Goodbye Santa, hello Cupid! February 14th is just around the corner and the arrows are already starting to fly. We see it every year, millions of couples panicking and stressing in search of the perfect way to express their devotion. Some choose the boring and predictable “go-to” box of chocolates ….but come on!? Then, there are those who go to the other extreme, like giving a Rolex, or a shiny new BMW. Don’t get me wrong, I would personally be very happy to receive either (hint), but just feel it’s a tad out there. So, what is the perfect answer? This is where I plug my hotel….Well, OPUS Vancouver is here to the rescue! This year we have hired CUPID, to assist the frantic and calmly assist individuals looking to plan an amazing romantic experience. When you book our “Exclusively Yours” package, CUPID takes care of everything. He’ll frame your favorite photo and place it in your room with a personal hand written note from you all before you arrive. Don’t worry CUPID is discreet, and keeps the romance real. Happy Valentines day to all and remember in the end it’s the thought that truly counts.
Exclusively Yours Package starts at $295, and includes:
Deluxe king guest room
Sparkling wine welcome beverage at check-in
375ml bottle of Veuve Clicquot delivered to guest room
Your choice of ½ dozen red roses or a fresh orchid
Handwritten note and framed photo of your choice
Connect with Cupid Concierge year round: cupid@opushotel.com
OPUS Hotels recognized as Best in the World by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine
It’s time to say “bye-bye” to big hotel chains and their long lobby lineups and “hello!” to the friendly service of boutique hotels.Readers of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine have done just that.
OPUS Hotels was recently recognized amongst the world’s hospitality elite as “Best in the World” and “Best in Business Travel” by readers of Condé Nast Traveler. In fact, OPUS Hotels was the only boutique brand included on the Best in Business Travel list which has us feeling very thankful considering that travelers have a lot of choices.
Year after year, OPUS Hotels is widely recognized as best of the best by esteemed outlets including Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Forbes Traveler. OPUS Hotels, for consecutive years, has even been included in the Presenters’ Gift Baskets at the Academy Awards.
As General Manager of OPUS Vancouver, I am extremely proud to share these achievements with our Team.
So what sets OPUS Hotels apart in a crowded market?
Without giving away all of OPUS’ fabulous secrets, here are the top 5 reasons savvy business travelers crave a dose of OPUS while on the road:
Complimentary Welcome Beverage
After a long day of traveling and being assaulted by frisky airport security agents, it’s nice to unwind with a drink. That’s why OPUS Hotels offers every guest a refreshing welcome cocktail at check-in (something airport security could consider before those invasive pat-downs).
Residential Ambience Something to read other than the room service book? A custom music selection to rock out to in the shower? Rooms at OPUS Hotels are unlike any other. Inspired by five fictional guests, each room has its own personality, from modern and minimalist to artful and eclectic. Rooms are complete with a unique selection of artwork, books, magazines and music.
Luxury BMW Downtown Chauffeur Car Service Time is money. Jet-setting business guests don’t like to wait in taxi queues, nor do they care for chatty cabbies blasting foreign radio. That’s why OPUS Vancouver and Montreal offer all guests complimentary downtown drop-offs in the hotels’ luxurious BMWs. So whether guests are attending a button-down business meeting, or simply popping off for some late night Chinese – OPUS makes sure they arrive in style.
Whimsical Service After a long day at the office, guests return to a sensory wonderland in their rooms. From freshly turned down bed linens and cool water carafes to relaxing mood music and retro candy bedtime treats, getting into bed with OPUS is an unforgettable experience.
Award Winning Bars & Restaurants The Zagat rated, award winning bars and restaurants at OPUS Hotels are sought-after destinations themselves. No visit to Vancouver is complete without meeting over drinks at OPUS Bar or enjoying a taste of La Dolce Vita at OPUS’ Cento Notti Pop-Up Restaurant. OPUS Montreal’s KOKO Restaurant + Bar is the city’s premier dining and nightlife hotspot, and was recently included on Condé Nast’s Hot List, Hot Nights List. Hint, hint – a perfect venue to entertain discerning business associates and clients.
