Most budgets find little room for a seamstress. When you see a concierge who looks like they were suited on Saville Row you know that hotel has a seamstress.
A great hotel needs to have a great seamstress and a great valet. Then the staff are always well turned out in their uniforms, the managers look crisply tailored and guest emergencies become memorable moments of service.
When the CEO of your top client loses a suit button 20 minutes before his televised board meeting, when your Vice President of Ops splits his pants on the first day of a property audit, when a new doormen needs his overcoat let out on a frigid morning, you really need someone on property who can sew. Luckily I have been blessed with some great tailors and seamstresses, men and women who learned their craft in far away places like Hong Kong, or Latvia, or Odessa or Rio de Janeiro. They brought their skill along with their work ethic and found a home in the hotel business. In this disposable world we live in sewing is becoming a lost art. I do not know if hotel schools spend a day on the subject.
I remember hosting a Leading Hotel of The World conference with 200 General Managers, and their spouses. They came from the most luxurious hotels around the world descending upon the property with overweight luggage filled with evening dresses and tuxedos. For this challenge we planned ahead. The Executive Housekeeper from a sister property came a few days prior to support our seamstress and set up a complete in-house valet and tailoring station. On the day of arrival, right on cue, there were gowns that needed a hem, dress shirts that had to be laundered, suits to be pressed. Turn around time had to be almost instantaneous there was no option to tell a guest that we could get it ‘expressed’ and it would be back in 24 hours. Like Cinderella the black tie ball had a clock ticking and you did not want any of your guests feeling like a pumpkin.
Every day is not a world wide conference but everyday there is some one in your hotel who needs a stitch. Check your manning guide.
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A great hotel needs to have a great seamstress and a great valet. Then the staff are always well turned out in their uniforms, the managers look crisply tailored and guest emergencies become memorable moments of service.
When the CEO of your top client loses a suit button 20 minutes before his televised board meeting, when your Vice President of Ops splits his pants on the first day of a property audit, when a new doormen needs his overcoat let out on a frigid morning, you really need someone on property who can sew. Luckily I have been blessed with some great tailors and seamstresses, men and women who learned their craft in far away places like Hong Kong, or Latvia, or Odessa or Rio de Janeiro. They brought their skill along with their work ethic and found a home in the hotel business. In this disposable world we live in sewing is becoming a lost art. I do not know if hotel schools spend a day on the subject.
I remember hosting a Leading Hotel of The World conference with 200 General Managers, and their spouses. They came from the most luxurious hotels around the world descending upon the property with overweight luggage filled with evening dresses and tuxedos. For this challenge we planned ahead. The Executive Housekeeper from a sister property came a few days prior to support our seamstress and set up a complete in-house valet and tailoring station. On the day of arrival, right on cue, there were gowns that needed a hem, dress shirts that had to be laundered, suits to be pressed. Turn around time had to be almost instantaneous there was no option to tell a guest that we could get it ‘expressed’ and it would be back in 24 hours. Like Cinderella the black tie ball had a clock ticking and you did not want any of your guests feeling like a pumpkin.
Every day is not a world wide conference but everyday there is some one in your hotel who needs a stitch. Check your manning guide.
[email protected]
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