Check out Simon van Kempen's N.Y. hotel
HOUSEKEEPING | Behind the scenes at 'Real Housewives' star's boutique property
NEW YORK -- Fans of Bravo's "Real Housewives of New York City" know Simon van Kempen as the "other" housewife -- the Speedo-wearing shopaholic spouse of Alex McCord, the bumbling tennis partner of Jill Zarin, the man who sends Ramona Singer into apoplectic fits.
But this Real Housewife also has a real day job. He's the general manager of Hotel Chandler, a 124-room boutique hotel three blocks from the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan.
(Lori Rackl/Sun-Times)
HOTEL CHANDLER: 12 E. 31st St., in Manhattan's Midtown/ Murray Hill neighborhoods. The hotel has 124 rooms, including nine junior suites. Rates start at $189 a night. Check hotelchandler.com for specials, or call (866) 627-7847.
Simon agreed to show me around his hotel last week. When I arrive a few minutes before 10 a.m., the goateed pseudo-celebrity is standing inconspicuously outside the hotel on the 31st Street sidewalk. Tall, trim and dressed in a Pierre Cardin suit with a light pink handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket, he's getting ready to fire up a Marlboro Light.
"I'm trying to quit," he says.
We walk through the hotel's marble-floored lobby and into the cozy breakfast room, where he downs a cup of black coffee. Last night was a late one, he tells me. The ladies were taping season two's reunion special, set to air at 9 p.m. May 12.
No one ever said being a reality TV star is easy; neither is running a hotel in this economy. But Simon, 45, who broke into the hotel business 25 years ago as a night bellboy in his native Brisbane, Australia, is used to staying afloat in turbulent waters; he opened Hotel Chandler a week before 9/11.
"On Sept. 10, [2001], we had 72 rooms finished and occupied," he says. "After that, we didn't have 72 rooms occupied for quite some time."
The hotel attracts a mix of business and leisure travelers, as well as screenwriters and actors taking advantage of discounts offered to folks in the entertainment industry. And, of course, you'll find the occasional die-hard "Real Housewives" fans.
"It's hard to gauge how the show has affected business," Simon says. "I know it's had some impact because I've had people e-mail me on Facebook to make a reservation.
"We have had guests who've refused to check out until they get my autograph or photograph. It doesn't happen every day, but it happens."
Hotel Chandler's 104-year-old building once served as a halfway house where, ironically enough, former hotel magnate Leona Helmsley did time. The 14-floor hotel has a small fitness center and an intimate bar off the lobby that attracts mostly locals during the week. The bar's "recession-proof happy hour" is a deal -- $3 beers and $5 glasses of house wine from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The modern rooms, remodeled in 2007, have flat-screen TVs and Aveda bath products. In typical New York fashion, they tend to be on the small side.
"In New York City, you should be in your room no more than nine hours a day anyway," Simon says.
Basically, Hotel Chandler is a nice, comfortable mid-market alternative to pricey properties like the Plaza. It's not the kind of place the Countess would deign to stay in, nor does it try to be.
"We're lucky we're not a $600- or $800-a-night hotel," Simon says. "Conspicuous consumption is out of favor at the moment." (I choose not to bring up the previous night's episode, which showed him dropping $7,000 to buy Alex a couture corset fashioned from a burlap feed bag. At least the money went to charity.)
Unlike the feed bag corset, the hotel is a bargain by New York standards. Simon lowered the rates earlier this year to better compete in a down economy. Standard rooms that normally start at $350 a night can be had for as little as $189. Junior suites, which sleep up to four, start at about $350. Occupancy rates are hovering around an enviable 96 percent, Simon reports.
To keep up with the Joneses, he plans to remodel the lobby this summer. And he's been shopping for new bedskirts -- at Zarin Fabrics. But don't expect Ramona's skin care line to show up in Hotel Chandler's bathrooms anytime soon. I doubt Skinny Girl's muffins will make it onto the breakfast buffet, either.
As for Simon's future on "Real Housewives," he says he and Alex, who studied theater at Northwestern University, would be game if there's a season three.
"We got a bad rap in season one," he says. "Many nights, our TV was almost broken. But we're less naive now."
Season three or not, Simon says he intends to keep his day job.
"I love it," he says. "There's nothing better than having a guest check out and tell you what a wonderful stay they've had."
I bet smashing a tennis racket into Mario's knee caps would rank a close second, though.
Simon admits that being a hotel GM has its share of headaches: overbookings, cranky customers demanding to speak to a manager at 6 a.m., etc.
I ask Simon if he'd rather deal with an irate hotel guest or Ramona.
"Irate hotel guest," he says, without missing a beat. "At least you can reason with them."