It’s 10am on a Sunday morning and I’m awakened by the sound of furniture being lifted off a poolside deck and mattresses being hoisted off bed frames in adjacent rooms. One look at the reflection of the mural over my head, from a wall-size mirror at the foot of my bed, reminds me I’m at the Capri Hotel, in Southampton. It’s two weeks after Labor Day and the bastion of boutique hotels in the Hamptons is being dismantled right before my eyes. Half a month ago, the room I slept in commanded a nightly rate of over $500 and was accompanied with a verbal notification that I had better be ok with a DJ spinning music outside my window until 2am—if I wasn’t, there was a line of people behind me who were.
281 Montauk Highway has a special place in my heart. It was during college when I worked at the nightclub here and saw Michael J. Fox play “Johnny Be Good” live. It was where Fat Joe showed up for an impromptu concert, on a Friday night. It wasn’t where I ever expected to see Nobu Restaurant act as a social anchor for a renovated and revitalized Capri Hotel and for it to work perfectly. Years ago, it was more than enough for owners to throw money at a situation and hope everything would work itself out. Now, with the clout carried by boutique hotels—brand, style and uniqueness—and the fragility of business in the Hamptons, a team of experts was assembled to ensure a perfect experience for guests, owners, restauranteurs and hoteliers.
In the business of boutique hotels, Glennon Travis, the Manager of the Capri Hotel, is the architect of your experience. After having thoroughly cased the establishment, Glennon and I sit down for coffee, on Main Street.
[spyehampton] What defines an excellent hotel experience?
[Glennon Travis] When I stay in a hotel, I love an experience that feels effortless and has an element of surprise. A good hotel stay goes beyond a good night's sleep and enjoyable stay, but there has to be something unexpected — a fun design element and a positive and unique style of service makes you feel as if you really traveled somewhere different. For the Capri, it was a fun challenge to take this very ordinary roadside motel and turn it into a unique, luxury experience.
[sh] How did you know the hotel business was right for you?
[gt] I fell into it kind of by accident, but it just felt natural once I began working at it. I started out working in hotels in New Orleans, during college. I was studying marketing at Tulane and always thought I would go into advertising. To help pay the bills in college, I had worked as a concierge at International House and Loft 523—NYC style luxury hotels outside the French Quarter, in New Orleans; I loved meeting international guests, and that the whole world came to me. I loved helping them create their exeperiences of New Orleans - find places that were not on Bourbon Street, and I helped them experience the city by going to places they normally would not go. I also enjoyed the company of the people who worked in the hotel, who were just a congenial goup of colleagues.
After graduation, I interviewed with a large Los Angeles advertising agency, I got the vibe that the people in the business were cut-throat and I kept thinking back to how friendly everyone was in the hotel industry. The guests were friendly too because they were on vacation. The daily work was just pleasurable.
[sh] What is the most fulfilling point in the weekend for you? In the entire summer?
[gt] This summer was like riding a series of crests of gigantic waves. Each weekend was another wave. Getting all the guests to check-in on Friday was the most hectic period. We’re all sold out, we have to fit everyone into rooms and make everyone happy doing it, all while attending to individual requests. The most fulfilling thing is when all the arrivals are in, we're at 100% occupancy, the rates are high: you can look outside and see the scene that you helped create. Also, when a guest comes up to you and says thank you so much, we’re having such a good time here.
[sh] What do you/The Capri bring to the Hamptons that is unique?
[gt] We are part of this new wave of Hamptons hotels that started in Montauk with Surf Lodge and Ruschmeyers. We’re trying to bring a fun-luxury experience to the hotel scene in the Hamptons. The Hamptons hotel scene is kind of bizarre. Most people stay in homes out here, and there’s always been huge disconnect between the quality of the houses and the quality of hotels. The houses are generally spectacular, but there were relatively few hotels to choose from, and even fewer that provide good value for the high rates. The Hamptons have a lot of traditional Inns and Bed & Breakfasts, where you feel like you’re staying in an old lady's home - you go to the beach and come back to your room with a paisley comforter on the bed, and you feel the floorboards creaking, and you notice the innkeeper has folded your underwear. Some people find that a little creepy.
There’s a demand out east for an experience that isn't a Bed & Breakfast, or renting a room in a sharehouse. We found that people are looking to experience the Hamptons in a cool way and they want to be around some action. The Capri is a hotel where there is something going on. The bar scene at The Bathing Club, Nobu, and these beautiful people hanging out who don't have to be hotel guests—you can be a part of the Hamptons experience just for the weekend. It’s the first hotel in the Hamptons that has attention-to-detail in the rooms, lively music, décor and a professional, but not a stuffy level of service.
[sh] How do you tackle providing VIP service to guests, in a geographic where everyone is a VIP?
