(Corrected on Dec. 13 to amend the spelling of Ed Skapinok's name throughout the article. Corrected on Dec. 14 to correctly identify Christopher Hunsberger and Charlie Palmer in the main image caption, amend Hunsberger's former Four Seasons title in the third paragraph and change the name of Appellation's learning programs in the 28th paragraph.)
A new, luxury hotel brand that has been on the backburner for about two years due to the pandemic is back on the action plan and circling its first property, to open in 2024.
Pair a hotelier with 35 years of luxury hospitality experience and a celebrity chef with a nationwide presence and the result is a “culinary-forward” hotel company that aims to reimagine the place of food and beverage in a hotel.
Veteran luxury hotelier Christopher Hunsberger, who previously was president of the Americas at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, teamed with celebrity chef and restaurant operator Charlie Palmer to create the hotel brand Appellation, which is designed to be innovative and culinary-forward, with lobbies that feel more like entertainment spaces and include kitchens and food preparation on full display.
Hunsberger and Palmer have known each other for more than 20 years, since Palmer was brought in as the first Four Seasons celebrity chef at its Las Vegas property. They became personal friends when Hunsberger bought a home in Healdsburg, where Palmer is based and Appellation now has its offices.
Five years ago, the two joined to form a hotel company and decided that they could best show their commitment by investing in both the company and in each property. Their core business will be management while they will also be owners and developers. There are silent partners in both the company and in the hotel projects.
While the pandemic delayed development by roughly two years, Hunsberger said it gave the management time to think about the brand and continue to evolve it.
While nobody would wish for the crisis, he said, “it gave us the opportunity to move more smartly and with a more informed perspective.”
Each of the brand's hotels will feature a high-profile restaurant as well as a bar, on the rooftop where possible.
The first property will be the Appellation Healdsburg with 108 rooms on five acres, a restaurant in the lobby, a rooftop bar, meeting space, social event space and several pools. The goal is to open late in 2024, which Hunsberger said is a fairly quick development schedule for a hotel at that level.
About six months after that, the second hotel is expected to open in Ketchum, Idaho, with a smaller footprint — 79 hotel keys and 13 for-sale penthouse condos.
The third is slated to be a 225-room hotel in Pacific Grove in Monterey County, California, and company executives are targeting North San Diego County as the site of a fourth hotel.
The intention with each hotel is to present “approachable luxury,” positioned at a 4.5-star service level. They will be in locations that present high barriers to entry “with unaccommodated demand for luxury accommodations.”
Hunsberger said the focus will be on local food no matter the location. On-property managers will be expected to ask: What is the food-and-beverage culture? Who are the makers in the area? Who are the farmers? “Appellation“ means naming a place — as in a wine region like Champagne or Bordeaux, Hunsberger said.
He said the company did “real soul searching“ about the name early on, envisioning what it’s really like to have a sense of place. While every brand is laying claim to that, the name Appellation “telegraphs that we are truly acting on it,” he said.
Hunsberger said Palmer will be “a great ambassador” for the new brand. He lives in Healdsburg and visits his restaurants around the country regularly.
The ambiance of the hotels will be like the feeling of entertaining at home in the kitchen where visitors like to hang out.
With a hotel ambiance of entertaining at home, Hunsberger said “guests will realize there is a difference” from the moment they arrive.
The butcher block arrival desk will have a kitchen-like feel, and there will be a culinary offering as guests arrive. The culinary-centric theme will spill out into the grounds when possible.
While it will be obvious that Palmer is the signature chef, Hunsberger said the restaurants will not bear his name.
The hotels will also feature a pantry on every floor that is an alternative to the mini-bar, with a more expanded offering. That might be the day’s cocktail mix or a “proper cup of coffee” and tea. It will be a much more elevated experience delivered by sophisticated equipment.
Each hotel will have location-appropriate culinary gardens, with vegetables or fruit trees. In an urban environment, they might be on a rooftop. The hotels will develop relationships with local purveyors so guests can understand that what is on the plate came from the hotel’s gardens or the gardens of locals.
Ed Skapinok, chief commercial officer and one of the company’s first employees, said one design element is “making the invisible visible."
For instance, hotels will bring culinary prep stations from behind the scenes and into the lobby, reinforcing the brand’s culinary nature. That gives guests — locals or visitors — an opportunity to interact with kitchen talent while they prep for the evening meal.
Meetings will be a core market for the brand, Hunsberger said.
“People might not be excited about coming to a meeting, so we will be bringing in activities and entertainment in addition to getting meals that will elevate the experience,” he said.
That might mean live-fire cooking as guests sip wine with a local winemaker in Healdsburg, taking a fly-tying class before heading to the nearby river in Sun Valley or learning the art of a perfectly prepared artichoke in Pacific Grove, near “the artichoke capital of the world.”
All major event spaces will have an exhibition kitchen that can be hidden if a planner requests that, but an open kitchen can be used for a meeting breakfast or breakout session. Live feeds can be done from the kitchen and piped into guest rooms or wherever attendees are.
Skapinok said more than 50 Crafted at Appellation experiential learning programs will be conducted annually and every hotel will have “maker spaces” built into lobbies. These will be multi-purpose spaces that may be used for private dining, overflow for meetings, or to bring in local makers and artisans to interact with guests.
Right alongside food as the centerpiece, innovative technology will also be foundational to the brand. Skapinok said when the founders began creating Appellation they didn’t talk about hardware or software or systems but rather about the experiences they wanted for guests and for employees. They then sought out the technology to make those experiences possible.
Simplicity was a key part of that strategy, Skapinok said.
In a typical luxury hotel, there are 120 different types of technology, he said. Appellation designed a technology eco-system with a third of that number and “the hard part” done behind the scenes.
One on-the-ground result is that if a coffee shop guest mentions wanting a massage, a barista can handle making the appointment without the guest having to go back to the concierge or into an app. In addition, there are fewer systems for employees to train on, and if there is turnover, there are fewer to retrain on.
The guest app features one content management system, with more efficiency for marketing and customer relationships management and one guest record across all revenue centers. Because of that, the app will know as guests approach the hotel and who the guest is so that valets can begin pre-registration. Guests can then bypass the front desk or opt for a more traditional check-in experience.
“We want to take advantage of the technology that’s out there in a smart way,” Hunsberger said.
He said Appellation is emerging at a time when technology has advanced considerably, giving the brand the opportunity to start fresh with the best tools available.
Skapinok said that while there is a lot of talk about hotels using technology to replace human interaction, at Appellation the approachable luxury style means that technology is used to replace administrative functions rather than guest interactions. In addition, the company will have 20 years of data from the Charlie Palmer Collective to draw from in understanding consumer preferences.
The guest mix will vary by property, Hunsberger said, noting that while all hotels will be business friendly, they will have a resort feel even if they are in a downtown.
With the five-star luxury space so crowded, Hunsberger said Appellation will not be charging the $1,500- to $2,000-a-night rates that are not unusual in wine country or other areas that draw high-end travelers. The Healdsburg property as of now will be charging $600 to $800 a night, which is within reach for more luxury customers, he said.