Greystone Hotels Blog

News & Notes From Our Unique Collection of Hotels

Welcome to the Greystone Hotels blog! Stay up-to-date on the top hospitality news from the leading collection of West Coast hotels. Bookmark our blog and we'll keep you current on the latest happenings at each of our five inspiring Pacific Coast hotels. Check out the most recent posts below or sort entries by category using the menu on the right side of the page.

 

Play Oscars Bingo: Get Your Playing Boards Here!

Posted on February 17, 2012 by admin

Oscars Bingo 2012The 84th Academy Awards are a little over a week away and we are super excited! Tune into ABC on February 26th to watch who will take home best actor, actress, and picture.

We know that people like to host their own award-watching parties, sometimes complete with an evening gown and black tie dress code and red carpet entrance. For those attending a viewing party, we have created some fun Oscars Bingo boards to pass out to your friends as you watch the show. Follow the Oscars television coverage closely and look for the action items highlighted on the bingo boards.

We hope you have fun with our Oscars Bingo boards and watching the Academy Awards on February 26th! Print out all six boards, and one blank board.

As for the Oscars, here are just some of the notable nominees:

Best Picture: The Artists, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse

Actor in a Leading Role: Demian Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt

Actress in a Leading Role: Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams

Directing: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life.

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The Hotel Wilshire Welcomes Debra Matusmoto!

Posted on January 16, 2012 by admin

Debra Rosenberg Matsumoto’s passion for the hospitality industry has taken her to Europe and some of the finest restaurants in Los Angeles where she has left her professional stamp through her penchant for perfection and consistently exceeding guest expectations. She brings more than two decades of luxury hospitality experience to the new Hotel Wilshire, which opened in September 2011.

We at Greystone Hotels believe the combination of her prior hospitality experience, management ability, people skills, energy and enthusiasm will play a key role in the future success of the Hotel Wilshire and we are thrilled to welcome Debra Matsumoto as one of our team!

The Hotel Wilshire is a stylish 74-room boutique hotel designed as a LEED property by the award-winning Killefer-Flammang Architects. The fresh and contemporary, eco-friendly boutique hotel includes a rooftop pool and a bar and restaurant counterpart: The Roof on Wilshire. Matsumoto is the inaugural General Manager of the property, and as such she oversees daily hotel operational duties for the property.

In her most-recent past role, Matsumoto had been a Director of Sales and Marketing for JW Marriott Santa Monica Le Merigot. There, through her expertise, strategically sound, creative and resourceful plans and long-standing relationships with group, transient and catering guests, she grew occupancy, ADR and REV/PAR an average of 10 percent annually and assisted the GM with many operational responsibilities on a daily basis.

Matsumoto joined Le Merigot in 1999 during the hotel’s opening year as Director of Catering and Special Events, where her background in the culinary arts benefitted clients on a daily basis. Prior to joining Le Merigot, Matsumoto was Assistant Director of Catering for Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

Matsumoto is a Certified Meeting Professional, member of Meeting Planners International, PROST and the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association (HSMAI). She served on the board of Paralysis Project of America for almost twenty years before it disbanded this year and currently is involved with the Santa Monica Symphony as an active board member as well as the Santa Monica High School Choral Committee . She resides in Los Angeles with her husband Chris Matsumoto, son Jamie and her dog Talulah. When not at the hotel you can find Matsumoto spending time with her family, including stepsons Michael and Matthew, cooking, taking yoga, fine dining, attending cultural events and playing tennis.

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Play Golden Globe Bingo: Get Your Playing Boards Here!

Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin

Download your Golden Globe Bingo game boards

Golden Globe Bingo Sample BoardThis January 15th we will be celebrating the 69th annual Golden Globes Awards. Watch as the top television and film celebrities strut the red carpet and receive awards for their year of work in the entertainment industry.
We have pieced together four different Golden Globe Bingo boards (plus a blank one) for you to print out and play with as you watch the Golden Globes coverage with friends. The rules are quite simple:

Golden Globe Bingo rules
If you spot your celebrity during the television coverage, mark an “X” over the corresponding square on your Bingo board. Connect five squares in a row before the rest of your friends and win Golden Globe Bingo.

Choose to start the game during the red carpet walk or opt to start the competition as soon as the award ceremony show officially starts, it’s up to you! Some of the squares on the Golden Globe Bingo boards are intentionally left blank for you to fill in your own celebrities that you think will make an appearance quickly.

Have fun with our game, and enjoy the Golden Globes on NBC!

Download your Golden Globe Bingo game boards

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New Additions at The Bristol Hotel San Diego!

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

We are lucky to be welcoming on-board 2 new additions to the team at The Bristol Hotel San Diego, a new General Manager, Greg Rizzi, as well as a new Senior Sales Manager, Arlene Laucis!

