First you notice the hippopotamus, the life-size sculpture on the hotel’s veranda roof, and you wonder why. Then you learn Hippopotamus is the name of the hotel’s fine dining French restaurant and you wonder some more. Is there a connection between hippos and hors d’oeuvres? When you’re told the name was chosen by public competition it starts to dawn. This is one very different hotel. And when you walk into the lobby, crammed with in your face, eclectic artwork it becomes, well, provocative. And that’s it; the point of the Museum Art Hotel, writes Kathy Ombler
Owner-operator hotels have their challenges, and opportunities. You need to be different, provocative, and you need a personality involved, says the personality who has lifted the status and reputation of his luxury, quirky, boutique property to be rated among the top ten art hotels in the world.
Most Wellingtonians will know of course we are talking about hotel owner and art aficionado Chris Parkin.
It’s 18 years since the original, 66 room hotel was ‘wheeled’ across the road, to make room on Wellington’s waterfront for the national museum Te Papa. The same lateral thinking required to make that project work is what continues with the evolution of the hotel, says Parkin.
The property now encompasses a total of 165 rooms and studio/apartments, Hippopotamus Restaurant, a fitness centre, spa and laptop pool– and of course the artwork.
“I guess the starting point for us is when you are an owner/operator hotel and want to maximise potential you have two ends to work from. One is at the cheap end, because the owner can be on site keeping expenses lower than a chain company or, as we’ve chosen, at the higher, luxury end. At this end of the market the margins of what you sell are so much greater, so you have the capacity to make more.
“All our business objective is moulded around what we can do to make ourselves different from other hotels in this segment, to differentiate the product and provide an alternative to the chains.
“So I like to think about all the ways we challenge our guest. If it comes to someone wanting a bed for the night we’re not the place. If it comes to wanting accommodation that’s stimulating all degrees of personal and mental satisfaction we are.”
So, how is this achieved? “Mostly it’s about appearance, décor. It’s creating a place where from the moment a guest steps into our lobby they are provoked in some way. If you are provoked you remember. If you walk into the lobby of a chain hotel, in the main, you are not provoked at all.”
Parkin talks us through the provocation. “It’s about our guests arriving at our hotel, seeing the sculptures and murals outside. They drive into the car park past our long gallery with contemporary New Zealand art and walk into the lobby surrounded by more works of art. It’s also warm, comforting and homely and they’re surprised to see two motorbikes inside. As far as I’m concerned they are also works of art.
“They meet our designer clad receptionists and are impressed with their warmth and friendliness which comes naturally to them because they feel comfortable. They’re not crammed into a uniform they don’t like.
“They move into guest rooms which have an ambience where most people feel comfortable. They dine in Hippopotamus, where immediately they exit the lifts they are provoked by the pseudo Vercase make-up of the bar, its bright colours, chandeliers, bold flowers on the custom-made carpet and view over the harbour which few Wellington restaurants have. They’re waited on by French speaking staff and this is complemented by our French chef, well known for his television appearances and fine French food.
“It’s the whole package – everywhere along the way it’s different. Just the physical things, having adequately sized rooms and comfortable beds are not enough because then the only thing you have to compete with is price. The more we can get away with direct pricing competition the more we can flourish, and in flourishing we can offer more to our guests.”
A lot of what people discover about the hotel are its best kept secrets, adds Parkin. “These days, the engineering achievement to move the hotel across the road is all but forgotten. The quirkiness is when people discover these things themselves they are so much more excited and want to tell their friends, who then want to come and stay. Most of our success is word of mouth.”
The secret of a good owner/operated hotel, adds Parkin, is that it absolutely reflects the owner’s character.
“If you are an engineer your hotel will function brilliantly and have no soul. If you are an accountant you can imagine what it’s like, just the bare essentials. If you are a humanist you create a dramatic aura and warm and welcome environment.
“To be honest it’s more of a hobby to me. I suppose it’s an ego thing, an affirmation that my taste is good taste,” he smiles.
Devil in the detail
Given it takes more than art to make a hotel work, we drilled a little deeper.
Those designer outfits, for starters. We have a long association with our designer, Alexandra Owen and she is constantly refreshing the collection we use, says Parkin. “There’s a degree of freedom in how the girls can wear things so on any one day they will all be dressed in a different way. They can wear the garments as they suit them to make them feel comfortable. That to us is the secret of our people projecting themselves well to our guests, because they are comfortable and know they look good they feel empowered.”
Tweaking and upgrading is constant, he says. “For example, our bathrooms were looking tired. Fundamentally they were sound; marble tiled and with top quality fittings but there was something not quite there. So the simple addition of a gold picture frame to the mirror above the vanity, plus mirrors on each end all of a sudden added something, and created a sense of space. It wasn’t a major, expensive reconstruction and people are awestruck.”
Parkin says lots of little things make a difference. “All our apartments have their own espresso machines. My observation is hardly anyone uses them but everyone notices them and they all get written about in reviews.
“There’s also a lot to do with branding, our toiletries range feature images of some of the museum artworks, so the theme is carried throughout.
“Recently we hauled out perfectly good LCD televisions because we decided we needed something bigger so changed to 42 inch and it really adds something, though that’s a pretty standard addition.”
We try to enhance things by thinking in in a different way, says general manager Kathy Tipler. “For example we’ve raised the beds a bit, and the bed covers flow over the floor. We’ve created an ambience so the room is a place you walk into and you just want to stay in, whether you’re visiting for business or a romantic night.”
You have to get behind what it is people want when they stay in a hotel, says Parkin.
In our apartment bathrooms we have ordinary shower heads plus overhead rain showers and that’s a feature people really like. Having a really good shower in the morning is therapeutic. If you have a dribble of a shower there’s nothing worse as opposed to seeing an endless supply of hot water raining down. It adds a luxurious start to the day.
“Our baths are big and deep. People don’t use a bath to wash they use a bath for fun, or to relax, so we think about it in terms of a playground, you need room to play, plus we’ve added shower heads so you can rinse off without having to get into the shower.”
General manager Kathy Tipler also talks about staff training and attitudes, and says that starts with selection. “We love employing staff through family and friends. We look for people who are naturally friendly, and in the restaurant we try to employ French people.
“With training we try to get staff thinking about how they would like to be treated if they were arriving in a hotel somewhere in the world, to put themselves in the guest’s situation, where the staff remembers their name, welcomes them and put them at ease.
“We encourage our staff to stay in the hotel within the first two weeks, then a couple of nights every year and we invite their family in at staff rates. We want them to know what it feels like to be a guest,” she adds.
This goes for all staff, including room attendants. “Our house staff is a really good family team. We encourage them to embrace what we’re doing here, to enjoy the surroundings of the hotel. We reinforce to them the importance if what they do.”