Archive for the ‘Lead Story’ Category

March 19th, 2012

The bar springs forward

It’s March, which means St. Patrick’s Day, which means the fetishizing of all things Irish, which inevitably reminds me of the time I went to Ireland. Those of you who have been there know that there are parts of Ireland that redefine the word beauty; the ragged cliffs, the endless meadows, the unfathomable variations on the color green. But every place has its idiosyncrasies and in Ireland it’s illegal to serve or sell alcohol after 10 pm. I’m sure the locals have their strategies and maybe there are more house parties and everyone saves lots of money. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t stop very many people from drinking. For tourists, though, it’s just crazy to not be able to go to dinner at, say, 8 pm and then go afterwards to a pub for a drink or two before bed.

But, of course, this is exactly the problem we’ve left you, our guests, with for all these years. Sure, happy hour is great. We have a complimentary drink waiting for you when you come in from work in the evening, even a couple if you want. Clearly we’re coming from a good place and have your best interest at heart, if I do say so myself. Closing the bar at 10 pm, though, and denying you the opportunity for a nightcap, well, it’s been kind of a travesty.

No more! Starting this month the bar will stay open until 11 pm. Not quite nightclub hours, I know, but a bit more civilized. And, as always, our guests drink free from 5-7

February 19th, 2012

Learning from the Blooper Reels

Ok, this is a little embarrassing, but I have a fantasy that I’d like to confess to you: From time to time, over the years, I’ve dreamed, a bit, about becoming a stand-up comic. It’s so great, so powerful, what comics do. The best ones can get people laughing at the most awkward, and even painful, parts of life, diving right down into the ugliness and coming back with a smirk. Not to get too mushy, but, really, the role they play in society, I think, should not be understated.

And then, complicating my fantasy a little more, egging me on, if you will, these comic geniuses have a habit of portraying themselves as hapless losers. To take them literally is to get the idea that stand-up comedians, in general, are a band of alcoholic nitwits barely keeping it together long enough to get to the next club. And even though I know that what I’m impressed with is their razor sharp intelligence, plus timing, plus years of practice, still some part of me is fooled into this, the deadliest of all thoughts: “Well, if that guy can do it, so can I.”

Well, friends, if any of you out there shares this secret fantasy of mine, our president did us a big favor in his state of the union speech a couple of weeks ago. Whatever your political affiliation, we all have to agree that President Obama is one of the great orators of our time. No? And yet there was that spilled milk joke that flopped out like Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction. Lesson? It’s not as easy as it looks to get on stage and tell a joke.

I invite you, now, to take this newfound respect to Rooster T Feathers, our friendly neighborhood comedy club. As always, our guests get in free, and you even get a free drink!

January 9th, 2012

Hip to be Square

I remember one time, when I was a little girl, arriving very hungry at a hotel. We had been in a car for hours and hours and hours, but this was a business trip for my mom that we kids were tagging along on, so when we finally got there, she had to go straight to a meeting. For this reason, my brother and I were allowed the exquisite, exotic pleasure of ordering room service. Anything we wanted, we were told. That meant pizza, of course! We were so excited, and so hungry, and then came the knock on the door, and pizza was in the room with us, and then we opened the little box… and it had raw carrots on it.

As you can imagine, this quickly became a difficult situation for everyone. We were so hungry, my brother and I, and now there was no prospect of eating in our future. Which is scary and painful, and meant that Mom was stuck with two crying kids and a meeting to get to. I wonder why this memory has stayed with me all these years. I can still see those shredded carrots today.

Well, one thing is certain, we won’t be pulling any tricks like that on you. Our general manager is, well frankly, too Midwestern for that. When she went to update the room service menu this time around, for example, she got very excited, and adamant, about putting popsicles on it. She’s very proud to offer tater tots as an optional side. Don’t get me wrong, our variety of salads, sandwiches, entrees and deserts is well rounded, assembled by a professional chef and will satisfy a wide range of cravings. The thing is, we just won’t be taking any risks, trying to get trendy, or anything like that. When you order off of our room service menu, you’ll always get what you expected.