This past Thursday, September 15, OPUS Bar was one of 80 venues across the world, to be selected and invited into an exclusive membership to, well party… I mean really party. The event tagged as The “Global Party” and hosted by the hottest bars, clubs and lounges across the world, from Paris to London, to New York to LA. Yes, a prestigious list to be included in for international cities. There were only 3 locations in Canada chosen, along with Vancouver there was Toronto and our friends up in Whistler. The evening was a showcase of everything luxury from the VIP Land Rovers used as Chauffuer Service, to the Perrier Jouët Penthouses to the Grey Goose lounge in OPUS Bar. I even pulled out my best “James Bond” black and white classic suit, as we all love to play dress-up sometimes. The crowd was a great mix of the who’s who of Vancouver, from the media to Vancouver socialites to sports personalities like our beloved goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks, Roberto Luongo. The night went quickly for all, as the champagne flowed freely… and the delicious canapés were devoured by everyone, to provide that needed sustenance to continue well into the night . Near the end of the evening, one of the guests at the event approached me and asked what the main “theme” or “purpose” of the event was. After taking a long sip of my Grey Goose, which was perfectly chilled, I replied “To Party!”
Unless you have been living under a rock or live in a country that doesn’t eat, breath, and sleep for ice hockey, then you will undoubtedly be aware that our local NHL team, the Vancouver Canucks, are in the Stanley Cup Finals. To place some perspective on the impact that this has had on the city, it is like the Gold Medal hockey game during the 2010 Winter Olympics being played on repeat.
Therefore, OPUS Vancouver, wanted to harness the hockey enthusiasm on property, and we thought it best to empower the staff to show their “true colors”…in blue and green! So for every game day we outfitted our front office staff, in Canucks gear, trying to get that perfect Canuck chic look (i.e..No baggy jerseys, but not skin tight). We didn’t stop there, we thought, why not change our welcome beverage for guests checking in to be the colour of blue? My suggestion of Grey Goose on the rocks with blue coloured ice was not received well by the rest of the Executive Team. The main thing is the overwhelmingly positive guest reactions allowing them to catch some of that blue and green fever.
One of the benefits to working at a smaller independent hotel, like OPUS Vancouver means that there is no Corporate Office telling you yes or no, or that you can’t be different. Hotels all around the world try to work hard at staying fresh and unique, and one way you can do that is through changing your staff’s uniforms. Now, we may have opened the doors to Pandora’s box for future staff requests to wear different uniforms to celebrate other sporting events perhaps like a UFC match… , but until those challenges present themselves, all I can say is GO NUCKS GO!
A very good friend once told me “An abandoned blog is like a frayed carpet in the hotel lobby – it speaks of apathy and neglect and is off-putting when stumbled upon.” It is a great analogy, which crystallizes the importance of staying fresh and current in the fast paced world of on-line management and social media.
So here it goes…
Hi, my name is Nicholas Gandossi, I am the General Manager of OPUS Vancouver, and blogger-in-training. My predecessor, Daniel Craig, was an extremely gifted child who was born with a pen in his hand, and a natural personality as a hotel General Manager. I on the other hand, was born with ridiculously good looks, charismatic leadership qualities, a strong work ethic, and a thirst for new experiences.
Therefore, I am officially throwing my hat into the ring of on-line blogging, offering an insiders perspective and into the glamorous and not so glamorous life of a hotel GM. The intent of our blog is not for me to become witty and famous, (ok perhaps a little), but more importantly to provide a behind the scenes look at the world of hotels, OPUS style. I pledge to not subliminally sell OPUS Vancouver to you, (uniquely stylish and always fresh), but instead provide some interesting and captivating snapshots of how we roll here at the hotel.
I look forward to hearing from our guests, potential guests, and from people in general who are curious about this ever changing and crazy world we call the Hotel Industry!
