A Refreshingly Frank Blog by a Hotel GM

11.27.06

By Darren Barefoot

Tonight Kris Krug and I are participating in a panel on blogging for a meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers here in Vancouver. Don't ask me where the Society of Canadian Travel Writers is--it's not the first time I've spoken to the Canadian arm of an organization with American in the title. But I digress...

One of our fellow panelists is Daniel Craig (different guy, but still posh), the general manager of the swish Opus Hotel. It's a cool hotel, and as it turns out, he writes a nice, forthright blog about his work. His latest post discusses late night parties, drag queens and prostitutes. What more could you ask for?

Another challenging guest this weekend was a drag queen. I passed him in the lobby on Friday night and he looked fabulous - tall, thin and glamorous, with big blonde hair and lots of makeup. It was cool having a drag queen in residence, I thought at the time; added some colour to Opus. Unfortunately, it added a bit too much colour. I guess he didn't like the colour of his room, because he repainted it - with his makeup. It was everywhere: carpet, walls, doors and bedding, resulting in a large cleaning bill. Bad drag queen, bad.

When talking about corporate blogs, I often say that, given the choice, I'd rather read a blog by the McDonalds employee who works the drive-in window on Friday nights than by McDonald's CEO. I guess if the CEO told stories like this, I'd read their blog too.