December 20th, 2011

A warm winter wonderland

Here in California, we love the holidays as much as they do anyplace else. Our streets are glittering with lights, our ovens are filled with cookies and we’re bustling from party to party, just like the rest of the country. Sometimes, though, the details get a bit screwy here in the golden state. I guess because all the traditional seasonal activity isn’t necessary in these parts. It means something really different, for example, to light up the cold, dark, otherwise depressing winter days in Chicago, than it does to string lights on a palm tree. To carry a warm bag of freshly roasted chestnuts while walking around the freezing streets of New York City is a comfort that we just can’t relate to with flip-flops on our feet. Still, we too deserve a little romance!

This is the spirit that brings us the likes of snowfall inside downtown San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency. That’s right, no less than three times a day, through December 31st, it’ll snow inside the Hyatt. A white Christmas, after all, seems very important from everything that we’ve seen on TV. Except that in this case, if you want respite from the harsh elements, you’ve got to go outside!

In another twist on the same logic, downtown San Jose offers outdoor ice-skating for the holidays. It’s best not to think about how much energy it’s taking them to keep that water frozen and instead just enjoy skating in a T-shirt, under a clear blue sky, around a little grove of palm trees. With lights on them.

My favorites, though, are the ones that we’ve actually just bent to suit our needs, and the Surfing Santas are my favorite example of that. Every year, just after Thanksgiving, a cadre of Santa Clauses surfs into Santa Cruz. This makes sense; this belongs to us. And, truly, the icy Pacific is one of the few places in this state where the bulk of Santa Claus’ suit is actually justified. Everywhere else, you just end up feeling bad for the poor sweaty guy who’s stuck pretending he’s in Minnesota.

If you’re here with us this holiday, take a tour. There’re lots more little gems that I haven’t mentioned. Scantily clad Mrs. Clauses, iced mulled wine. You get the idea. Christmas in California!

December 19th, 2011

Holiday Love!

The holidays have become so controversial. Have you noticed? There’s a war on Christmas and it seems that each of us has got to choose a side. Yuck! I don’t know about you all, but it makes me miss my childhood. Everything seemed so simple then. The holidays were a time for extended family, special food, special clothes and twinkly lights all over the place, plus a hint of the possibility of magic. Maybe it was called Hanukkah in your house, or Kwanzaa, or Festivus. It doesn’t matter what name you use, we’re all celebrating the winter solstice, and we all stole it from the pagans. Now, though, the whole season has been politicized and commercialized and it’s hard to know if it’s our duty as Americans to spend lots of money in the next weeks and give businesses the holiday revenues they so desperately need, or if we should rise above capitalist pressures and act as if nothing special at all were happening at this time of year.

Well, we here at this hotel want only to be in love with the holidays. We come from so many different cultural, religious and economic places, and for each of us this is a special time of year, even if we’ll choose to express it in different ways. You, our guests, only complicate the variety. And it’s so great! We’re so grateful to live in a time and a place where we can be surrounded by such a diversity of experience. To be working in a hotel that receives guests from around the world, in the Bay Area, in the 21st century, gives all of us a special privilege. We are all wealthier and stronger for the ways that we meet each other here and, on the occasion of this holiday season, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge it. We’ve said it before and here it is again: This hotel is a community and we are so pleased that you are a part of it. Happy Holidays!

November 28th, 2011

Your voice

Filling out comment cards can, at least to me, feel like voting. It’s good to express my opinion, but what power, really, do I have to influence the world around me? Well this month, as proof that the people do have the power, I’m introducing you to our brand new linen re-use program. Some of you are wondering what that has to do with democracy, I know, but lots and lots of you are reading this and understanding that we read your comments and changed our hotel at your suggestion.

It’s the right thing to do, of course. A daily washing of every sheet and towel that makes even the briefest of human contact is as wasteful as you all told us it was. Almost none of you are doing this much laundry at home and we are all going to be intrinsically better people for our participation in this new program. Plus it’s going to save us money, which is itself kind of amazing. So often the pressure to “go green” involves adding to one’s cost of living, making it seem more like fashion for the privileged than a genuine bid to save the world. But I digress, as they say. The point is that, in spite of all the evidence of it being the obvious thing to do, this humble little hotel wasn’t making that change until you told us to. Inertia, habit, laziness and preoccupation with the failing economy are not even all the reasons why not. We just hadn’t gotten there yet. So, thank you! And please come back soon to enjoy this hotel that is now slightly better and slightly more your own.

August 18th, 2011

Studying the obvious

This morning I head on the radio that studies have shown that a certain percentage of women are overweight because they spend so much time and money getting their hair styled and then they don’t want to mess it up by working out. I wonder how much university funding went into the surgeon general officially saying what I’ve known since the day my mom explained to me that she doesn’t work out because sweating is “gross”.

