Byblos Webinar Sept 21:2023

Well, good afternoon everyone. My name is Fernando Harb with Spotlight Hospitality Group. Thank you for joining us. We want to make sure that we get started on time. We know how important your time is, so we respect that. It is my pleasure now to introduce Mr. Richard Bromberg, the USA representative for the Biblos Art Hotel in Verona, Italy. Richard, the floor is yours.

Fernando, thank you very much. I certainly appreciate the opportunity. I was going to say good afternoon, but I should say buongiorno. I should also say that I would love to be sitting at the hotel speaking to you now, but I'm sitting in Bethesda, Maryland, so not exactly on property. And I will take you on a 20-minute or so adventure looking at the property. So thank you very much for your interest. And we look forward to bringing you— to give you a really good idea about what this fantastic hotel is all about. Next. So here you have a picture of me. So I am the US representative for the property through the Luxury Stars Collection in association with Spotlight Hospitality Marketing with Fernando. I'm doing the sales calls and a lot of the email blasts directly in contact with the travel agency community. And Fernando is on the marketing and the social media side of things. So the partnership has worked out really well over the last 10 or so months in introducing this property to the US travel agency community. So we are the Luxury Stars Collection, is the US division of the Modern Luxury Collection, which is a representation company headed by Angela Napa in the UK, and they represent the hotel in Europe. And we are the US brand of them. So that explains to you the, the different names that you'll see over there. This is going to be a short video that will give you a brief introduction about the hotel.

Welcome to Villa Amista, a 16th-century villa at the gates of Verona that was inspired by the tradition of the Veneto region, has been reinterpreted to become an elegant luxury hotel and host an impressive permanent exhibition of contemporary art. Our chef's preparations are a rediscovery and reinterpretation of regional and international traditional flavors and dishes. Experience the Byblos Art Hotel in Verona.

So, brief introduction. The word art in the name of the hotel, Byblos Art Hotel Villa Anistop, plays a really central role in what the hotel is all about. But again, just to reiterate where we're located, You'll see that we sit in the about about 10 kilometers or 6 miles to the northwest of the center of Verona. You'll see where Verona is located on the map on the top. It sits about 2 hours to the east of Milan, about 100 miles, or it's about 75 miles or about an hour and a half to the west of Venice. We also sit about 20 minutes away from Lake Garda, the large lake that you'll see. It's to the west of the of where the red dot is. So the location couldn't be any, any more perfect. We sit up in the Valpolicella region, the wine region of Italy. So we have some fantastic wines that are there. We're situated again, 6 miles from the City of Love, Verona, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And we're really not far from, as you can see, Milan and Venice. And again, if you look at the map on the bottom, you'll see that we are located in the very northern part of Italy. So the Byblos Art Hotel is a really, really, really unique property. In my career in the hospitality industry for the last 40-plus years, this is one of the most unique properties that I've ever come to, to be associated with. So, Byblos Art Hotel, we are built in a 16th-century villa. Again, the, the, the architectural style is that of the Veneto region. However, when you go through the hotel, you'll notice that there is a permanent collection of historic and contemporary art, furniture, decor in the sleeping rooms, on the grounds, in the spa. It is a visually stimulating, as well as stimulating in other respects, property that is for the client that just likes to have a very, very unique experience. No 2 rooms are alike, and we have 58 rooms spread out through the entire property. And you'll see the pictures over here, just kind of giving you a brief overview and look about what the property is all about. We're associated with a very well-known designer, Alessandra Mendini, for the furniture and the artwork and just the decor throughout the hotel. So in the coming slides, you'll see that the hotel offers Almost an experience like guests are staying in a museum of modern art, sleeping, dining, experiencing, you know, going to the spa there and all that. The only difference is that you don't have to pay a fee to go to the Museum of Modern Art on 57th Street in Manhattan. So anyway, so this is what the guests see when they first walk into the lobby. Quite honestly, I've never seen a lobby that looks like this before. And My love of contemporary art is really satisfied by this hotel and by the lobby. So if you look, for example, on the picture on the lower left, you see that there's a fairly, fairly large and exquisite chandelier hanging from the ceiling, Murano art. So again, from the area around Venice where glass has become synonymous, you'll see that, for example, there's a a pink body hanging from the ceiling. There's a mural up on the top, over the— on the top part of the walls. And again, you'll see that there's very contemporary artwork as well as furniture scattered throughout the lobby. A couple different pictures. You'll see the picture, by the way, on the lower right. The contortionist is actually the model Kate Moss. So she factors into the lobby, and there's actually 2 of her on either side of the The picture on the lower left. So, so what do you— what do clients see when they walk into the property? This is what they see. Not traditional in any sense of the word, except for the architecture. But we've converted the property literally into a museum of modern art. So that is what clients will see and experience. This is their first glimpse of what they'll have when they walk into the property. Again, I mentioned before that we have 58 rooms and suites. No 2 are alike. Each one is individually decorated by a famous designer. So you'll see that there are different types of colors. There's different— there are different headboards. There's different artwork on the walls. There's different lighting. For example, you see that there's a chandelier and a wall sconce on the picture on the left, but the 3 other pictures have different lighting and different wall decorations, what have you. So to say that this is a unique property is probably the understatement of the century. But again, this is the visual aspect of what clients will experience when they book this hotel. So 58 different rooms and suites in a variety of different categories. So we'll move on from that point. So another couple pictures, 4 of which show the exterior of the property. You'll see that we have a large pool that sits on the backside of the property. By the way, the property is about 7 or 8 acres, which gives us a lot of room to be able to have a pool in the back, a jacuzzi in the back. We've got grounds that you'll see pictures of coming up as well. The picture on the lower right shows you a table that is poolside, and this is our garden restaurant. So the guests can dine alfresco outdoors, presuming that the weather and temperature are agreeable. But we do give our guests the opportunity to do that. The pool is open from May through September. So if the guests are out and about, maybe going to Lake Garda during the day, or they're touring Verona city center during the day, and they want to come back and they want to laze on a chaise lounge by the pool or go into the jacuzzi tub. Absolutely, that's, that's available for them during those summer months. Now this is our spa. So the spa was created to remind us of a Roman, uh, Roman bath, Roman spas if you will. So there's intricate tile work, mosaic tile work on the floor with— you can see the, uh, the paintings and murals on the, on the walls and on the ceiling as well. So again, this is what the guests will see when they are waiting for their service, a massage, facial, some sort of beauty treatment. So this is the relaxation area that's right outside of where the treatment rooms would be. So I mentioned before that we have a garden restaurant. And so the picture that sits in the middle shows you what the glass canopy with the intricate artwork that's sort of etched inside the glass is there to also protect the tables that sit underneath it. You'll see as well in the tables that are there. We also convey the artwork that runs throughout the entire property. The picture on the right is another example of some of the artwork that sits on the wall, as well as the furniture that we have. And the picture of the fountain on the left shows you the actual outdoor location. We have the beautiful fountain, we have the flora and fauna that sit around it. And we'll show you a couple pictures more about the exterior in just a few more slides. So weddings are a really, really popular part of what the hotel can accommodate. If you're selling the destination wedding market to the American clientele, you may be more inclined to sell something that's perhaps closer to home, maybe being Mexico or the Caribbean. But there is definitely the market for taking a destination wedding from the United States and going to Italy. In this case, you'll see how Biblos Art Hotel can accommodate. If you look at the picture on the upper left, you'll see that that's actually the lobby. So for a wedding reception, we are able to convert the lobby to being the location for the reception to take place. In this case, you can see that we have the tables that are set up with the floral arrangements and just making the lobby look completely different from what it was prior. Again, on the picture on the upper right, you'll see that that's the, the The gazebo that overlooks the garden restaurant. And here again is the picture of the fountain area with the flowers and the plants that surround it, utilizing that area for an outdoor reception as well. So, perfect location. By the way, the size of the hotel, 58 rooms, means that the hotel manager will absolutely entertain a buyout of the property. 