Vancouver Boutique Hotel - St. Regis Hotel - Blog

January 29th, 2009

Prisca Laprise has been working at the St. Regis Hotel for almost two years, starting before the renovation and she has been on the front lines for St. Regis throughout the reopening process. I asked her what Saturday November 29th, opening day, was like knowing that guests would be turning up at 6pm expecting rooms to be ready for check in.

"I got to the hotel around 6:45am to start cleaning up the lobby and getting everything ready. We were only opening the first floor of guest rooms but, even so, the lobby still looked like a construction site. We spent the whole day cleaning the lobby – moving lumber, picking up plastic sheeting, washing dusting, polishing... even though we could see the progress, we never felt as though we were going to be ready by 6pm when when the guests were scheduled to arrive. We were all very pleased that they ended up being a little bit late!

We cleaned up ourselves before they checked in and we all breathed a big sigh of relief when they walked through the door and we went through the normal check-in process – it was almost unbelievable to us that we had our first guests and we were open for business.

Of course, it's never really that simple. They walked into the rooms and were blown away, but they had also been travelling all day and were looking for some room service food . . . there's always something unexpected. After trying to organize this with the our kitchen which is attached to Anducci's Restaurant, our guests decided to head out for some fresh air and food.

We were now open for business!!

The whole first week was a blur. Some of the management were working 16-hour days and sleeping in the hotel at night, simultaneously training new staff as we took care of guests. Some of the guests took a really personal interest in staff who they would see on duty as they got up in the morning and still there as they came back to the hotel at night. They were so concerned they were telling me to "go home and sleep in my own bed" but once you're into the opening process, the momentum and excitement keep you going. Every time one of our guests would tell me how surprised and delighted they were with the quality of the rooms and service it would give me a little boost of energy and keep me going for a little while longer."