Similarly, in the last year science has discovered that it’s bad for your long-term health to get hit in the head repeatedly. A career in professional football, it turns out, might be hazardous and those who have played might suffer consequences in later life. Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought we all pretty much instinctively understood that getting hit in the head is not good. I would go, even, a step further and say that what we like about watching professional athletes is their willingness to use their bodies in ways that we are, well, unwilling to because it’s too dangerous. And now we’re supposed to act surprised and horrified to learn that these men leave football broken? Not that it isn’t sad and not that these men don’t deserve care and recognition, but did that really, truly need to be studied?

In any case, football season has arrived. For those of you who haven’t turned away since you learned that it’s violent, we’ll be, as always, serving all your favorite stadium food, hamburgers and hotdogs that is, every Monday night until 8, all season long. Complimentary, of course, cuz that’s how we roll.

July 24th, 2011

Meet with us

This month we are using this space to remind you that there are things you can rent a room in a hotel for besides sleeping. Maybe, from time to time, you have other needs. Perhaps you’ve wondered whether or not we could accommodate those desires. Well, the answer is that we have rooms that offer a wide range of possibilities, and have no problem helping you to host even a pretty large group. We are very experienced and quite flexible. That’s right, I’m talking about the meeting rooms!

We have large meeting rooms and small meeting rooms. We can set your meeting up classroom style, with whiteboards and rulers for rapping knuckles. Or we can open the room up and run a buffet along the wall. Speaking of the buffet, we have a nice range of menus from you to choose from when you book one of our meeting rooms. From contemporary California cuisine to home style Mexican to random recipes from the kitchen of our general manager, you’ll find something to suit the tone of your event. And if you don’t, then complain and we’ll figure it out!

I’ll say this: If you’re reading this, chances are you already love spending the night with us. And if you love going to bed with us, I’m pretty sure you’ll love us in the daytime too.

June 24th, 2011

Traveling light and soft

The day after Osama bin Laden was killed, I saw a comedian do a sketch, on The Daily Show, in an airport. He had a Big Gulp and a machete and he said he was ready to get on an airplane. He appeared crestfallen when Jon Stewart told him that airport security is here to stay. Maybe the machete was a bit much, but I think all of us who travel can relate to that. We wish the terrorists would go away and flying could get back to pre-911 mode.

Toiletries are the worst. The rules about liquids are fuzzy and seem to vary slightly from airport to airport. For sure you can’t just transfer what’s already in your shower into your bag and go. The decision is, do you want to reduce your supply of lotions, shampoos and other essentials down to what will fit into a sandwich bag? Or do will you choose to take as much as you want and pay the hefty new baggage checking fees?

Why do we travel with toiletries at all, though? Every hotel in the world comes with basically everything you need right there in the room. The answer, which we all know, is that what comes in most hotel rooms mostly, for lack of a better word, sucks. Not here, not anymore! From now on, when you’re flying to this hotel, you can leave those cumbersome toiletries behind and rest assured that your hair and skin will be soft, and have the gentle smell of fresh citrus. We’ve got new toiletries!

May 24th, 2011

Summer is cancelled

This is the time of the year when I’m supposed to be writing to you about the start of our summer BBQs. It’s been one of our favorite traditions over the years, feeling the sun start to warm us up and then pulling the out grill to properly enjoy the new season. Inviting you all to have dinner with us out on the patio every Wednesday night through the summer made us feel lucky to be in California, and pleased to be able to share our bounty.

Unfortunately, you, our guests, seem not to have felt that same joy. This is to inform you that, due to last year’s poor attendance, the Wednesday night summer BBQs at the Grand Hotel have been cancelled. Sorry. Not that you care.

But, maybe you do care! Maybe you were looking forward to them as much as we always do and this news is a big bummer to you. If that’s true, hope is not lost. You have two options. The first is to complain! Tell the bartender, the front desk staff, the general manager, anyone you can get your hands on. Trust me, this is one complaint they’ll be happy to get. Ok, but that’s slow moving and won’t really fix your desire for a nice piece of steak by the pool on a Wednesday night, which leads me to option number two. Get a ride to the Cupertino Inn, our sister hotel. Her BBQs are have been very well appreciated over the years and you’re so welcome to join that party. We’ll even give you a lift in our limo.