Royal Roads, Frosty Sphincters, and a Hamster Hotel

After a harrowing floatplane ride in stormy weather comparable to the turbulence experienced by the hotel industry this year, I landed safely in Victoria harbour on Wednesday and proceeded to Royal Roads University, where I presented to a keen group of hotel management students on my seemingly divergent career paths as a hotel manager and mystery author.

On the surface my two professions couldn’t seem more different. Writing is a solitary endeavor that often leaves me thirsting for the company of non-fictional characters, whereas managing a hotel often leaves me craving solitude to think and reflect. What’s interesting to me is the areas of convergence. Both careers require creativity, attention to detail, and blind determination to achieve a vision despite the naysayers around me, the loudest and most obnoxious of whom resides in my head.

As a relatively new author, I’m often exasperated by my powerlessness in the publishing world, a contrast to the influence I occasionally wield as a seasoned hotel manager. Yet the people skills I’ve cultivated in the hotel industry have helped me overcome the introverted, semi-psychotic inclinations of a writer and have provided coping skills for the horrors of book signing events attended by only a handful of people, most of whom were expecting the “other” Daniel Craig.

Now that my writing sabbatical in Europe is over, I’m focusing on my consulting business, which draws on my experience as a writer and a hotelier to assist hotels and other tourism entities with social media strategy and online reputation management. This necessitates a great deal of time online keeping up on the latest trends and monitoring social networking activity. In the coming months I’ll be sharing some of my unique and amusing findings in this blog.

Here are a few of the latest:

Are Canadian Olympic Speed-skaters unfairly sharpening their competitive edge? On the heels of a New York Times article in which members of the American Olympic speed-skating team complained that Canada was bolstering its home-ice advantage by limiting access to venues for practice, recently Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Network called Canadians “syrup-sucking ice-holes” who should “unclench their frosty sphincters and let Americans onto their oval." Far less amusing was American speedskater Catherine Raney’s remark that our behaviour was—gasp—"un-Canadian".

The next trend in lifestyle hotels: living like a rodent. We normally consider vacations an opportunity to hop off the hamster wheel, but a new hotel in Nantes, France offers travelers an opportunity to jump back on. For 99 euros per night, guests of Villa Hamster can experience life as a hamster, complete with furry costumes, hamster food and a human-sized hamster wheel.

Design by Dior, accessories by Santa. Is luxury dead? Only for those who can't afford it anymore. It's business as usual at Claridge’s Hotel in London this Christmas, where the tradition of commissioning a well-known designer to decorate the tree continues with Dior creative director John Galliano. No word yet on whether it will be a fake, cut or live tree.

A modern-day Boston tea party. Kudos to Morgans Hotel Group for keeping hedonism alive in travel despite today’s tight-ass spending habits. The contemporary boutique pioneer marks the opening of its Ames Hotel in Boston with a Revel and Recoup package, which includes two house shots upon arrival and a signature “hair of the dog” cocktail and 2:00 PM checkout the following day.

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Comments imported by Wordpress:
STHM // November 25, 2009 at 11:45 am
Glad you visited Royal Roads University and our International Hotel Management students Daniel, it was great to have you here!
-Margaret Doyle