It’s time for a new challenge.
We will create a hotel that challenges the best.
The challenge was not just to create an upscale hotel among others. The idea was to do the almost impossible. A hotel that gave more, that stood out, was more obvious as well as surprising. That gave better value for money. That cherished the time. That filled the guest’s stay with meaning.
The Avalonists knew that the key was to have the right attitude. Notice the guest. Being interested and responsive. Anticipating the unexpected, to also prepare for the unusual, to always be prepared to improvise. Knowing when to follow the guest or when to take a step back. Facing guest differences and to accept the different roles they may want in a hotel. But the main thing was that every effort would not be noticed. The result of all the work would just be, like a forest path that has always existed.
What distinguishes Avalon? The decision was made. It would not just be a fancier version of the existing hotels. The Avalonists decided to not guess, look at the statistics or do as the others. Instead, they would travel and find the right feel. Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Madrid, Paris, Copenhagen and London got a visit from Avalon.
The Avalonists noted how the reception acted, how they responded to their guests and above all how the guests paid an interest in the hotel, restaurant and what was happening nearby. They realized that it’s not just about how we act here at Avalon. Once we figured out how the hotel would work, we started with how we would want it if we ourselves were guests. We know that everyone wants to be seen, in their own way. We know that the appreciation increases when the hotel has plenty of good personnel. That the chance of being taken seriously increases when more are there. Although they don’t do or say anything. Because that is what is needed right there and then.
The whole body eats. Have you eaten your way through half the world, you soon notice what works and what does not. When the avalonists traveled they noticed that it was easy to forget the big picture if all the focus was on the food. They discovered that you got just as happy from the local restaurant’s homemade breadsticks as from the luxury restaurant’s gourmet cuisine.
In all the restaurants they enjoyed was a murmur and a relaxed ambiance. The dining room was filled with interested people with confidence, deeply involved in exciting conversations with the fork ready to go. They found that they quickly got bored of the constructed and overworked and that they appreciated the attentive, unpretentious and chatter friendly.
An inner class The Avalonists found that the inner experience made their trip worthwhile. It was light, sound – Yes the ambiance. Was there anything to read, anything to do? Was the hotel in contact with its surroundings and contemporary?
The Avalonists noticed that it was the fado singer from Lisbon you remembered. The unique selection of music in Madrid. The galleries in London. The meetings with like-minded people on the way to La Scala. Expectations and hopes for the novels that would be found in bookshops in Paris. Getting to hope, to guess and in some cases influence, felt like the most memorable part of the trip. What if you could offer all this in a hotel?
Then you would stand for a class of your own. An inner class.
