Opening a new hotel is never easy. Try doing it during a pandemic.
By Andrea Sachs,
Matt McClain The Washington Post
The day before the Ven at Embassy Row was scheduled to open in D.C.’s Dupont Circle, several containers full of new furniture were sitting on a cargo ship at the opposite end of the country. The hotel didn’t have any trash receptacles for the lobby and had to borrow some from a neighboring property that has been closed since the start of the pandemic. Also, a staff member had tested positive for the coronavirus, and three employees were sent home to quarantine.
“It’s something all the time,” said Jennifer Goodman, the general manager of the Ven. “This has been brutal.”
The past year has been a ghastly time to run a hotel, much less open a new one. The Ven attempted both: The hotel accommodated visitors at the Embassy Row Hotel, its former self, while transitioning into its new skin as a Tribute Portfolio hotel, a Marriott brand. The project entailed a multimillion-dollar rehaul of its lobby, restaurant and bar. The renovation was supposed to take 90 to 120 days. Nearly a year later, the first guests checked in.
“Our general contractor will still be on the property when we hit our one-year mark,” Goodman said with a chuckle. “Nobody ever dreamed that it would last this long.”
[The latest hotel amenity doesn’t involve massages or cookies: It’s a free coronavirus test.]
The global health crisis has walloped the hospitality industry. In its State of the Hotel Industry Report 2021, the American Hotel and Lodging Association noted that the pandemic’s impact has been nine times worse than the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Jan D. Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, said 2020 ranks as the most disastrous year for hotels in at least three decades. (The company’s data research division, STR, has been compiling statistics for 30 years.)
“It was a lost year,” he said. “The hotel industry has a long road before we can say it has reached a full recovery.”
Matt McClain
The Washington Post
Wanda Barnes waits for guests to arrive in the Ven’s renovated lobby.
And yet while we have been twiddling our hotel souvenir pens waiting for travel to resume, hoteliers have been hammering away on new properties. According to STR, more than 900 lodgings opened in the United States last year, and 1,086 hotels are projected to debut this year, a small dip from 2019. The Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report, a biannual study by Lodging Econometrics, singled out the U.S. hotel industry as the most active, with 5,216 projects in the works. China took a distant second place.
“Hotel development cycle times are 18 to 36 months, so new builds most always miss the boom and bust business — or in this case pandemic — cycle,” explained Chekitan Dev, a professor of marketing at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business in the School of Hotel Administration. “If it is a well-conceived and -positioned project, eventually demand builds back up for a nice payday.”
The idea for the Ven predates the pandemic by a year. Since then, bookings have plummeted and staff numbers have dwindled from 80 employees to 15. Even so, all parties involved in the venture — the ownership group; the management company, Crescent Hotels & Resorts; and Marriott International — remained committed to the project and optimistic about the outlook.
“I don’t remember having discussions about delaying it,” Goodman said. “When demolition started, it was the early stages of covid. The thinking was, ‘Full steam ahead. Let’s get this thing done!’ We thought recovery would start in mid-September.”
I first talked to Goodman in December, when they had already rescheduled the grand opening several times, and I visited the hotel in late February. Over that period, they would make and break several more dates. Here is a chronicle of their bumpy journey and the obstacles they had to overcome to cross the finish line — a pink ribbon stretched across the front door.
Since 1970, the Embassy Row Hotel has bounced between owners. Two years ago, a group of investors bought the 231-room property and collaborated with the management company to create a little smorgasbord of Scandinavia in Dupont Circle. They changed the hotel’s name to Ven, which means “friend” in Danish, and chose a light, bright and clean aesthetic that would please the Nordic gods of design. The mood-o-meter would be set on hygge, the Danish concept that translates to a deep sigh of contentment
Matt McClain
The Washington Post
The Ven, which replaced the Embassy Row Hotel, incorporates a Scandinavian design aesthetic. The hotel’s name means “friend” in Danish.
When the renovation started in April, less than a month into the pandemic, the atmosphere inside the hotel was the opposite of hygge. Management had suspended food and beverage service and laid off the sales team and 10 managers. Staying open proved unsustainable; the hotel went dark on May 1.
[Tired of the same old home office? Punch the clock in a hotel guest room.]
The Ven contingent planned to take advantage of the lull. Without any guests to disturb, the contractors could pound away and complete the project in record time. When Washington shuttered, “we were already contemplating how fast we could get the renovation done,” said Richard Lee, who represents the owners. “We were hoping [the shutdown] would be short term and align with our schedule.”
Unfortunately, that rosy scenario did not play out. Stumbling blocks slowed, and sometimes stalled, progress. Furniture orders fell prey to disruptions in China’s production line. They switched to manufacturers closer to home, in Canada and Mexico. The items made it across the border, only to get stuck in San Diego’s port for months. In the meantime, the contractor was waiting for the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to approve a number of critical permits. The workers could disassemble the lobby, per the demolition permit, but could not rebuild the space without the proper documents. The wait time was twice as long as normal: four months instead of six to eight weeks. All work ceased for nearly three months.
