Victoria hotelier takes Zed brand into Okanagan
Wild colours, retro phones, records prove wildly popular with guests
Hotel Zed is taking its colourful, retro brand to Kelowna.
Mandy Farmer, chief executive of the Accent Inns hotel chain and the architect of the throwback look that’s made spinoff Hotel Zed a huge success in Victoria, has acquired a tired hotel in the heart of the Okanagan city and will start a transformation as early as Nov. 1.
Farmer did not reveal what she paid for the 52-room Abbott Villa hotel, located in a prime spot across from Kelowna’s city park and largest public beach. The company is also not revealing any costs in a redesign that is expected to take at least six months and be ready for the 2016 summer season.
“We are going to do in Kelowna what we did in Victoria, and in what I think is an even better location,” said Farmer.
“We are going to upcycle the hotel, keeping the best part of its architecture and create almost from scratch a retro-modern and back-to-retro accommodation experience.”
Since the first Hotel Zed launched two years ago on Douglas Street across from Mayfair Shopping centre, the new hospitality brand has exceeded Farmer’s expectations.
The company acquired the two-star Blue Ridge Motor Inn and sent it back through time in a major redesign with splashes of wild colours, refurbished Tanker steel desks, rotary dial phones and lava lamps — all matched with hightech hubs for today’s techsavvy travellers. A trickedout lobby encourages social interaction with state-ofthe-art sound system, record player and albums, manual typewriters for guests to write postcards and a ping-pong table.
Hotel Zed’s colourful 1967 Volkswagen buses are recognized across the city as they shuttle guests to Victoria hot spots while its restaurant, Ruby, is now a popular eating destination, often lined out of the door.
Farmer plans to replicate everything in Kelowna. She spent the past 12 months searching for a second location and said the Abbott Villa “was begging for some funkification and rebellious fun, the kind that stops people in their tracks and encourages them to explore.
“We are so proud of how well received our Hotel Zed brand has become in Victoria,” added Farmer. “Our chain of Accent Inns hotels across B.C. are respected within the leisure and business travel community for providing solid value and a great night’s stay. But with Hotel Zed we wanted to do something revolutionary. Something that would make people stop and go, ‘whoa… how fun is this?’”
Farmer is also counting on Hotel Zed’s track record for generating buzz to also help drive people to Kelowna.
Tourism Victoria said Hotel Zed is a driver on its own for tourism in the capital region.
“Tourism Victoria has been able to get dozens of media hits for the Hotel Zed and we know that has helped to drive significant business back to the property and city,” said Tourism Victoria’s CEO Paul Nursey. “It is just so easy to get travel and lifestyle media to cover the Hotel Zed because it is so unique and newsworthy. It hits a sweet spot.”
Hotel Zed spokesman John Espley said the Abbott Villa hotel was built in the 1960s. “It was a case where the owners were running it, but not investing in it,” he said. “It was exactly what we wanted.”
He said the Hotel Zed in Victoria has given travellers a new option. “The way it’s designed, the services we provide — it’s different — and people like that,” said Espley. “It’s an experience as opposed to just a hotel.”
He said Hotel Zed attracts a spectrum — “from youth and the hipsters to seniors and people reliving a bit of their past — it’s certainly proving popular.”
“When we took over the Blue Ridge in Victoria, we called it the ultimate recycling project. Instead of tearing it all down and starting over again, we just re-invented it.”
Espley said much of the planning is just getting underway. He said everything from designs on the outdoor swimming pool and a new, non-chain restaurant to colour schemes and retro items are currently in the “idea stage.”