The Toronto International Film Festival is “11 days of wild fun and madness,” according to Aaron Campbell, the fest’s director of program and events services. Residents of Toronto will be more than familiar with the slow-moving SUVs, over-capacity sidewalks and the swinging lanyards of industry and media people in town from everywhere else for the festival. But behind (and before and after) the step-and-repeats, press conferences and galas there is a serious mini-industry of service and hospitality that lasts for less than two weeks but contributes to the $189-million of economic impact that TIFF was responsible for in the last year.
“The festival is involved in trains, planes and automobiles,” Campbell says. “We not only book flights and book rooms, and we arrange ground transportation for talent and folks who are attached to the films, we arrange for them to and from the airport, to and from the hotel. It’s no small endeavour.”
When we book an individual quite often what we’ll get is a booking for four or five rooms
“Of the 4,500 industry delegates, about 3,500 of those are from out of town,” says Campbell. “We have an additional 500 accredited media who are from outside of Canada [500 members of the Canadian media attend TIFF] and that doesn’t account for the large number [approximately 500] of talent, and industry folks that are not delegates — so directors, producers and the like who are attached to each film.”
And, considering how often A-list talent and executives travel big, with personal trainers, assistants, publicists, kids and managers, that’s a lot of hotel rooms.
“When we book an individual quite often what we’ll get is a booking for four or five rooms,” says Larry Mogelonsky, the public relations manager for the Hazelton Hotel.
The Ritz-Carlton’s director of sales and marketing Daniel Newberry says that the number of rooms “depends per A-lister; usually they have the one main suite, and then sometimes there’s two suites that they connect with.”
They’re paying for it, too: During the festival, hotel-room rates go up precipitously. (Last year, before lucking into a last-minute room at One King West, my TIFF hotel options were $10,000-per-night suites, or in Mississauga.)
That said, those precipitous rates are the same for everyone.
“Most of the time the studio is having [a star] come up here, it’s not coming out of [the star’s] pocket,” says the Ritz-Carlton’s Daniel Newberry. “We always like to have integrity with our partners, and [we do not] deal with one studio one way and another studio another way.”
For the last two years, the festival has been downtown, clustered around the TIFF Bell Lightbox and the Hyatt Regency Toronto on King Street. The stars still book rooms at top-tier Yorkville hotels such as the Four Seasons, which reopened last year on the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue; the Park Hyatt; the Hazelton Hotel and the Windsor Arms; according to Four Seasons public relations director Halla Rafati, “celebrities, major directors and producers have chosen the hotel as a haven, which is very interesting to us, because it’s seemingly quiet, but discretion is even more important … The last thing they want to do is bring the hype back.”
Still, much of the visible celebrity-energy around TIFF is around the newer downtown hotels, like the Shangri-La Hotel, which opened in 2012, and which is adjacent to Momofuku chef-mogul David Chang’s Toronto outposts; the Ritz-Carlton, which opened in 2011; and the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which opened in 2012. The arts-oriented boutique hotel The Drake, on West Queen West, remains a player; Ana Yuristy, the director of hotel operations, says “I feel that the Drake is the place that ‘the stars’ want to hang out and unwind, as opposed to the place they have to make an appearance at while they’re working the festival.”
Though the festival itself is involved in hotel bookings, TIFF’s Aaron Campbell says “naturally, studios, distributors and films do have existing relationships with hotels and some arrange for the own accommodation.”
Sometimes, Mogelonsky says, “what happens is they will be completing a production, and at the last minute decide they can make it to Toronto. We get [calls] from people en route in their private jet.”
Bookings also happen far in advance; some VIPs are already booked for TIFF 2014.
“A lot of the people, especially if they are what I call ‘TIFF darlings,’ by June they’re sort of saying, we don’t know when, but could you block [rooms],” says Christine Korda, the director of communications and special events at the Windsor Arms. “That also goes for a lot of the producers and studio heads. They all have their favourite spots, for different reasons.”
Preparing for TIFF might involve calling in a hotel’s part-timers, flying chain hotel staff in from other locations, and hiring seamstresses and babysitters to be on-call throughout the day and night. Sometimes, physical expansion is involved: The Ritz-Carlton has made their outdoor patio bigger, and the Four Seasons has extended their main-floor dbar restaurant into the lobby. Probably the most significant difference between TIFF and the rest of the year is arranging A-list-level security for the influx of VIPs. (At least in the bigger hotels: “We tend not to book in the A-list stars,” says Ana Yuristy of the Drake, “because we don’t have the private back entrance, and there’s no secret elevator,” instead booking “stars that want to be immersed in what’s happening.”)
