Dolce Int’l Takes A Wait-And-See Stance After Attacks

MONTVALE, NJ— Dolce International Chairman/CEO Andy Dolce reports that his company is taking a wait-and-see attitude in the wake of the terrorist attacks . In an interview with HOTEL BUSINESS®, Dolce said he was unsure how these attacks and the ensuing war will affect his company’s growth. Earlier this year, the company, along with its current partner AEW Partners II, inked a deal for a $100 million capital infusion from Soros Real Estate Investors (SREI) to expand in the U.S. and Europe. “Were not sure yet. Theres a lot of anxiety for us, our investors. And the president, has called for a war on terrorism. I absolutely support that, but well have to see how it will affect travel, attitudes, property damage. We know it needs to happen, but well need to wait and see,” said Dolce. Dolce told HOTEL BUSINESS® that, “Before the attacks we were doing well in some areas, but not in others, particularly in the Austin, TX area, and in the Pacific Northwest… where we were feeling the effects of the technology slump. We were doing okay in Connecticut, the metropolitan New York area, and extremely well in Europe and Canada. “September and October were forecast to be great months, a kind of recovery, with occupancy forecast in the range of 70% to 85%, depending on the property. Now we expect it to be 30% to 50%, depending on the property,” the chairman/CEO noted. After the attacks, Dolce said that some properties were “hit hard around the New York area, but some are doing okay. And there have been some cancellations by some multinational corporations, so we picked up some business, those who would rather have their people drive to more regional and local meetings in Europe.” He said in the days following the attacks, Dolce participated in many teleconference and videoconference calls to initially assess the companys properties in North America and Europe. He reported that the “morale and attitude is good” considering all that happened. He asked all of his companys properties to post status reports by Sept. 21 on numbers projections for now and through the end of the year so he can “get a better sense of where we are.” Dolce International also “reached out to the customers in downtown Manhattan via voicemail, e-mail and letters. We have over 600 contacts there, and many major companies as customers— American Express, Morgan Stanley, Aon Group and AIG were pretty significant customers of ours.” For them, Dolce offered to help with “housing, extended-stay, office space. We have relocation programs that were offering. Were doing everything we can to help them,” Dolce said. When the U.S. airports were shut down after the attacks, Dolce had many stranded guests at its properties. “We had a lot of people in-house. Some meetings continued, some got canceled. We put TVs in all of the public areas so people could watch what was going on. And we provided as much support and hospitality as we could.” On that subject of security, Dolce told HOTEL BUSINESS® that to be proactive, the company “ran a check on all of our guests going back to 1995; we havent found anything, but we are cooperating with police and the FBI, as weve been asked by federal police and local departments to disclose anything suspicious. We will continue to run the searches. “And local police in the U.K., the Netherlands and France in particular have stepped up surveillance of our properties there. We asked for that.” In the U.S., he said employees at each property are more on guard and more sensitive to whats going on around them. As a result of the attacks, the company’s launch of its Dolce Conference Solutions program was postponed. Dolce explained that American Airlines “is a major partner in that regard, and it is currently reviewing internal programs. We will still have the benefit of working with them, but [in light of whats happened], I think the program will be delayed by about 30 days.” On the brigh