When Ian Schrager and his late business partner, Steve Rubell, ignited the boutique hotel concept in 1984 with the Morgans Hotel, Schrager admits he might have been more concerned with style than substance at the time.
“When I first got started in the business, there was the virtue of being noticed, and I was trying to stand out from the crowd,” he explains. “… I wanted to do something that was completely unique and unlike anything ever been done before and, in doing that, I resorted to a lot of tricks and one-line jokes and there was something virtuous about being provocative about the design … but that was 25 years ago. Things change.”
Today, Schrager feels that too many hoteliers are obsessed with design, overlooking the fundamental basics that make a hotel great and, by extension, attract crucial meetings business.
“I think [the hotel industry] has become overzealous,” Schrager says. “Design is like it’s on steroids; it’s too much. [With PUBLIC Chicago], I wanted to jettison that and I wanted to go back to basics. … It’s not about being noticed, but about going unnoticed, but it’s making you feel good.”
To that end, Schrager is fully committed to attracting meetings business to his newest venture, PUBLIC hotels (www.publichotels.com). The first property, the 285-room PUBLIC Chicago, opened in fall 2011. Schrager says more hotels are in the works for Los Angeles, New York, and possibly Miami and London.
For PUBLIC Chicago, Schrager completely renovated Chicago’s legendary Ambassador East Hotel and it was during the renovation process, he says, that he was inspired to focus on hosting meetings.
“It was a necessity with the physical plan and the location and the way everything was,” Schrager explains. “It came about quite naturally — no market research, no focus groups needed. Just instincts. Being in a city like Chicago that is a very big group and meetings city and very corporate, it kind of just really just enhanced this notion. Business is going through a change. Group and corporate business is the backbone of our business. It was an epiphany for me.”
To attract meetings, Schrager is pulling out all the stops. He said that his entire marketing department is “geared up in order to generate as many group leads as we can” and he’s committed to making sure that all public spaces at PUBLIC Chicago will be available to groups, including its Pump Room restaurant, Library Bar, and rooftop. He says that 65 percent of his marketing budget is geared toward the corporate/meetings market.
“[Meetings] have become a critical part of our business where, traditionally, it hadn’t been for me,” he says. “If you don’t attract meetings, you won’t have a viable business. Corporate and group business has become our No. 1 priority.”
Schrager’s meetings strategy is targeted toward smaller, rather than larger meetings. “Traditionally, a lot of hotels had really large grand ballrooms and meeting spaces and, a lot of times ,they sat empty and weren’t revenue producing,” Schrager explains. “We’ve moved a way from that with smaller and more intimate boardrooms with excellent service and good food. It’s just the modern way of doing business.”
He also wants to make his hotels as accessible as possible to all kinds of industries, from design and fashion to medical and financial. “It’s hard to define the [meetings] market because it doesn’t fit into normal demographics. It’s more of a sensibility.”
Schrager’s recipe for a successful meeting includes the following: natural light; appropriate A/V equipment; the right chairs; great breakout spaces; and impeccable service.
“Today’s meeting experience has to be elevated,” he says. “It’s not just a meeting place in a boardroom or in some dark secondary space in the hotel that’s not of prime importance. If you could have a meeting at a hotel that gives you all the service you need and want, and all the style you need and want, and the great food you need and want, and you can get it at a lesser price, it makes even more sense.”
Going forward, Schrager says to expect to see more of him — and PUBLIC — courting meetings groups
“I want the word to get out about where our priorities are,” Schrager says. To planners, he says, “We are humble about it, but we want your business and we’re out there and we really want to get your business.”