At the Hazelton, according to Larry Mogelonsky, “A person can enter the hotel unseen, and leave the hotel unseen.” He adds that they once had a situation where “an individual was being pursued by paparazzi, and we had three unique Escalades that came out of the garage, and we had put the individual into one of them, and they went in three separate directions.”
People want their smoked-meat sandwiches flown in from Schwartz’s deli in Montreal. It’s kept cool in gel packs, it leaves the night before, and arrives in the morning from FedEx by 8:30
Halla Rafati says that security measures necessarily change during the festival with the sheer number of high-profile guests.
“Usually, when you have your VIP guest or celebrity guest, they come in individually, so [it’s a matter of] opening up those secret entrances or those backdoor entrances for one person; now it’s a matter of having those secret entrances constantly manned.”
Hosting A-listers is not always such serious work. TIFF-themed cocktails, in-suite welcome gifts and super-personalized service are part of the TIFF and therefore Toronto experience for VIPs.
“We have an artist in the hotel who does customized plates [for the TOCA Restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton],” says Daniel Newberry. Last year, they were film-reel-themed; this year, a red carpet. Welcome presents at the Trump Hotel will include “a special gift from Christian Dior,” while The Hazelton Hotel focuses on “Canadian flair,” which has included custom-made chocolates, ice wines, Canadian perfume, Hudson’s Bay blankets and items from Roots. The Shangri-La Hotel has partnered with Birks and Canada Goose for their TIFF gifts, but, as Alex Filiatrault, their director of sales and marketing, points out, such gestures aren’t always a matter of flash.
“Some of these industry professionals travel six months out of the year. We understand that, and we try to create something that is uniquely familiar to them,” he says. “We ask a lot of questions, and we work closely with the entourage of the VIPs. Obviously, we’ll have particular types of food, of water, of wines, anything that can make them feel at home. Special pillows, special soaps.”
Indeed, each of the hotels is quick to provide examples of what the personal touch means to them.
“We have a lot of regular guests who make the Hazelton Hotel their home during the period of TIFF. You get to learn what they want,” says Larry Mogelonsky. “For example, people want their smoked-meat sandwiches flown in from Schwartz’s deli in Montreal. … It’s [kept cool] in gel packs, it leaves the night before, and arrives in the morning from FedEx by 8:30.”
Naomi Strasser, spokeswoman for the Trump International Hotel and Tower, described a bath prepared for a TIFF guest’s young son. “They had called ahead, and the staff had the bath drawn and ready when they arrived at the hotel. There were a series of foam letters that spelled the boy’s name in the water, and they capped it off with a rubber duck, and had a plate of milk and cookies beside the bed for him.”
Also last year at the Trump, “an A-list Bollywood star requested a ‘traditional Indian breakfast,’ but the kitchen didn’t have the specific chutney the actor was looking for. Chef dispatched someone immediately to find the ingredients in an ethnic supermarket, and breakfast was served to the guest’s specifications.”
Dogs are a recurring theme. Another guest at the Trump wanted a massage for her dog. “The hotel obliged, finding a specialist in pet massage,” Strasser says.
Liloo Alim, the chief concierge of the Four Seasons, says “One celebrity travelled with her mini pooch, and it was so small, we custom-made steps to place at the foot of her bed so that the dog could climb in with her. And the steps had to be pink.” The Hazelton Hotel has an A-list guest whose dog’s special food isn’t available in Canada, “so we go to the States and pick it up,” says Larry Mogelonsky.
Sometimes, the hotels’ efforts are more of the BFF variety. Daniel Newberry of the Ritz-Carlton says that a TIFF guest “needed black shoes [for an interview] and it was early morning, and our bellman overheard and said ‘I have a pair of black shoes, they’re in my car.’” After a 45-minute interview, the actor returned the shoes to the bellman, signed.
Newberry also says that a Ritz-Carlton guest “had a certain preferred bed that they liked to sleep in all over the world. We flew it in from the U.S.”
Mogelonsky says that “some of our guests — there’s more than one — will not allow anyone to be sleeping in the guest room above them or below them. If, for example, they book 401, they also book 501 and 301.” He adds “We have another Hollywood-er who will not sleep in a bed that someone’s slept in before. No problem. Nothing is an issue. No one’s talking about expense.”
“You get so caught up in everything,” says Christine Korda of the Windsor Arms, “you go in automatic mode. We’re so used to it here. You make things happen. The word ‘no’ kind of leaves your vocabulary.”
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