For two hours beginning at 8:30 PM on Saturday, March 26, OPUS Hotel Vancouver will join world icons like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Rome’s Coliseum in shutting lights off to commemorate Earth Hour.
Around the world, people and businesses will turn off lights and come together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all share in common. No, I don’t mean death, taxes, and Justin Bieber. I mean our planet.
Organized by WWF, Earth Hour started just four years ago, in Sydney, Australia, and has since become the biggest grassroots environmental movement in history, with 128 countries and territories participating last year. This year participants are urged to go “beyond the hour”: to think about what else we can do to preserve the planet after the lights go back on.
On the heels of the devastation of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Earth Hour seems particularly poignant this year. At OPUS the tragedy feels especially close to home. Our own Haruko Motoyama, national sales director, was born in Japan and all her family lives there.
“I learned about the earthquake when my Mom called me on Skype from Yokohama,” says Haruko. “We spent the next three hours talking. There were constant aftershocks, and Mom kept hiding under the table. During the following days there were blackouts and the phone networks were down, so I kept up to date through Twitter.”
Fortunately, Haruko’s family is safe. But fear of another earthquake and radiation exposure prompted her parents and two sisters, one three months pregnant, to fly to Vancouver. “When they arrived they had a hard time adjusting to still ground,” Haruko says. “In Japan the earth was trembling every half hour or so.”
Haruko says she’s touched by how the international community has rallied in support of Japan. “Small things make a difference,” she says, “like Shaw Cable offering the Japanese news channel for free and phone companies offering free long distance calls to Japan. It shows that we truly are a global community.”
At OPUS we like to think that every hour is Earth Hour—except for the turning off all the lights part, which could get inconvenient for guests. When it comes to environmental-friendly hotel practices we were early adopters. So it’s only natural that we’re all about Earth Hour.
On Saturday night it’ll be lights out at the front desk, in the lobby, bar, and restaurant, and on the hotel’s exterior. Guests will be encouraged to participate, and guestrooms will be supplied with flashlights, which they can keep for $5, with all proceeds going to the Japan Relief Fund.
And who says Earth Hour can’t be a bit sexy? Dinner and drinks will be by candlelight in OPUS Bar and One Hundred Nights, where a special “Going Beyond the Hour” three-course menu will be available for $45. Throughout the hotel, 15% of food revenue will be donated to the Japan Relief Fund.
For more information about Earth Hour and how you can contribute, click here.
With the recent refresh of OPUS Hotel Vancouver’s suites, we’ve been sharing videos inspired by the personalities behind our five lifestyle décor schemes. To help you shop and compare we thought we’d share all four videos here as one big semi-dysfunctional family (the characters that is, not the suites).
No video for Billy yet—he doesn’t do suites, so he’ll have to wait until rooms are refreshed. Just so he doesn’t feel left out, we included an image of him doing what he does best: just being.
Far out and funky! Virtually overnight, One Hundred Days has been stripped of its edgy art studio vibe and has magically morphed into an entirely new pop-up concept with a vaguely familiar name: One Hundred Nights.
Think seventies discotastic wonderland: sparkly silver walls, murals of pop icons like Ziggy Stardust and Iggy Pop by graffiti artist Vince Dumoulin (pictured above working his magic), and the all-essential glitter balls. Plus a groovy blend of glamour and whimsy—pink and white chairs, white tablecloths, and table flowers spray-painted in a kaleidoscope of colours. Best of all, the picnic tables are gone, so no more butt splinters. Chef Brandon Thordarson has refreshed the menu (“american with a small a”) but has wisely held over the Kick Ass Burger.
Boogie on, the seventies are back! But not forever (thank God)—this is a pop-up restaurant after all. So all you foxy mamas and cool cats better dust off those gold platform shoes, let out the waist on those hip-hugging bell bottoms, tease that big ole ‘fro, and—
Then again, please don’t.
