ROSSKLEIN
PRESIDENT
W HOTEL WORLDWIDE
by Lawrence Ferber
As a brand marketer, Ross Klein has
brought visibility and recognition to names including
Ralph Lauren and Polo Jeans, Joe Boxer, TO2/Todd Oldham,
Sun Apparel, and W Hotels, but Klein’s flair for
concocting fresh, stirring identities has also moved
into his private life—including his neighborhood.
“I’m renovating an apartment in Murray Hill,”
he says, referring to Manhattan’s midtown east
neighborhood, “and I think we need to re-brand
it. I’m working with ‘MuHi.’ MuHi, the
new Nolita.”
Recently elevated to the position of president of W
Hotels Worldwide, Klein first joined the luxurious,
stylish, and extremely gay-friendly chain in 2003 as
Chief Marketing Officer. Under his leadership, the seven-year-old
W brand has evolved into an international lifestyle
phenomenon with 20 (and growing) properties from New
York to Los Angeles to Seoul, Korea. “The [Korean
staff] at the W Seoul have taken American names,”
he tells me, “and a lot of the girls took Sex and
the City names, which I thought was very funny. We have
a lot of Carries at the W Seoul.”
I meet Klein at W Hotel headquarters in Manhattan’s
Chelsea neighborhood. Before he arrives, I have a chance
to finish my morning coffee and survey the walls of
his office which are partly decorated by W’s clever
and casual signage (known as “collateral”),
including do not disturb signs that read “Leave
Me Alone—Please” and “Dreaming.”
When Klein arrives, he briskly walks
through the door, breathes deeply, and sits down on
a couch. There’s something about his appearance
and the way he carries himself (streamlined perhaps)
that I’ve noticed in a lot of fashion industry
people. Indeed, that’s where he spent the first
part of his career. Klein also views W as a fashion
brand and models it accordingly. Reflecting the way
a retail store remodels and changes stock annually,
every W undergoes slight alterations throughout the
year in lighting, music, botanical arrangements, staff
wardrobe, furniture, and more.
 “We’ve
brought a seasonality to this marketplace that didn’t
exist before,” he notes. “We have a lot of
repeat guests and we want it to be like when you go
to the Polo store—every other month there’s
a different installation so it keeps you coming back,
refreshed, and visually engaged. Auntie Mame—how
many times did she change that apartment?”
Elaborating on W Hotels’ approach,
Klein emphasizes: “I didn’t go to hotel school,
I don’t know what the perceived limits are on what
you can’t do. In fact, that’s what W is all
about—not having any boundaries on what the hospitality
experience can be. We think of it more as an entertainment
destination, and what we do as programming. We have
great spaces that should be animated and not just renting
beds. That also goes for the language we use. The welcome
mat says ‘Well, Hello There,’ and the room
service menu says things like ‘Who wants toast?’
and ‘Don’t forget juice.’ It’s very
colloquial and has a sense of humor.”
Other W details arise during our conversation. The W
staff, from President to Maid, is referred to as “talent.”
Under the “Whatever, Whenever” policy, guests
can request anything they want any time, day or night.
One guest, staying at NYC’s W Union Square, wanted
his dog to have a place to run and play. Six feet of
grass were laid out on the hotel’s roof exclusively
for the pup’s use. A couple, about to be married,
left their wedding cake at home, so W commissioned a
helicopter to pick it up and deliver it “Donald
Trump-style.”
Are there any limits to “Whatever, Whenever”’s
parameters? “We are not a flesh broker at any level,”
Klein replies, measuring his words carefully with a
smile. “We like to think of ‘Whatever, Whenever’
as anything that’s legal. There have been those
requests for non-approved services and products. Quite
often. We have a wonderful policy on addressing that
without insulting the guests, but the majority of our
requests are delightful.”
The son of two educator parents, Klein hails from sunny
Melbourne, Florida. As a boy, he developed “a passion
for fashion” and travel. After earning a BS in
Advertising and Marketing from the University of Florida,
he was recruited by Burdines (“The Florida Store!”)
for their executive training program. Klein later moved
to NYC and became a consultant for Liz Claiborne and
then VP Creative Director at Bon Jour, transforming
their moribund Faded Glory brand into a pulsing money
generator.
By the late 1990’s, he had risen to Senior VP of
Corporate Marketing for Ralph Lauren and the Polo Jeans
Company. Klein praises Lauren as a hero, an inspiration,
“and possibly the kindest, most sincere man I’ve
ever worked for,” he enthuses. “He doesn’t
sit in an ivory tower and I’ve never seen someone
work so hard in my life. One of the things I’ve
tried to emulate in my life at W is his keen ability
to make people part of something, part of the machinery.”
Continued
1
| 2
NEXT>>
|
