In a market where luxury hospitality is thriving, the new 45-room Palmetto Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, is seeking to stand out.
The Palmetto opened in March on East Bay Street, known for popular scenic stops, shops, restaurateurs and historic buildings.
General Manager Carly Skinner said while The Palmetto is in good company in terms of other luxury lifestyle hotels nearby, she believes her property is set apart by its authentic low-country feel.
Skinner shared more about the recent opening of The Palmetto in this Q&A.
What makes the property unique? What's new post-renovation?
The Palmetto truly resonates with the spirit of Charleston, and that was our goal for everything from the room aesthetic to the design of the lobby to the cocktail menus — everything has a nod to Charleston. We have vintage Charleston images scattered throughout the property, we have books featuring notable low-country writers and books about the history of Charleston scattered throughout the lobby.
The property was actually built on top of what was the original city wall of Charleston, which is a very cool fact; we try to embrace that in telling the story of The Palmetto. The entire lobby is made up of pieces ... that are all antiques and vintage pieces that have been restored or custom pieces that were curated specifically for The Palmetto. Most notably, one of them is a vintage Charleston map that was scanned and then silk-screened onto a sofa. You walk in and you're sitting on a map of 1872 Charleston.
What's new post-renovation? We like to say that if you turn the hotel upside down, everything that would shake out is what was renovated. While it was a pre-existing hotel, it's an entirely new design and concept.
What's the reality of opening a hotel?
Opening a property always has an exciting chaos surrounding it no matter how organized you are, things happen that you don't anticipate — you won't hear a dial tone on a phone or a TV won't turn on, just all of those things. We certainly were not without our share of that but there were and are so many passionate people involved with this project that despite the intensity and the pressure, we all really relied on the spirit of the team to pull us through. That's the most you can ask for. No one hesitated to roll up their sleeves; we were cleaning the lobby until late the night before we opened. I think we were all looking at each other like, "Are we going to pull this off?" Then the first guest walked into the door, and to see the look on their faces, see how excited they were to get here and how happy they were when they checked out ... it's worth it.
It's going to be crazy, it's going to be intense, things will get missed and we'll have to backtrack but it's all part of the process. I think, overall, it went very smoothly due to the people we have on our team.
What lessons have you learned from opening a hotel?
Give yourself hard dates and stick to them because procrastination is not an option, and time to spare kind of goes out the window once the doors open.
My previous role was at a hotel that was open, but I did go through an opening when I was living in Los Angeles. It's an incredible experience to build something from the ground up and handpick every member on your team, write all the standard operating procedures and make sure things are done correctly, as opposed to stepping into an operation where all that's preexisting.
I'm definitely more prepared having been through it once before. But, an opening is an opening; there's always a little chaos involved.
What programming can guests expect at the hotel?
We have quite a bit in the works with local personalities helping us create special experiences. We're still ironing out those details; they'll be featured on our website and we will communicate them to guests through pre-arrival emails to gauge their interest.
Our PR team, they're developing partnerships with local tastemakers in the food-and-beverage industry to do activations and pop-ups at our bar. We have [a limited] food-and-beverage program, we're just curating a couple food items and a couple cocktail items really well, so there's the opportunity to bring in some of these bigger personalities to have these pop-ups and partnerships. We have our custom bikes, we're doing a bike map of notable places to visit.
[We're going to listen] to our guests so we can start anticipating their needs and making sure that we have something for everyone.
Is The Palmetto up against other lifestyle hotel openings? How are you standing out?
This luxury lifestyle hotel product in Charleston is certainly thriving, so we are in very good company. The Moxy hotel is planning to open in April, and then looking a bit forward, right around the corner from us, The Cooper is progressing very quickly. Definitely a lot going on, a lot in development.
I think the beauty of the Charleston hospitality scene is that each property has its own unique style and flare. So there's truly something for everyone and there's no shortage of guests coming to Charleston. There is room for every hotel to have their share of guests, but of course we hope to stand out. I think it's things like the thoughtful details we have in both the guestrooms and in the lobby, those "wow" moments when you walk in. I had a friend who walked in [the other day] and saw the place for the first time and is like, "This is beautiful, and your attention gets pulled in so many different directions."
How do you feel the pandemic has changed you as a leader?
Leaders overall, and certainly myself, had to become more nimble and adaptable. You have to always have your head on a swivel and always be prepared to shift strategy and focus. And I think empathy and sensitivity became more important than ever, especially with team members, making sure they felt comfortable in the environment they were working in. And towards our guests as well, it was a completely different guest that was traveling during COVID, if they were traveling at all, so I think the sensitivity over ... any process or system really became of the most importance.
I don't think the stereotype of being a figurehead, sitting at your desk and dictating tasks to your team applies anymore. Not only do you have to be strategic and lead the vision for your property, but the expectation is also that you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty alongside of them. There were a lot of general managers that were making beds and checking guests in and answering the phones. Just because we have now filled in those gaps and have people doing that again, that doesn't mean that we stop helping and we stop stepping in and being on the ground with our teams.