What exactly is a pop-up restaurant? Not to be confused with a fly-by-night restaurant, which is an entirely different thing, a pop-up is a temporary restaurant that opens for a specific period of time and then transforms again, moves to a new location, or takes early retirement in a timeshare in Bora Bora.
LudoBites is generally considered to be the original pop-up restaurant; it’s been roaming the streets of Los Angeles since 2007. In New York, What Happens When transforms every 30 days. And The Feast in the Sanctuary Hotel opens on March 10—and closes on March 12.
There are pop-up hotels too. The name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in structural integrity, but it’s a growing phenomen. There have been pop-up hotels in London, Paris, and Singapore. Last year, Visit London opened one in March and closed up shop five days later. That sounds like a case of bad management to me, but apparently it was all planned. The “hotel” looked suspiciously like an Airstream trailer, and each day guests woke up in a different sightseeing location.
OPUS Hotel Vancouver’s pop-up concept was originally conceived to buy time while plans were drawn up for a permanent replacement for Elixir. But it proved so wildly popular that One Hundred Days turned into about One Hundred and Eighty Days. And now we’re into Nights. But really, who’s counting?
“When we opened One Hundred Days, we set out to do something completely unexpected, creative, and extraordinary,” explains John deC Evans, president and CEO of Opus Hotels. “With One Hundred Nights, the surprise will continue within the context of our pop-up concept.” The space was designed by Robert Bailey and is co-managed by OPUS Hotels and Peter Girges of RocksGlass Concepts.
One Hundred Nights will be in constant motion, with new art going up weekly, but it won’t be around for long. So get down here and boogie before it’s outta sight. As for that Lycra cat suit and headband? Save it for Halloween.
Now normally this blog is a commercial free zone, where you can enjoy an insider’s look at OPUS Hotels without someone trying to hawk you something, BUT …
This promotion is so totally awesome I would be doing readers a disservice not to tell you. (Okay fine, the marketing director made me do it).
So here it is, short and sweet:
OPUS HOTEL VANCOUVER EXCLUSIVE 48-HOUR PROMOTION!!! 25% off rates! Starting from $175! Starts 6:00am Friday, Feb 18, ends 11:59pm Saturday, Feb 19 For stays to April 27, 2011. Includes 20% off all services at Spruce Body Lab and more special perks! To book or for more info, click here.
Phew, glad that’s over. Now back to our regular programming.
With the recent refresh of OPUS Vancouver’s suites, and guestrooms soon to follow, we asked the fictional muses behind our five lifestyle décor schemes to author a few posts. Our fifth and final post is from Pierre, the food and wine critic from Paris.
Pierre arrives sans Pierre
I arrived from Paris today, this is my first time at this hôtel boutique called OPUS. So far, not so bad. At first the walls were … how do you say? … a bit hard for my eyes, especially after three bottles of ’86 Château Cos d’Estournel at le Cinq last night (there were four of us, but two were not drinking, the philistines.) Now that my eyes are adjusting I must say I am finding the color very stimulating – Hermès orange, but of course.
The people here are so friendly. Why all the smiling? At the front desk I met a woman named Dede who looked familiar – an American actress, I believe. Beautiful girl, but the French? Une abomination.
There was also a guy named Mike, a doctor from New York, and his filthy mutt kept sniffing at my crotch. Had precious Pierre been present (yes, Pierre), he would have snapped off her snout in an instant. But Pierre travels first class only, and Le Monde is paying for this trip.
I am here to research a story about the culinary scene in Vancouver, so I have many restaurants to visit: Campagnolo, Blue Water Café, West, Bao Bei and Vijs – and this just tonight. The bellman has offered to drive me to Gastown in the hotel’s BMW 7 Series at no charge. So I will arrive in style, but, as usual, alone.
First I think I will explore this neighborhood they call Yaletown. It’s a former warehouse district, mostly residential, and the architecture is quite unique. Ce n’est pas Paris, but moi j’adore the open spaces, the tall glass buildings and the salty-fresh air.
In fact, I feel inspired. I think I’ll head down to the water for a jog. When in Rome …
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