During this idle period, the hotel’s few remaining staff members patrolled the property, troubleshooting issues that guests would have typically reported, such as a leaky sink or running toilet. The engineers added overnight security to their list of responsibilities.
The hotel was closed during the Black Lives Matter protests in June, but Goodman still showed up for work at the boarded-up hotel. She watched the scene unfold from the rooftop, where guests from previous summers had splashed around in the pool. At one point, she called a friend to inform him of the approaching crowd.
“I called the general manager at a hotel on M Street and said, ‘Robert, they’re coming in your direction,’ ” she said. “It was just wild.”
Matt McClain
The Washington Post
The lobby features many seating areas where guests can maintain a safe distance from other visitors.
The renovation resumed in August, coinciding with the reopening of the Embassy Row. Timing was critical. Thousands of people were planning on attending the March on Washington and would need accommodations. The hotel sold 300 rooms, more than its inventory. However, the uptick took a downturn when the mayor announced new coronavirus restrictions. About 70 bookings remained, the first trickle of life the staff had seen in months.
“We were so happy to be open, even though the hotel was a construction site,” Goodman recalled six months later. “I went down to the parking garage and it was full. There were cars! I didn’t want to leave because it was so amazing to have guests to serve. And that was the last busy time until the insurrection.”
The hotel left 2020 behind with a pile of aborted opening dates in September, October and December. They aimed for Jan. 8 and planned to close a few days beforehand, so the Marriott team could train the Ven staff on the new system. However, once they realized they could not meet that deadline, they decided to keep the hotel open and accept the flood of reservations — 90 over four days — rushing in for Jan. 6. Goodman scrambled to prepare for the crowd. Little did she know what would transpire that day. (The hotel itself did not have any issues.)
“By and large, the problems of a normal hotel day are that the guest room may not be ready and they have to wait. Or they ask for red wine and we only have sparkling rose,” she said, still rattled by the experience. “These are not life or death things.”
More aspirational dates came and went, including Jan. 15 for inauguration week. Issues continued to arise: A few workers on the construction and vendor side contracted the coronavirus; the fire-safety system required pressurization in the stairwells. When I visited in February, I asked Goodman whether she thought the March 12 date would stick.
“We’re running out of problems,” she said. “I have agents up in the main lobby. It’s definitely happening.”
On March 3, I received an invitation for the grand opening. I sent an RSVP but didn’t book a room until I knew for sure that the ribbon would be cut.
On the morning of the event, a small group representing the owners, Marriott and Crescent Hotels & Resorts, gathered in the Ven’s circular driveway. Goodman said a few words — “It’s a little emotional,” she admitted, waving her hand at her flushed cheeks — before handing Lee the scissors. He snipped the pink fabric with aplomb, continuing a tradition from a half-century ago, when Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the eldest daughter of Teddy Roosevelt, performed the honor for the Embassy Row Hotel.
“We’re no longer ‘coming soon,’ ” Goodman said, motioning at the sign behind her. “We are here.”
The revelers went inside to celebrate with champagne and cupcakes. At the front desk, the Ven’s first guest, A.J. Ishikawa, sipped a glass of bubbly while two employees fiddled with the credit card and key-card machines.
“I never knew the hotel was brand new,” the Michigan business traveler said. “Then I was told that I was the first guest, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ ”
A newcomer would not notice the gaps in the decor, but Goodman was sharply aware of the misfits: the chairs holding the space reserved for a curved sofa; a blank strip of wall awaiting a stainless-steel planter with greenery; the fake ivy.
“I don’t look around this lobby and see how great it looks,” she said. “I see everything I need to fix or change.”
Matt McClain
The Washington Post
The renovation job is not fully complete: The hotel is still waiting for furniture stuck in a San Diego port because of the pandemic.
In coming months, the guest rooms and rooftop pool area will receive a makeover. The hotel also plans to open an art gallery featuring local artists and a digital installation of the northern lights that will shimmy across the walls several times a day. The bar and restaurant are closed but could start serving light fare and cocktails as soon as the city gives the green light. In the interim, a small corner marketplace sells snacks, and guests can pick up a free pastry and coffee from a breakfast trolley parked by the front desk.
On opening night, the Ven had 18 reservations, including one in my name. When I checked in hours after the celebration, the machines were up and running, but the front-desk employee struggled with the room assignment system. I didn’t mind waiting; I was feeling very hygge. I went up to my room, sat on the bed, then returned to the lobby to see if anyone new had arrived. No one had.
I ran into Goodman as she was about to leave. I asked her how she was feeling now that the Ven was officially open. “I think it looks beautiful,” she said, surveying the land. “Now we just need to fill it with people.”
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If you go The Ven at Embassy Row 2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW
202-265-1600 marriott.com The Ven, formerly the Embassy Row Hotel, offers 231 rooms in Dupont Circle. The lobby, restaurant and bar are newly renovated with a Scandinavian design. Food and beverage service is not yet available, but guests can pick up snacks from the on-site marketplace and grab a free pastry and coffee in the morning. Rates from $150.
— A.S.
