Editors’ Note

A graduate of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, David Colella is Chairman of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau. In addition, he sits on the boards of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, the University of Massachusetts Hospitality and Tourism Management School, the Copley Society of Boston, and Skal Club International, Boston. He has held his current post since December 1992.

Property Brief

The Colonnade Hotel is an independently owned and managed luxury property located in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay, and features 285 sophisticated rooms and suites with 21st-century comforts and high-tech amenities to meet the growing needs of today’s discerning business and leisure travelers. Known for its personalized service and exceptional amenities, The Colonnade Hotel is home to the city’s only rooftop pool and Brasserie Jo, a classic French brasserie that is one of Boston’s most popular restaurants. Founded in 1971 by Bertram Druker, the hotel is overseen today by his son Ronald, President of the Druker Company. The Colonnade Hotel is a member of the Preferred Hotel Group and Concorde Hotels.

You have put a lot into the property over the past few years. How has the public received the updates to the hotel?

Our new product has certainly been well received. The entire renovation was extremely well thought out, from the guest rooms to the common areas. We feel our hotel is on a par with the newest product in the city. As part of the renovations, we are repositioning the property and creating an entirely new brand for the hotel. It’s a very different product now – there’s no question about it.

We’ve maintained our terrific staff and strong service culture – that hasn’t changed. But you have to keep retooling and finding new niches for the product. Our management style, location, and culture have always been right on, but it was time to redirect the product. We’ve availed ourselves to many of the new opportunities in design, and now we have a product that enhances our strong service culture.

I can’t stress it enough: We’ve basically built a new hotel. The hotel had a very strong history and was well-received by the community, and leisure and business travelers; it was successful, without question. But the investments we’ve made in our facility, our culture, and in our employees have given us an incredibly bright future, in addition to a strong history. So we’re on the right track.

Going forward, do you expect The Colonnade to attract a different type of guest, post-renovation?

We planned the renovation over a two-year period – even before we met with design teams – and we planned the new design of our rooms based on guest feedback. We want to maintain our guest profile, while increasing our market share. Our loyal guests love the new rooms, our location, and the service we provide. They’re very comfortable with our staff, and at this point, they’ve adjusted very well to paying higher rates for the new physical product.

In planning the renovation, we also sought information from all levels of our staff. We asked them what they thought about where we needed to be and got their input. We also polled focus groups of meeting planners and business travelers. It’s all about communication.

Is it necessary for today’s luxury hotels to offer a full-service spa?

I believe if you are going to offer a spa or fitness facility in today’s luxury market, it needs to be competitive and state-of-the-art for both the business and the leisure traveler. While The Colonnade does not offer a full-service spa, we do partner with many of Boston’s top-rated spas, and we will coordinate a complete visit for our guests. One way or another, the complete offering needs to be there.

Have there been any changes to your food and beverage offering?

We have a new executive chef, Nicholas Calias, who is very talented and well-schooled. We’re being very creative in all aspects of food and beverage – not just in the very successful Brasserie Jo, but also in our meeting and function facilities, which we’ve rebuilt from the inside out, and our rooftop-pool food and beverage service, which is a seasonal operation, but very important to the positioning of the hotel. Those are all integral to placing the hotel on a firm luxury platform.

How have you managed to balance the implementation of new technological amenities with maintaining the personalized service for which The Colonnade is known.?

In order to remain competitive, you have to stay on top of the technology and keep up with the changes. Our new rooms feature 37-inch LG flat-screen LCD televisions and LG DVD players, both of which have the capabilities to be upgraded to accommodate future technological advances. The new guest rooms feature custom-designed Keurig one-cup coffee makers, as well as Sharper Image Sound Soothers, which are MP3 docking station alarm clocks with AM/FM radio. We’ve made sure there are plenty of readily accessible electrical outlets to accommodate the increasing number of our guest’s portable devices. I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit tired of moving furniture when I travel to find a plug for my phone charger. So a significant investment was made in the hotel’s electrical plan. We made sure additional outlets were located in obvious places, such as within the lighting fixtures and at the activity table.

However, the most important thing is to maintain service at the highest level. We have to find the right people and train them, and maintain our service standard by retaining our employees. You can have all the widgets available, but if you don’t have the people to support it and to understand why your guests are there in the first place, none of that technology means anything.

You’ve been in this business a long time. Do you ever think about slowing down?

No, I don’t. I enjoy the business as much as I did 34 years ago. I love this hotel – and probably more so than at any other time, given the success we’ve had and our new product offering. The future of this hotel is exciting. I’m delighted to still be here. That said, I’m getting to be the old guy around here – that’s the only troubling part.