Hospitality Today Winter 2020 (#40) | Page 13

hospitalitytoday.com | 13 This new hub offers SBM customers a total of 486 bedrooms (278 at the Hotel Hermitage and 208 at the Hotelde Paris), 33 meeting rooms and lounges (10 at One Monte-Carlo, 14 at the Hotel Hermitage, eight at the Hotel de Paris and one at the Café de Paris) and infinite possibilities in terms of organising events. A dedicated SBM team helps MICE customers run events of up to 950 people. One Monte Carlo boasts nine rooms (1,445m2): • The Salle des Arts: a 301m2 gilded Art Deco room (up to 300 people) • The Salle Jean Cocteau: 178m2 • Thwe auditorium: 154m2 and capacity for 80 • The Maria Callas, Rossini and Arman rooms, each 96 sq. m, partitionable in 2, with natural daylight • A large lobby with more than 500 m2 for multiple uses The words “return on investment” were used repeatedly by SBM’s Director of Sales Alice Gentils to HT. SBM’s philosophy is that the overall return on investment to its customers includes the intangible but very real halo effect on guest satisfaction from the Monte Carlo experience. Just 30 minutes from Nice airport by car – or seven minutes by helicopter – Monaco may be perceived as “out of reach”, but is actually very accessible in practical terms. Monaco’s selling points include “absolute security” (with blanket CCTV, Police patrols etc) and a choice of over 30 restaurants and bars. There is the famous Café de Paris and its terrace on Place du Casino, Le Vistamar (one Michelin star) for refined seafood, L’Hirondelle for “light and tasty” cuisine, and the Buddha-Bar for exoticism and night life. And the organic gastronomic cuisine in the one-star Elsa restaurant and the creations of Chef Marcel Ravin in L’Orange Verte and the one-star Blue Bay restaurant (at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel).