites will come with spa and culinary experiences, and complimentary drive-yourself Aston Martins,” Williams said.
“Our owner, who already had the adjacent Beverly Hilton, successfully lobbied local residents for permission to go up to 12 floors here, and now these locals feel ownership,” Delafosse said. The rooftop pool, a Hollywood epitome, is strictly hotel-guest-only, but outsiders enjoy its adjacent garden and Jean-Georges Vongerichten casual terrace (the chef also runs the first floor restaurant). Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills has exclusive Los Angeles hotel partnerships with House of Bijam menswear, La Prairie for the hotel-run spa, and celebrity hair colorist Tracey Cunningham.
Delafosse hosts daily management meetings at 8:30 a.m. and, to catch evening housekeeping, engineering and private dining, 6 p:m – these are both seven days a week, and the Delafosse-Williams duo come in, separately, to host one gathering Saturday and one Sunday. “Daily, we are talking continually. We are both workaholics with walk-the-floor passion,” one of them declared.
All successful opening teams create a bond that can last for years, and never end. Sadly, and purely for family reasons, Delafosse leaves Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills to return to Europe on November 4. Vanessa Williams stays on, to grow China and finalize Christmas, with Los Angeles Ballet at Nutcracker Afternoon Teas.