Paul Szmal: And we're Zooming with Jessica Hathaway. She is the Sales and Marketing Manager with the newly named Lux Hotel. Good morning.
Jessica Hathaway: Morning, Ted. Thanks so much for having me.
Paul Szmal: We're glad to have you here. So let's start with the grand opening event and we'll work backwards to the renovations and the change in name. So tell us about the grand opening.
Jessica Hathaway: Well, the grand opening is taking place the Wednesday night, October 25th. I'm sorry, September 25th, getting a bit ahead of myself. And it's going to be from 3 to 6 p.m. It's open to the public and we're looking to do tours of the rooms, our guest rooms, the variety of different styles that we have available, as well as tour our facility and see all the different banquet spaces, conference center areas and meeting spaces. So it is now the Lux Hotel and Conference Center and Woody's Barn Grill. And this is, of course, many people knew it in the past as the Holiday Inn and it's undergone a multi-million dollar renovation.
Paul Szmal: So tell us about the work that's been done to turn this facility into the Lux.
Jessica Hathaway: Yeah, absolutely. We've put in brand new carpeting, fresh new wallpaper. A lot of structural things have been fixed within the whole property. It's an older building and so a lot of the things that are going on outside sometimes happen to come inside, but it ends up we've got some great structural things going on and some great facelifts and beautiful new upgrade within the Choice Family of Brands. You also, and we'll talk about that in a moment, you've got 9,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space.
Paul Szmal: Are you getting a lot of banquet and conference type business coming in now?
Jessica Hathaway: We are, absolutely, and that was part of why I was brought on. But to be able to have everything from weddings to small school gatherings, even things like pineapple paper workshop, which is a women's crafting kind of course that we have meetings for within the hotel. There's been lots of opportunity and lots of people are seeing that we have the space available.
Paul Szmal: And so tell us about the restaurant, Woody's Barn Grill.
Jessica Hathaway: Woody's Barn Grill is an old favorite. Jim Woodard is our food and beverage manager and some of you in the Seneca Falls community may know Marshall Grady, who is our wing king. He won a number of different awards for his Blue Bayou Chicken Wings, which are out of this world. So we've been doing some great things. We've got new windows in the barn grill, new furniture. Things are looking great in there.
Paul Szmal: Now as you mentioned, you are now part of the Choice Hotel chain as what's known as the Ascend Collection Division, which is a boutique type higher-end hotel. And people familiar with the chains know that most of them have different levels of amenities and different names. So tell us about how that partnership came about. How did Deluxe become one of the Choice family?
Jessica Hathaway: I joke around, we have a bit of brand identity issues, some identity issues. But we've had some great experience to be able to work within the Choice family of brands. Part of the Ascend Collection allows us to be boutique in that we can kind of customize some of our look and feel like we'll be able to see at our grand opening and ribbon cutting tomorrow night.
Paul Szmal: So in addition to things like this interview, how are you going to get that word out to the public that it is now the Deluxe Hotel and Conference Center in Woody's Barn Grill?
Jessica Hathaway: We have a lot of press releases coming down the pike and we'll definitely be sharing things as they come out after our grand opening. We have a lot of word within the local community. I think the local community has been wonderful to support us and to support the brand. So people who know us from our holiday end days still continue to stay with us during Deluxe. It's a whole new generation.
Paul Szmal: And so you must have felt that there was an opening for a higher-end luxury, as the name would indicate, Lux Hotel. So you've taken kind of that higher-end position. I mean there's a whole bunch of just sort of middle-of-the-road hotels out there.
Jessica Hathaway: Yeah, we're really lucky and with our decision with ownership to be able to, they decided to go in this Ascend Collection route. Like I mentioned, it gives us a lot more flexibility to be able to kind of customize our look and feel and have it really be that upscale, comfortable feeling. It's like being home away from home in a bit, in a sense.
Paul Szmal: So are we, I'm still asking pandemic questions of people, but are we in terms of the lodging industry and tourism, do you feel like we're fully out of the pandemic now and people are back to traveling as they did? And what's the future forecast for Deluxe?
Jessica Hathaway: I definitely see the uptick and the pickup in the number of groups again as we get that word out there and the awareness that we are open. I do think that there is a bit of that, you know, COVID-19 symptom seems to be going around. So that does seem to hinder some things and some movement, but we're excited to look towards the future and see how we can continue to grow and explore this brand to its full capacity.
Paul Szmal: So if somebody is interested in having a conference there or a corporate retreat or banquet or any of that type of thing, how do they contact you and what kind of options do you have in terms of sizes of rooms and amenities that you can offer?
Jessica Hathaway: Yeah, again, my name is Jessica and I'm the Sales and Marketing Manager at the Deluxe Hotel Conference Center. You can also speak to my associate Bobby Bly. We're both teammates in the sales department and so by emailing sales at deluxefingerlakes.com, you can go ahead and reach out to us and get some more information. Our phone number is also available on our website so anyone can call and just make some inquiries and see we can be happy to help out.
Paul Szmal: And also, you've brought on us General Manager Victor Nelson. Some of us remember him. He was General Manager of the Ramada here in Geneva many years ago and has been in the industry for a while.
Jessica Hathaway: Absolutely. Victor's a champion of this brand, of the team that we have here at Deluxe. He actually opened up the Ramada back in the good old days and so it's been great to have him on board and to help support this ever-growing brand and team that we're looking to develop as well.
Paul Szmal: So I assume Choice must have some sort of membership program where you get points and things when you stay at a place like Deluxe?
Jessica Hathaway: Absolutely. Choice Brands, Family Brands, we'll sign up, you get some additional points right off the bat. And then if you end up staying in any one of our properties within the Choice family, you do get benefits there as well.
Paul Szmal: So it's now the Deluxe Hotel and Conference Center at Woody's Bar and Grill. The Grand Reopening is set for tomorrow from 3 to 6. The hotel is hosting along with the Assenica County Chamber of Commerce. Everyone's invited to come take a look around. If you remember it as the Holiday Inn, a lot of changes. It's now a Choice Hotel franchise, the Ascend Collection, which is their top collection within the Choice family. Jessica Hathaway is Sales and Marketing Manager and again you can email her sales at theluxfingerlakes.com if you want to check out some rooms or just some banquet opportunities or conference facilities.
Jessica, thanks for sharing with us. Best of luck with the opening and best of luck moving forward for Deluxe.
Jessica Hathaway: Thank you. Looking forward to seeing some people out and about and appreciate you having me on.
