GOSTELOW REPORT – “My parents said wherever I worked I should think of it as my own family hotel,” said Daniela Cataldo, who the last few months of 2021 will open the 95-room Edition Rome, a conversion of a 1940s-era bank.
Cataldo’s family owned and ran a 26-room hotel and restaurant on the Mediterranean Island of Capri, and even as a young teenager she was always helping her mother with the cooking and anything else that needed doing. She moved on to her uncle’s hotel, also on the island. At 23 it was time, she felt, to leave Capri and she moved from one extreme to the other, namely the 350-room Sheraton Skyline next to London’s Heathrow airport, where average stay barely rose above one night.
“It was a big change, to say the least, but the GM, Tom Hegarty, moved me around departments and two months after arriving I was Employee of the Month,” Cataldo recalled. “The opening GM of Sheraton Florence then enticed me away. After that, I relocated west to the USA, and I moved around with the Starwood and then the Marriott family. I had five years with The St. Regis San Francisco, followed by The St. Regis New York, prior to falling in love with Edition.”
After several years in traditional luxury in the U.S., Cataldo wondered, before relocating to Edition New York, how she would get on replacing white gloves by modern luxury. “But I quickly found Edition to be so personalized and so enchanting; I love the genuine and authentic interaction with both guests and team members.”
Yes, Cataldo admits that Bill Marriott and Ian Schrager are very different, but between them they have produced a brand which she feels truly redefines today’s concept of luxury. “Edition is for new-luxury travelers, modern and timeless rather than trendy. It is for all ages, with unique designs, original F&B and entertainment concepts, and intuitive and genuine service that, to me, embodies the true hospitality I learned from my parents,” she explained.
For Edition Rome, Cataldo will eventually work up to a team-count of 200, but so far only her four Guidance Team managers, who form Excomm, are being appointed – and for these, she wants experienced hoteliers. Each position has already attracted hundreds of applications. Line staff, who will be hired partly for personality and people skills, will start about two weeks before opening. Then, helped by trainers from other Editions, she will introduce and coach the brand’s culture. “This takes an incredible amount of passion, but then you must be hungry to be different. Nothing like this works unless it is a team effort.”
She will, she says, forever bless those who have coached and mentored her over the years. “They have helped make me the leader I feel today,” declared Cataldo, with characteristic enthusiasm.