Greg Rizzi was recently appointed General Manager of the Bristol Hotel on December 1, 2011. Immediately prior to that appointment, from March until October 2011, Greg was in Los Angeles and was responsible for the pre-opening and opening of the new Hotel Wilshire. Greg started his hospitality career working for Loew’s Hotel Corporation holding several Corporate and Front Office Manager positions at the City Squire Hotel and Paradise Island Hotel and Villas, eventually holding the position of Rooms Division Manager at the 1842 room, Americana hotel. After that, Greg joined Realty Hotels as Resident Manager and Director of Reservations for The Biltmore, Roosevelt, Commodore and Barclay Hotels in New York City. In 1982, Greg moved West, and held the General Manager positions at the Grand Hotel in Anaheim, The Seven Seas Lodge in San Diego, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, the Inn by the Sea, the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and the La Jolla Shores Hotel.

The Bristol Hotel is thrilled to have him join the team!

And now Arlene! We are so excited to have Arlene join us in the Sales Office!

Arlene Laucis began her role at the Bristol Hotel earlier in November, as the property’s new Senior Sales Manager. Arlene brings a wealth of Hotel Sales experience gained at Radisson, Hilton, and Starwood chains, and she has had some noteworthy experiences at the Pala Resort and Casino and the Grand Wailea Resort and Spa in Hawaii. She most recently joins us from the Porto Vista Hotel in San Diego, CA and she joins Madelyn Giuseppini in the Sales Office.

Greystone Hotels would like to welcome Greg & Arlene to the family, and we encourage you to give them a call when you plan your next visit to The Bristol Hotel San Diego!

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The Élan Hotel Los Angeles: Extending a Hand to the Local Business Community

Posted on November 29, 2011 by admin

Greystone Hotels is committed to helping the world around us; whether it be by donating our time and money to bettering the environment, working on children’s causes, or by helping cultural communities around us thrive. We have had the pleasure of building a relationship with the Los Angeles Jewish Chamber of Commerce at the Élan Hotel.

This dynamic group of businesspeople was started in 2008 with the vision of bringing Jewish businesses and professionals from all over Los Angeles County together to help grow local businesses, create jobs, and to help the Los Angeles Jewish community and culture to thrive. This past October, the Élan Hotel played host to the Los Angeles Jewish Chamber of Commerce for an after-work networking mixer. The event brought together a large group of professionals representing a variety of businesses throughout Los Angeles County.  They are a very active group focusing on expanding business awareness, networking/employment opportunities, as well as stressing the importance of business education with monthly meetings and seminars.

The Élan Hotel was honored that the Chamber chose to have their event at our hotel. Jeff Gurman, the President of the LA Jewish Chamber, described the Élan as, “…a beautiful location for one of our mixers and a great little boutique hotel, nestled in the perfect location for any family member coming into town.” We are honored that the group was able to have a successful mixer with us at our hotel, and are glad to have forged the relationship with other local business owners. We appreciated the opportunity to host the group for a successful mixer and we look forward to pairing up in 2012.

The President of Greystone Hotels, Eric Horodas, flew into Los Angeles to join the festivities. Also in attendance was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Greystone, Jennifer Langham, the General Manager of the Élan Hotel, Joel Majors, and the Élan Hotel’s Director of Sales, Bette Bloom.  We look forward to participation in their events in the upcoming 2012 calendar year!

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Greystone Hotels’ Earth Day Donation to The Nature Conservancy

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin

Greystone Hotels was proud to present The Nature Conservancy with a check with our Earth Day contribution. A portion of all room and meeting room revenue from the nine Greystone properties acquired on Earth Day, April 22, was donated to their environmental conservation effort.

Norbert Mede (GM of Hotel Griffon), Eamon O’Bryne (The Nature Conservancy) and Eric Horodas (President of Greystone Hotels)

We at Greystone Hotels are also making strides toward a ‘greener’ hospitality industry internally and are continuously working to reduce our carbon footprint with environmentally conscious initiatives such as using green amenities, green cleaning products, recycling and our newly added electric car charging stations at the Creekside Inn.

It was an honor to be able to contribute to the vision of the Nature Conservancy as we continue to make efforts to better our planet.

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Celebrating the Planet- Hotel Griffon Green Team Style!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by admin

Greystone Hotels is proud to share that many of our employees are not only helping the environment at the hotel property level by recycling, reducing, re-using and utilizing Earth-friendly products, but our team is also making a difference to save the planet while “off the clock!” To honor Earth Day, members of the Hotel Griffon “Green Team” participated in a beach and creek rehabilitation project at Muir Beach, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just north of San Francisco.

The team braved a cool and cloudy morning on April 23, in order to have some fun and give back to Mother Earth. The Hotel Griffon “Green Team” removed invasive weeds and planted native plants in order to restore habitat loss and preserve the local biodiversity of the wetlands.

