Vienna's Hotel Bristol and Hotel Imperial have held New Year celebrations for more than 100 years. Oscar del Campo talks to ABTN about preparations for this December 31, and about life as general manager of the two historic properties.
With two hotels to run, Christmas is among the busiest times of year for Oscar del Campo. Vienna is a popular destination for the festive season:
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Oscar del Campo, Starwood |
"December is in essence high season for us..." he says. "Vienna is a city that operates an array of cultural events in a very short period of time, which attracts a lot of people from outside the city."
Between December 25 and 31 music lovers can watch Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Vienna's Concert House and Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Vienna also has world-famous Christmas markets to add to the festive mix. But on New Year's Eve it's all about the concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. According to Mr del Campo, the world-renowned New Year Concert is held on January 1, but the dress rehearsal on December 31 also attracts the crowds and has become a popular New Year's Eve tradition.
Most guests bringing in the New Year at Hotel Bristol or Hotel Imperial will watch the concert at the Musikverein, before returning to their hotel for the evening celebrations. Both hotels are within a few minutes walk of the concert venue.
This means that New Year's Eve is unlike any other evening in the year for the two hotels - with more than 500 guests between them, all arriving within a very short space of time, there are plenty of challenges in pulling the event off.
"It's probably the largest numbers we have all year round," said Mr del Campo.
And the challenge is that it all starts at the same time. "Essentially, when you have a normal restaurant evening, some people come early and some people come late.
"Here we have a situation where people go to the concert and as soon as it's over everybody storms back to the hotel and then it's all go, all guns blazing.
"We have to make sure that everything goes to plan and everybody gets what they want."
For the restaurant especially this means hours of extra work. "It's a very extensive menu, so the preparations for the kitchen take a lot of effort."
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| Hotel Bristol, Vienna |
New Year's Eve guests at Hotel Bristol this year will be dining on Sevruga caviar with polenta blini, glazed Maine lobster with saffron sauce and ginger cabbage strudel, and Valrhona-chocolate tartlet with Single Malt-cream and tangerine confit.
At the Imperial Hotel guests will be offered lobster in Muscat pumpkin sauce, medallion of beef with braised oxtail and rosemary dumplings gnocchi, and a soufflé of Valrhona chocolate with raspberry ice cream.
According to Mr del Campo, the hotels differ in their character and history, and offer a different atmosphere for the New Year's Eve celebrations. At the Bristol the celebrations take place in the two restaurants, while at the Imperial it is in the three Grand Halls. "It's a more intimate atmosphere," he said of the Bristol, compared to the vaulted ceilings and chandeliers of the Imperial.
Hotel Bristol opened in 1892. "It's a classic fin du siecle hotel - that period of time when everything British was in fashion. Even the Viennese when talking about ‘lunch' would use the English word."
The hotel's British namesake is apt, said Mr del Campo. "The bar at the Bristol has a very British character, like a gentleman's club. Some would say it's more of a discreet elegance that the Bristol exudes. It's been very much the focal point of society within Vienna."
The Imperial has a different story, as it was first built to be the Prince of Wurttemberg's Viennese residence. "When it was built it was a private residence, a palais, and used as such for the first seven years of its existence. Then, in 1873, it was converted into a hotel and has been one ever since.
"You can still feel the character of the private residence, however. It has a lot of marble and high ceilings. The entrance is where the horse drawn carriages used to come in. It's a more stately hotel."
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| Hotel Imperial, Vienna |
Mr del Campo is general manager of both hotels, which for him means the client gets a better service: "As we have the same operator (both belong to the Luxury Collection by Starwood) we decided it made sense to put together certain functions, such as sales and marketing, finance and reservations.
"Because the hotels are similar in as much as they are luxury hotels, although they have very different characters, they combine very well. I think customers these days want to speak to one person that can offer them two hotels within the same city, without having to call up two hotels."
Mr del Campo has been with Starwood since 1992. His love of languages took him first to the UK to improve his English, where he worked at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Heathrow on what was meant to be a one-year placement.
"I was terrible at maths at school, the only thing I was good at was languages," he said. "I decided to try and find something that would allow me to travel, to see different countries and to use my languages," so he started in the hotel business and moved to London.
"That one year turned into nine years," he said. "I went in and got caught there. I've never regretted it since."
After working his way up through the ranks, the opportunity arose to be the general manager of a hotel in Spain, another luxury collection property in Mallorca. "I was born and bred in Germany, but my parents are from Spain...It was like coming home."
From there he went on to manage the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel, at Frankfurt airport, until taking on the position of gm at the Hotel Imperial and Hotel Bristol in Vienna in April 2007.
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| Hotel Imperial, Vienna |
"[My job] has taken me all around Europe and I hope it will take me a few other places still," said Mr del Campo.
Working in the hotel business means you get to travel and work in different countries with different cultures, said Mr del Campo, which "helps you not just in your professional life but in your personal life as well."
"I'm not the kind of person who can sit for eight hours in an office. Here I have the opportunity to go out there and interact with guests. I get to meet an enormous array of interesting and fascinating people - I think that is really what makes us tick in the hotel industry."
Hotel Bristol [1]
Hotel Imperial [1]