The Trump name was already a world-renowned brand when Vancouver’s Holborn Group joined with Trump Hotels to open what the partners promise will be “the new Vancouver icon.” The striking, twisting Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver boasts a number of new-to-this-city amenities. But the road to opening day was not without controversy after the brash American business mogul and TV star entered the U.S. presidential race.
The Trump name is emblazoned across the shiny new structure, and hotel officials insist politics are not impacting the reaction to the skyline’s newest tower.
“The political situation for Mr. Trump is out there, but we really don’t get involved in the campaign or politics,” says Philipp Posch, general manager of the hotel. “Clients are embracing us.
“Large American and Canadian companies are booking space for conferences and some people rescheduled their weddings so they could host it at the new hotel.”
Being the first luxury hotel to open in the city in six years has created pent-up anticipation, he adds.
The partnership between the Vancouver-based Holborn Group and the New York Trumps is partly a result of Donald Trump Jr.’s regular trips to the Canadian north for outdoor adventures.
“He came through Vancouver many times because it’s kind of the hub of going up north, and he just fell in love with the city,” Posch says of Trump Jr. On one of the trips, he met Joo Kim Tiah, CEO and president of the Holborn Group. “There was this young developer, similar in age, who was also coming from a wealthy, affluent family. I think they’ve got a very similar kind of childhood that they went through, with a very disciplined, structured kind of a fatherly figure. They’re coming up in the ranks as the oldest sons who are prone to take over the family business and so there’s a lot of synergies and commonness between the two of them.”
The 69-storey building has 147 hotel rooms, located between the fifth and 21st floors, with 217 residences on floors 22 to 69. Because of the twist of the building’s structure, no two rooms are alike. Yet what hotel staff are most effusive about are the public spaces, event facilities and the attention to detail.
Philipp Posch, general manager of Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver. The first luxury hotel built in Vancouver in six years, it sets a new city standard for event and conference experiences | Chung Chow
Mott 32, one of Hong Kong’s most famous culinary destinations, is being replicated in Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver. On a recent trip to Hong Kong, Posch sampled 127 dishes.
“It’s breathtaking,” he says. “The owners there are very, very proud of the food. They have one of the best ducks in Hong Kong.” In order to replicate the duck specialty using “locavore” ingredients, the Vancouver team sent something like 60 ducks to Hong Kong, and the chefs settled on a producer in the Fraser Valley. Ducks weren’t the only things sent to Hong Kong; all the hotel’s chefs have made the trip for on-location training.
Mott 32 also appealed to the hoteliers for its attention to sustainability, rejection of MSG and ethical choices like not offering shark fin soup, says Posch.
“The food is incredible and then you mix in the interior design,” says Posch. “It’s a really sexy kind of a restaurant.”
Other food and beverage options include the opportunity to enjoy a “flute of the finest” at the Trump Champagne Lounge and relax regardless of the weather at Drai’s Vancouver, the city’s first-ever (how is this possible?) poolside lounge.
The new hotel is also home to the prototype for a reimagined spa experience across the Trump Hotels chain. The Spa by Ivanka Trump will eventually be the standard in all Trump hotels.
While the food and accommodations are billed as top-notch, Wendy Patriquin, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing, promises service is what’s really going to set the Trump experience apart.
Trump Attaché is something beyond a conventional concierge, she says.
“Trump Attaché meticulously records individual preferences and maintains a detailed guest history to ensure that no stay feels like the first and no request is left unfulfilled,” she says. “If you said you only drink Coke, you would only find Coke in your room. … It wouldn’t be unknown for us to go and buy a diamond ring for someone that’s going to propose to his fiancée.”
Kids and pets will receive equally attentive service, Patriquin says. Kids can expect novelties relating to their favourite superheroes. Pets will receive whatever special treatments their owners request, including chef-prepared meals on fine china and bottled water in silver bowls if that’s what they’re accustomed to.
All associates will undergo four weeks of training and will not wear name tags as they are taught to quickly learn guests’ names and establish a general “welcome home” feel, especially for repeat guests.
For conventions and weddings, the hotel has 15,000 square feet of luxury meeting spaces with almost 4,000 square feet of wraparound outdoor terrace.
“It’s all floor-to-ceiling glass,” says Patriquin. “You can walk out and get fresh air and light every minute of the day, unless of course you choose to close the blinds.” In which case, every high-tech amenity for meetings and events can be controlled via hand-held tablet, from audiovisuals to temperature.
The building itself, likely to become one of the city’s most recognizable, was first imagined on the back of a napkin by Arthur Erickson. Though the famed architect passed away in 2009, the twisting tower is a posthumous monument to his work. Of course, Erickson was not known for the unique twist that defines this hotel, so the developer added unpainted concrete columns at the front of the hotel to speak to Erickson’s creative use of the concrete medium.
