HOTELS recently spoke with Hotel Chandler General Manager Kate Martin about the opportunities and challenges of leading a unique property in a hyper-competitive market like New York City, especially in light of recent challenges such as Hurricane Sandy.

　　Hotel Chandler, located in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, bills itself as a boutique hotel, but it does not strive for the over-the-top hip style of some similar properties in New York City. Although the 138-room property is undergoing a significant renovation that will add a new, high-profile, 65-seat restaurant early next year, its focus is less on generating buzz and more on providing comfortable, home-like service to its guests, many of whom arrive from around the world.

　　HOTELS recently spoke with Hotel Chandler General Manager Kate Martin about the opportunities and challenges of leading a unique property in a hyper-competitive market like New York City, especially in light of recent challenges such as Hurricane Sandy.

Kate Martin　Hotel Chandler General Manager

　　HOTELS: How did you come to be GM of Hotel Chandler a couple years ago?

　　Kate Martin: I started with Triumph Hotels, which is our ownership and management company, in 1999 at the Iroquois Hotel as the front office manager. They had just undergone a renovation there and had just become a Small Luxury Hotel, so I was part of the team that was brought in by the new GM to increase the service standards and take the property to the next level.

　　From there I got transferred here to the Chandler, where we took back the lease on the property and opened it September 4, 2001. So I was part of the opening team, which was a phenomenal experience to see a whole building get gutted, hire everybody from scratch and putting together standards for every department. I was here for a couple years doing that until a position opened at the Washington Jefferson Hotel, which is another property within our company, and I was offered the general manager position there. I was there for approximately seven years.

　　Then the general manager position opened up here, and I was asked if I wanted to come here, being that I knew the building very well from the original construction and we were going to be redoing it again. I knew it would be a great opportunity to come back here. I always was very fond of the property being that I had seen it from the beginning. So now I’ve been here for two years, and it’s been a very interesting two years and just interesting times in general with the economy and everything going on.

　　HOTELS: How would you describe your hotel in just a sentence or two? I know you strive to be a bit different than what one might expect from a boutique hotel in New York City.

　　Martin: We’re basically a hidden gem. That’s what we’re trying to be right now. We got the Small Luxury Hotel status, and the renovations are almost complete. Our goal is to get that message out there. We have exquisite luxury with uncompromising attention to service. That is our key point, and our reviews indicate that. Our priority is service. I just feel a lot of the newer properties that are open right now, with that current style that is very modern and hip, sometimes it lacks that warmth, and that’s basically what we’ve been able to achieve here. We have this classic, timeless design, and we’ve been able to create this warm, welcoming oasis, and we feel strongly that we do set ourselves apart from everybody else around us.

　　HOTELS: What would you identify as the main highlights of the renovation that has been underway at the hotel?

　　Martin: We revamped all of our rooms, but I would say the highlight is our public spaces that got overhauled — from our cocktail bar to our library and the lounge — that was really the focus of the renovation. We tried to keep the historical integrity of the building (which dates back to 1905) and bring in some modern design elements. We wanted to make sure that it was with the times but that it was done elegantly, maintaining the luxurious style. We’ve managed to incorporate little details from all over the world — we have a mangrove-root lamp from Costa Rica, for example. So we have a lot of little elements that are modern and fun. And it ties into our international clientele and making sure everybody feels home away from home.

　　HOTELS: What still needs to be done in terms of the renovation?

　　Martin: The restaurant is due to open in early 2013. The name of the restaurant is going to be Juni, and our executive chef is Shaun Hergatt. He’s a two-Michelin-star-rated chef, so we’re very excited about that. This is a new concept for us. We knew going into the renovations that this was part of what we wanted to do. We always had a restaurant here, but it was not of the caliber that it’s going to be now. We really wanted to make it a destination. It just helps with putting us on the map.

　　With that we’re also incorporating meeting rooms and private dining because what we actually did is take over the building next door, so we’re combining the two buildings now. We’ll be adding additional guestrooms too.

　　HOTELS: How do you plan to keep that feeling of warm welcome even as you add a destination restaurant and potentially become more prominent as a hotel?

　　Martin: We’re never going to be a 3,000-room hotel. We’re only dealing with a certain amount of people whether we’re at 100% or 50%. The focus is service — that’s the most important thing — and continuing to strive to do better. We’re constantly coming up with innovative ways to train the staff and hear our guests, what they have to say in their feedback. Because we’re small and we’re not part of a big corporation, we can make changes immediately.

　　HOTELS: What are some of the innovative ways you’ve found to train your staff?

　　Martin: I don"t know if we do anything extremely out of the box, other than we just continuously do it. We never stop with training. We’re in the process now of once again redoing our standards for the departments and doing our employee standards that are hotel-wide. We’ve come up with our own credo, which we call our Top 10, which we post everywhere and everybody has in their pocket. It’s all centered around service.

　　We’re just constantly learning from mistakes that we make to make sure we turn it into an opportunity to do better. My executive management are key players in this because they really are seeing and supervising everything on a day-to-day basis. I think selecting the right people is very important — finding people who are going to fit in with the team that you have but also challenge the team. We do a lot of cross-training within different departments. This is the kind of thing we do so we fully understand each department so when there is a situation, not only can we assist, but we can understand each other’s challenges so there is more seamless service.

　　HOTELS: What are some of the unique challenges you face as a female GM in a competitive market like New York City, and what strategies have you used to overcome them?

　　Martin: The demands of my job are 24/7, and it’s challenging, especially when you have a family, which I do. But I’ve also been very fortunate in the way I was raised by my parents that your sex doesn’t matter — if there’s something you want to do, you work hard at it and you find ways to accomplish your goals. That’s always been my key, to not pay attention to all those other things. I just stayed focused on my priorities — my guests, my employees — and I was able to overcome it. You definitely have to have composure. You have to have grace and poise. You have to be driven. I’ve just been very fortunate with my staff, that I’ve had key players who have supported me through this and have respected me, and together as a team we’ve managed to make the differences that we’ve made at our property.

　　HOTELS: How was the hotel impacted by Hurricane Sandy?

　　Martin: We were so incredibly fortunate. We were the one hotel in our area that did not lose power. We lost our computer systems, Internet and phones, but that’s nothing. We were in a situation where we were able to help properties in our neighborhood that had guests who were looking for somewhere to go. We set aside rooms so people could come and shower and allowed them to use our public spaces so they could charge a cell phone or whatever it was they needed to do. We prepared for the worst, because you never know what’s going to happen, and we were very fortunate that we didn’t get the worst of it.

　　HOTELS: What are the main lessons you learned from the experience?

　　Martin: We received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. Communication was key, constantly informing guests and just being prepared. Now we’ve seen what happened. We’re all making sure we have not one generator, but two or three generators. Those are the things we are learning.

　　HOTELS: What is the goal for the hotel once the renovations are complete? Where would you and ownership like to see the property in the future?

　　Martin: We would like to be a top hotel destination in New York City. We currently entertain international clientele and domestic, and we would just like to see more travelers from around the world staying at our property. We want to be known as a sophisticated, fresh, boutique luxury property. We have an ideal location — we’re really right in the heart of New York City. At the end of the day, we need to continue to motivate and innovate our staff — I think that’s the most important thing — and make sure we continue to exceed our guests’ expectations.