[gt] It’s delicate. The demands of the hotel guests in the Hamptons are a lot higher than a hotel in the city. Mostly because the rates and expectations are very high. This is their big weekend to be out in the Hamptons. These are people who work very hard, have stressful lives in the city and they’ve been planning for this weekend for some time. Most guests arrive after a long, difficult work week and a stressful Jitney ride. As a hotel manager, you have to anticipate things going wrong that are beyond the hotel’s control. Making guests happy when it’s pouring rain all weekend and they want to lay out by the pool. You have to be creative and enthusiastic, keep a positive attitude. That will hopefully translate to your team and in turn translate to the guests. On a rainy weekend, it’s making sure we have in-room spa services available—massage, manicure, pedicure, and Yoga services in the morning. Even if guests don’t partake in it, knowing that it’s available by simply asking the front desk really brings value to their stay. It’s also being a portal to the Hamptons. As their hosts for the weekend, it is the hotel's duty to help guests discover what’s hidden behind the privets out here. Showing them how to get to an out-of-the-way beach, how to get on the guestlist at one of the nightclubs, or where the best vineyards are.
[sh] What worked best with the Capri this summer?
[gt] Finding the right crowd to stay at the hotel. It took us a few weeks to figure it out. It’s amazing how much the makeup of the guests affects the vibe of the hotel for the weekend. We only have 30 rooms; and the hotel is designed to be a social place, not one where guests hide in their rooms. We want our guests to hangout at the bar or the pool and to meet each other. We had to manage our guests almost like a nightclub would—we’re not discouraging anyone from coming here, but we’re sold out every weekend so we have the ability to pick and choose our guests to a certain degree. We had to attract guests who would bring something positive to the scene and enjoy the fact that hotel has a lively atmosphere. We had a really great crowd of people in their late-twenties – to - early-thirties, people who have money, looking to party and looking to meet and interact with other guests. When the weather cooperated, Saturdays by the pool really worked—during the day when we had a hot sunny day, it became a lively and exclusive party.
Also, partnering with Nobu worked well this season; They created the most popular restaurant in the Hamptons this summer here at The Capri. The Nobu organization is incredibly professional and they brought a lot to the table. Opening any new restaurant has it's challenges, but certain members of the restaurant team were very positive and brought a can-do attitude to make this a success. They pulled superstars from throughout their organization to come to the Hamptons for a few months, and together we created something that was greater than the sum of our parts.
[sh] What did you learn from working at The Capri this summer?
[gt] *laughs* I learned to take the back roads; 27 was always a mess.
…Generally, I learned that the Hamptons in the summer can be a lot of fun, but there is a lot of hard work that goes into to making it fun.
[sh] Describe walking the line between “boutique aesthetics” and practical comfort.
[gt] It’s a fine line. It goes back to what a good hotel stay is. You want a certain element of surprise, but the rooms must be very functional. Meyer Davis did a spectacular job of using the space smartly. With the mural, it was beachy and fun. White lacquer floors. In terms of service, you run the danger of becoming too cool. I worked very hard this summer to make the staff grounded and down-to-earth—we’re not too cool for school, the team was a group of fun and laid back kids working out here. The design of the hotel and the service had no pretention whatsoever.
I came up the ranks working in boutique hotels, not in a corporate environment. I think corporate, “militaristic” hotels have a very “yes sir/no-sir attitude” – the industry is moving further and further away from the traditional Marriot and Ritz Carlton style of service. Guests increasingly are put off by “yes sir” from the hotel all the time; they want the experience to be natural. I worked at making the service professional, yet relaxed and fun. We really nailed the service this summer.
[sh] What was the greatest challenge that you faced this summer and overcame?
[gt] The biggest challenge was that this project came together so quickly and last minute - just weeks before the season started. We had to put everything together on the fly. Overwhelmingly it was a huge success, but not without difficulties. By far, staffing was the biggest challenge of the summer. It would have been wonderful to recruit a team in New York before the season started, to train them properly, but there just wasn't time. We had to find the whole team out here, when we arrived in June. Surprisingly, we found an amazing group of kids, who had never worked in hotels before, but were smart, great looking, and inherently hospitable. They had fun and unique personalities and bled hospitality. I'm so proud of the team here. You can teach people how to clean rooms and check people in, but if your staff isn’t inherently friendly, it’s just not going to work.
The weather also was a huge challenge to contend with. Early in the season we had bad luck with rain on the weekends. Then, in August we lost a big weekend due to our unwanted guest, Hurricane Irene. Aside from washing out a whole weekend of revenue, the restaurant took a big hit during Irene that pushed up the end of the season a few days.
[gt] Breaking down the hotel today is bittersweet. It’s sad, I feel like just yesterday it was June and we had the whole summer ahead of us. Together with James Woods, and Nobu, we accomplished a lot under difficult conditions. But the summer is fleeting and now the leaves are falling outside and it’s starting to get cold. Riding the crest of a gigantic wave, every week it would pick you up and crash you down and you didn’t have time to catch your breath and next thing you know, it’s September.
I learned a lot from working with the Capri's great owners, Steven Kamali, Jackie Mansfield, and David Edelstein; The first season at Capri was a wonderful experience, we created something special that is going to last for a long time.
