In my quest to learn more about Andre Balazs – projected designer of the new and improved Chelsea 
Hotel – I found so much information that I finally got tired of reading about the guy before I even had the chance to make fun of him. And anyway – though I reserve the right to future ridicule – at least some of what I read disposed me favorably toward the guy. Consider this quote from a 2004 interview with Hospitality Design:
“I think the biggest problem…in properties is when you go in and you clearly sense that one entity or one person built it and maybe someone else owns and now a third entity is managing it. And that disconnect is very bad obviously. I think any guest in the hotel feels it.”
And later in the interview he says: “… in America we have two businesses: we have the lodging industry and we have the hospitality industry… And I think this disconnect between ownership, development, and management is a characteristic of the lodging industry. The hospitality industry, which has its roots more in the small European Style hotels is about the hospitality that’s delivered. You don’t get hospitality form a construction manager or a developer. You get it from the hotelier or the owner.”
You see what I mean? He’s practically saying Bring Back the Bards. Why on earth would he associate himself with BD Hotels?
Here’s one more quote that I can’t resist: "Well, a good hotel is fascinating to me because it has always brought out the extremes in human behavior. There are more suicides, there are more romances, there are more illicit affairs. People are unhinged a little in a good hotel.”
Whoo hoo! BRING BACK THE BARDS! (Photo: Curbed.com)
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