Greystone Hotels is environmentally conscious and is always making efforts to make green initiatives and reduce our carbon footprint. We have recently installed electric car charging stations at the Creekside Inn in Palo Alto and all of the Greystone properties will be donating a portion of all room and meeting space revenue that was generated on Earth Day, April 22, to a leading nature conservation organization.

Posted in Hotel Griffon, News From Greystone Hotels | 1 Comment

Creekside Inn Electric Car Charging Stations

Posted on April 19, 2011 by admin

Some big things have been happening around the Creekside Inn, and the property got the star treatment last week surrounding the ribbon-cutting of our new electric car charging stations!

See below for a copy of our Press Release, and for some video taken of the event.

PALO ALTO, CA (April 18, 2011) — Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa (pictured below at left) joined Eric Horodas, President of Greystone Hotels, to cut the ribbon on the new electric car charging stations at the Creekside Inn in Palo Alto, CA last Friday, April 15.

With the number of electric cars on the road today in California estimated to grow significantly as gas prices continue to rise and more alternative energy cars become available, the Creekside Inn in Palo Alto, a member of the Greystone Hotels group, has become one of the first hotels in the state to offer two electric car charging stations.

The car charging station, from ChargePoint (Coulomb Technologies) will be offered as a complimentary amenity to both hotel and non-hotel guests. It will take approximately eight hours to charge an empty battery, or about four hours for one that is not entirely empty.

According to Mr. Luis Carreno, General  Manager of the Creekside Inn, “We have been practicing green procedures which include recycling, green cleaning products, green amenities, and the installation of water and energy savings devices provided by the City of Palo Alto. We decided the car charging stations were a natural next step and received a grant from the United States Department of Energy and the American Recovery Act.”

The Creekside Inn is a boutique hotel located in the center of Silicon Valley, California.  The hotel offers 136 rooms and suites in a beautiful creek side garden setting just minutes from downtown Palo Alto, Stanford University, Stanford Hospital, Hewlett Packard, NASA, and Google.  In its commitment to being eco-conscious, the hotel also offers a complimentary hybrid car service within a five-mile radius of the hotel.

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“The King’s Speech” Connection to the King George Hotel

Posted on March 18, 2011 by admin

“The King’s Speech” was a big winner at the Academy Awards, winning four Oscars including Best Actor and Best Picture. The film depicts the trials and successes of King George VI as he works to overcome a speech impediment that could have prevented him from uniting England during WWII.

King George VI was the son of King George V, the namesake of the Greystone Hotel in San Francisco, the King George Hotel. With “The King’s Speech” bringing a focus on the history of King George VI, we at Greystone turned our attention to “our” King George. What is the history of our hotel? How did the King George Hotel come to be?

A little history of the creation of the King George Hotel…

Courtesy SF Public Library

The King George Hotel was built in 1914, in time for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. The Exposition was a great affair for San Francisco, because less than 10 years before, over 80% of the city had been destroyed by the Great 1906 Earthquake and the fires that followed. The Exposition was a chance for San Francisco to rebuild, and to take in revenue. It is a period that is credited as a time of celebration and reconstruction of the city and its “rise from the ashes.”

All of the visitors to the Exposition needed a place to stay and The King George was built in order to accommodate them. Visitors from around the world were able to enjoy the King George Hotel and newly beautified San Francisco due to the

completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. The King George was advertised as being “Absolutely Fireproof” which appealed to many after the devastating earthquake and fire in 1906. The hotel was designed to equip guests in affordable elegance by 1914 standards. The original proprietors had initially had shared baths and large closets (certainly for hotels by today’s standards) to accommodate steam trunks. Even today there are many original historical details (but no more shared baths) that make the King George Hotel a charming place to stay in San Francisco.

Greystone Hotels is proud of the rich history of the King George Hotel, and in the history and traditions surrounding its position in the Union Square neighborhood, and we’re all glad to see “The King’s Speech” as the big winner this year!

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Hotel Griffon: Running Wild! Kaiser Permanente SF Half Marathon and 5K Fun Run

Posted on February 11, 2011 by admin

Congratulations to the Hotel Griffon Health and Fitness Team! On February 6, ten members from the Griffon team participated in the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon and 5K Fun Run. Nine members participated in the 5K and one member ran his first half marathon! Everyone gave it their all and Greystone Hotels could not be more proud.

The run was held at Golden Gate Park with 10,000 participants. Kaiser Permanente held the run “to exercise mind, body, and sole to promote total health.”

Next up for the team is the Emerald Across the Bay 12K Run on March 20. Participants will run from Sausalito, over the Golden Gate Bridge to Crissy Field in San Francisco.  This will be the first run that the Griffon team is doing to benefit their selected charity; Brain Cancer Research.

Great job Hotel Griffon Health and Fitness Team!

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