Challenging Careers All in a day’s work From power outages to bee removal, Hotel Thayer’s GM handles it all By CATHERINE PORTMAN-LAUX

Challenging Careers
All in a day’s work
From power outages to bee removal,
Hotel Thayer’s GM handles it all
By CATHERINE PORTMAN-LAUX

Management of the Hotel Thayer overlooking the Hudson River at West Point has offered Robert E. Wilson unique opportunities because of the facility’s location.

“Most hotels derive 75 percent of their revenue from rooms and 25 percent from food and beverage service,” the Thayer’s general manager said. “Food and beverage account for 50 percent of our revenue.”

The river view draws diners to the premises, including tourist and corporate groups and, of course, families of cadets.

Wilson came to the Thayer as chief financial officer when a group of West Point alumni, the Hudson River Partners, bought the hotel from the Army in l998 and hired Fisher Hotels to manage it. Wilson had a history with Fisher, which was expanding in the Northeast. He was opening controller at Connecticut’s The Mystic Hilton near his native Redding, Conn. A position followed at Fisher’s Mountain Laurel Resort in White Haven, Pa.

Soon after his arrival at the Thayer, Wilson’s job was expanded to chief executive officer. Fisher undertook a $28 million renovation. The hotel closed in November l998, reopening the following August, with a wedding on opening day. Laid-off employees were jubilantly welcomed back.

Visitors saw a completely renovated four floors of guest rooms. “The earlier rooms were small. To expand their size, we went from l88 rooms to 150,” Wilson explained. A second-phase expansion under study will add up to 100 rooms and additional food and beverage facilities, he said.

Wilson launched his hospitality career from an accounting background. A student at Suffolk University in Boston, he applied for a position at the new Bostonian Hotel

across from his college job while he was winding up his studies.

“I fell right into the work,” he said. “When the assistant controller left, I got promoted into that position.”

He found challenges beyond accounting in the expanded post of Thayer general manager. “In addition to concern about ‘the bottom line,’ we must make certain that every guest is happy.” With an outdoor dining area overlooking the river, this means clearing out bees’ nests and plant growths attracting bees, he said.

The manager’s people skills were highly challenged when he received a call at home at 11:30 p.m. A bride preparing for her wedding the next day had hung her gown on a fire sprinkler to air it. “The weight caused water to gush out, flooding the room and an area of the main floor below,” he said. “Alarms went off throughout the hotel. The dress was damaged beyond repair. A bridal salon in Newburgh agreed to open its doors for her. She was outfitted with a new gown and married on schedule.”

The worst occasion Wilson remembers was a power outage during a storm when initially the generator didn’t start. His first priority was to get the generator going and to provide emergency lights. He rounded up flashlights so that guests would not resort to candles. Next priority was to work with the chef to see what could be provided with limited facilities. “When the power is out, no one can do much but eat and drink,” he said.

Although the cadet families account for only 25 percent of the hotel’s total business, the staff revs up for certain weekends: graduation; R-Day, when cadets register for school; A-Day, six to eight weeks later, when they are accepted after boot camp; and, of course, home football games.

“Christmas is the slowest season,” Wilson said. “Cadets and personnel leave the academy.”

New Year’s Eve makes up for the lagging Christmas business, with the hotel sponsoring a gala party for 250 guests, as well as a wedding or two.

This Mothers Day saw brunch served to 2,000 visitors. Sunday brunch and Friday night seafood buffet are weekly favorites, with soft piano music. Saturday nights offer dinner and dancing to band music.

The Wilson family lives in Pine Bush. Wilson met his wife, Jill, on the job in Mystic. They have four children: Dean, Melina, Baileigh and Johanna. Of the choice of names, he reports, “My wife is half-Greek, which explains the Melina, and I am part Irish, which accounts for the spelling of Baileigh.”

Reader Comments

Please send us your comments!

Add Your Comments