The Oak Bay Beach Hotel will celebrate a pair of milestones next month, and its management group is looking at the celebration as a chance to pay homage to 90 years of history, while it toasts what has been a tumultuous, and ultimately triumphant, last five years.
The hotel, which was completely rebuilt and re-opened in 2012, will mark the 90-year anniversary of operating at its Beach Drive location while it caps off its first five years in business as a new entity.
While there are 90 years of memories at the site to be cherished and fondly recalled, there’s been almost as much activity packed into a very busy five years since it re-opened.
General manager Michelle Le Sage, who has been at the helm since it re-opened, said they will not be glossing over the hotel’s difficult start to its second life, but rather using it as a launching pad for its future.
“I just want to make sure it’s not baggage that we carry with us,” she said of the challenging early days. “We are looking to the future. Celebrating that is important. We have to say we’re here, we are successful and have made it through some tough times and hopefully this place will be here another 90 years.”
During its construction, the hotel was plagued with money issues. It was tipped into receivership in 2014, just two years after opening its doors.
In the summer of 2016, while in receivership, the hotel was sold for $62 million.
That deal meant construction creditors, who were owed about $79 million, were effectively made whole, while bondholders, secured and unsecured creditors recovered nothing.
In total, creditors had claimed in excess of $130 million, including interest owed, against the hotel that was developed by Bison Properties, headed by then hotel owner Kevin Walker.
Le Sage said her frontline staff and management team worked frantically to ensure any chaos behind the scenes was not visible to the hotel guests.
And she believes that has paid off handsomely.
“I think the hotel is so special, and the vision was so special from the beginning. It’s been an amazing journey, though it’s been challenging,” she said. “But because of the structure of the hotel there were a lot of people invested in making sure the hotel succeeded.
“The ownership group wanted it to succeed, the management group wanted it to succeed. And in the end the hotel is beautiful, I think it’s one of the best properties in North America.”
Last year, the Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice Awards placed the hotel at No. 10 on its list of the top 25 hotels in Canada.
“It’s been a great addition to the city,” said hospitality industry consultant Frank Bourree, principal of Chemistry Consulting. “It’s got one of the highest revenue-per-available-room rates in the city, and its GM Michelle is doing a great job.
“It’s definitely in the top five if not the top three hotels in the region.”
Bourree said to an extent the high-end waterfront hotel has become a destination in and of itself, and has attracted visitors from around the world. “We need more of those,” he said.
That’s music to Le Sage’s ears.
“I think the Oak Bay Beach Hotel has always had its own well known brand, and that brand just looks a little shinier now,” she said, noting they still get visitors recalling stays from decades ago, or weddings that were held at the old hotel. “Everyone has a memory of this place. “And that’s why we wanted to celebrate the 90 years as well as the five. It isn’t just about the last five years, there are 90 years of memories that have been created here.”
To toast those new and old memories the hotel will hold an open house Dec. 1 between 10 a.m.. and 2 p.m. with a variety of activities including an art tour, unveiling new menu items, anniversary cake and spa mini treatments. There is also an invite-only gala reception at 7 p.m. that night. The hotel will have anniversary offers throughout December.
Le Sage’s favourite hotel memory is likely the day she was hired as GM, a job she had her eye on for years and called “her dream job.” It clearly was the right fit. This year the B.C. Hotel Association and the Alliance of Beverage Licensees named her the hospitality industry’s Hotelier of the Year. “That was a huge honour and something I definitely carry with me,” she said, adding it was another sign they had come through the challenges and are building for the future.