58 rooms does give the flexibility to do so. And again, Depending upon the time of year, the number of days that the buyout would be available, the days of the week, the hotel can absolutely entertain that as an option. So what better place to have a wedding reception than, than the City of Love with Romeo and Juliet? So there you have it. This is just another example of how we can dress up a table to accommodate the luxuriousness of a wedding reception. The next slide is going to be a video. I'm going to let that run. So allow me to give you a little background as to exactly what that video was highlighting. So as you can see, there were people, there were women that were dressed in bridal gowns. So that was an event that the, uh, that the hotel hosted For wedding planners and coordinators from Italy. To give you an idea about how the lobby could be transformed from a hotel lobby to a reception area, and how you can see how we can do a sit-down dinner and attract the clientele for the destination wedding market. So the next phase of where we are in the presentation, we'll talk about some of the packages that we'll see that are available on our website, which is, by the way, www.biblosarthotel.com. So this slide talks about our free night promotion, which in a variety of— you'll see that there are 4 different options for the number of nights that are being booked that will be in— that will run through December 29th. So our package, which is a 3-night package for the price of 2 nights, runs from October 15th through December 29th. The 4-night package is currently out of effect. The 5-night one runs from June 4th until the 15th, and again October 1st through December 29th. And we have our, our 7-night package for the price of 6 that runs from June 16th until September 30th. Again, you could— if you go to our website, you'll see that that's where all these promotional opportunities are available. So, Amarone flavors. If you're not familiar with the world of wine, Amarone is a wine which is produced in the Valpolicella region. Which is where Byblos happens to be located. So this is a package which highlights a 2-night stay including buffet breakfast, one dinner for 2 people. It's a 4-course tasting menu at the restaurant Amistad, which has been awarded a Michelin star. If you know the Michelin star rating system, you'll know that the restaurants that are awarded the stars have to be something special. And we are blessed to have the restaurant on property having been awarded that Michelin star. Also included in this is an Ambroni tasting in our wine cellar. Entrance for 1 hour to the wellness center spa, which is called the Espace Biblos Spa. Also included is a 30-minute facial, a body treatment per person. We also have, and this includes a shuttle service to and from the hotel to the Verona city center. Operating from 9:30 until 6:00 PM every day. So that's available to all the guests in the hotel. This is a wine lover's dream. I am blessed by having a small collection of about 100 bottles, which I conveniently keep in a closet in my apartment. But this shows you that we have a wine room which has roughly about 600 different bottlings, not just bottles. With several thousand bottles that are available. So what the, what's available to the guests at the hotel, for example, if there's a destination wedding and the wedding party wants to have a private dinner, which pairs several different courses with wine tastings and wine pairings to go with each course, we can do that. The cellar is large enough to have a table that can accommodate around 12 to 15 people. And that's something that we can absolutely do without any problem. So, Opera Art. This actually runs through September 10th. So it actually ran through about 11 days ago. So, but this is something which we do every year. The opera company in Verona is called Opera dell'Arena di Verona. And 2023 is their 100th anniversary of being in operation. So we had a package which included 2 nights accommodation with buffet breakfast, a pre-opera dinner— it's a 3-course menu at the Garden Restaurant. I had a special kind of ticket which is called Poltronissima, which included— since the arena was built in the 1st century AD, it didn't have the kind of seating that you would normally expect in a theater, for example, bench seating. So the Poltronissima Platinum ticket actually offered a, a seating that had a back to It also gave you the 1 hour in the spa, as well as a hairstyling session and 30 minutes of a facial or body treatment per person. So this is something that we did this year, and we'll do it again next year. But this again just gives you a kind of an idea about how we can also work with the opera lovers that are out there as well. This picture shows you what the arena looks like. If you recall the Colosseum in Rome, you'll see that the architecture is somewhat similar. I had the good fortune of being on holiday in Sicily and Paris about a month ago, and we were in Taormina, which has the Greek theater, which resembles this as well. And when my wife and I were there with my kids and our grandchildren, we did a tour of the arena there, of the theater, which was hosting the opera tenor Andrea Bocelli. So you'll see here that there's an opera taking place, opera performance taking place. And again, the similarities are there. It's in use. It's, it's in use more for just the opera company. But the other tie-in, as you can see on the right side, is that we also do a lot of the catering for the opera as well. So our, our chef is able to create some menus that go along with the menu offerings that are at the arena. I will also say that on our 7 or 8 acres of land, we have a small farm. So what we'll do as produce and also fruit becomes available during the growing season and harvesting season is that we will harvest what we can and we include those into the menu offerings in both restaurants at the hotel. So I guess you could say that we follow the farm-to-table concept really, really well. And again, having that Michelin star gives us a leg up on a lot of the other restaurants that are in the area. The next package that we have is the— it's a 1-night package and runs again through December 31st. So again, who is this best for? If it's— it's best for somebody that, uh, some clients that might be, um, going from Venice to Milan, they want to stop off for a night in between the 2, so they'll book this 1-night package, or they could add on another non-package night, for example, and do 2 nights. But this is a package that Again, includes the 1-night accommodation, 4-course tasting menu at the restaurant, the spa visit, the massage or the facial, and again, the travel to and from the center of Verona. This also works really well for a clientele, for example, that might be taking a Mediterranean cruise and they're terminating in Rome. And they want to go up north to go towards Milan, Verona, and then Venice. And so this would be a Perfect opportunity for them to stop by and see the hotel. And then again, we have the package for the spa lovers. So 100% wellness, again in effect through December 31st. This is a one-night package including buffet breakfast. Again, you can see it's got the 4-course tasting menu at the restaurant, uh, Ristorante Emma Amistad, couples treatment for 15 minutes, uh, the 1-hour visit to the spa, and again the shuttle service into the the center of Verona and back. So we are a new property to the American market. So what our, uh, our role and our responsibility is, is to let you know that we're out there, how you can book us, and work with you to accommodate your clients' booking needs. So there are a couple different ways that you can do it. Uh, you can go to our website biblosarthotel.com. You can go to the reservations part of that. You can make a reservation. There is a code that we will send to you after the— as a follow-up, which lets you know that you can apply the code, and then the booking and the commission tracks back to you. You can call reservations, you know, through WhatsApp. You could utilize that. You don't have to worry, for example, about incurring the cost for a long-distance phone call. You could email me. I would love, absolutely love to work with you and booking any of your, uh, your clients, uh, going to, to the hotel. A couple other things that you can do: we are associated with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, so you can book with them. In terms of working with U.S.-based tour operators, we are currently working with one operator that's based in the Chicago area. It's called TourCrafters. They've been around for over 40 years. We are included in their program. We have had discussions with other tour operators, and we're working on getting in their programs for 2024. And we've also, uh, I've also been in touch with probably a dozen or so Italy-based, uh, destination management companies who, uh, a lot of the agents in our database have told us that they are working with. So, uh, if there's a DMC that you're working with that you'd like to find out whether or not you can book through us, book us through them, feel free to send me an email and I'll let you know whether or not we've been in touch. And if not, I'll certainly reach out to them on your behalf and our behalf. So you can see that there are a bunch of different ways that you can work with us. And I hope that you will be not hesitant whatsoever in getting in touch with us. There are 2 rate files that we will send to you. One is for 2023. And the other one is for 2024, and it will give you all the terms and conditions about booking the property and the rates that you'll get and the various different categories. And so you'll have that information as well after the presentation. So that video, the purpose of that video is to Pretty much remind you what the property is all about. We would absolutely love to have you come by and visit the property. Let us know if we can help you with some accommodations. We will offer travel agent rates. With any good luck, next year we will be conducting a travel agent fam trip over that way. And I will certainly be in touch after the, after the webinar to be available. For any types of assistance that you may have. So, if there are any questions, please feel free to put them in the chat box at this point. Fernando, I think there's one that's currently in there. Is that correct?

