Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Edel Forristal, general manager of the Loden Hotel, to open at 1139 Melville. Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
In the Forristal family, it’s like father, like daughter.
The Kor Hotel Group announced Tuesday that Edel Forristal has become the general manager of the 77-room Loden Vancouver Hotel scheduled to open this fall near Melville and Bute.
She’s clearly a chip off the old block as her father, Denis Forristal, was a popular and longtime general manager of the Westin Bayshore hotel in Vancouver. But it wasn’t always a natural progression from hotel manager’s daughter to hotel manager herself.
“He was so set against any of us [four children] ever doing this because of the hours you have to put in and the fact you get totally wrapped up in it,” Forristal said in an interview. “But once he knew I was really passionate about it, he became my biggest fan.”
She actually had to sneak behind her dad’s back to get her first hotel job in 1980, working in the kitchen at the Westin Bayshore while she was in high school. The chef offered her a summer job but she told him her father wouldn’t stand for it.
“The chef told me not to worry about that and just show up tomorrow and it all worked out,” Forristal said.
Her previous positions have included director of operations at the Terminal City Club & Hotel and food and beverage director as part of the pre-opening team at Four Seasons Whistler. She has also had stints with the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver, the Ramada Renaissance and the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Forristal has clearly earned her stripes on merit but said it didn’t hurt being the daughter of such a well known Vancouver hotelier.
“I’m so proud to be his daughter,” she said. “With his reputation in the Vancouver marketplace, it’s like I have a little golden halo that nobody else in Vancouver has.
“He’s an inspiring guy and I think a lot of that has to do with his traditional Irish approach to hospitality and his real love of people. He certainly shared that with our family.”
Forristal, 43, replaces former Loden general manager David Currell, who was recruited away from the Vancouver hotel project to rejoin his former employer — San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hotels.
“You work your whole career for the opportunity to either open hotels or be a general manager and the fact I get to do both here is hugely exciting,” she said. “I’m thrilled at the opportunity.”
Forristal said her mandate is to bring a “new, untraditional approach” to the Vancouver hotel market. She said California-based Kor Hotel Group is well known for creating urban retreats for travelers who don’t want to walk into another “nameless, faceless, cookie-cutter hotel” where they’re just another guest.
“We’re going to create an edge and a contemporary vive that the young dynamic is looking for today — they don’t want to be at the Marriott,” Forristal said.
She said she’s excited at the prospect of three new high-end boutique hotels opening in the same part of Vancouver — Loden (2007), Shangri-La (2008) and Ritz-Carleton (2011).
“It’s absolutely fabulous for Vancouver when you have that kind of luxury product coming into this market and driving room rates. It will really showcase Vancouver as the international destination that it is.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007