Correct, Richard. Thank you for that presentation. So we have our travel advisor, Vicki, who is asking, what is the cost per package?

The cost per package will be on the website. And if I am incorrect on that, I, I assume that I'm correct. Uh, we'll certainly follow up with you with the, uh, package pricing for dates that you might have.

Uh, we have another question here via the chat that is asking, what are the primary seasons for the Biblos Art Hotel?

Primary seasons? Well, uh, it's, it's also— I mean, I would say that Every season is a good season. Obviously, if you go anywhere from say November until December, late October to December, you're going to be confronting cooler temperatures. The hotel—I didn't mention this—the hotel is closed from January first until March fifteenth. So the winter months they are are updating the property, doing any types of maintenance issues. Clearly, the best time, like anybody going to Europe, I think that if you go in the spring and fall. The, uh, the time of year, uh, there is going to be fantastic. Um, but when you see the, uh, the rates that I'll be sending out to you, it will highlight the various different seasons as well as the rates that go along with the highest of high and the lowest of lows, if you will. I, I really remind you, summers will be busy, so just be, be aware of confronting, um, more crowds and warmer temperatures. So Just take that into consideration.

And we have a request from Travel Advisor Adrian to please put your email address on the screen. And if I'm not mistaken, that is our next slide once our question and answer session is over.

That is true. Trust me, you will be able to get a hold of me just as I will be able to get a hold of you.

We have any more questions? Anybody would like to add anything to either the Q&A or the chat section? Okay. Sorry. There we go. We have Richard Bromberg's information and his email. Please feel free to reach out to him. You will receive a copy of this recording, which we'll be sending out in the next couple of days. But any questions, please feel free to reach out to Richard directly at the email address listed on this slide.

Fantastic.

I want to extend my gratitude and thanks to you all for giving us some of your time today. We, we recognize that you are very, very busy this time of year, hopefully all year round. But we also think that we have a really unique property over here that, for the right clientele, would give them an experience that they will not forget for a long, long time. So we look forward to establishing a relationship with you. We look forward to working with you in the future. I certainly look forward to, to being in touch. And again, as Fernando said, if there's any way that we could be of any help and assistance, please feel free to reach out, and I'll do the same as well when I have something to share with you. So thank you very much for taking the time.

Thank you, Richard. And that concludes now our webinar. If anyone has any last-minute questions, let us know now. Otherwise, please feel free to reach out to Richard.

Thanks, Fernando. Appreciate your, your clicking your slides.

No problem. Thank you, everybody, and we wish you all have a great weekend, and we look forward to welcoming you and your guests to the Biblos Art Hotel in Verona, Italy. Thank you once again, and we look forward to seeing you at our next session. Thank you.

Thanks all. Bye now.