Thursday, November 15, 2007

New Rooms


Double Queen Room


King Room Desk
King Room

If a picture can say a thousand words.....then these should speak volumes!

New Furniture and More.....


Old Suites

King Bedroom In New Suites

Dining Area in New Suites
Living Area in New Suites
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Well, things are moving right along here at the DTP. We have many rooms of new furniture installed, The fire sprinkler guys have just about finished up the east end of the hotel and all of the new plumbing and equipment installed also on the east end has passed inspection.
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The outside of the hotel is currently being painted and the hotel already looks like a different place. We are using a khaki color for the base and adding our "DTP Blue" to the main lobby entrance pillars, with a deep linen for the entry ways. This is the same blue that we are using in the lobby and guest rooms. It is a very rich blue. Look at the draperies in this photo. These are the new drapes that we have installed in some of our rooms.
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Above are four photos: the one on the top is that of an old suite that was here when we purchased this hotel.......The next three are of new suite or as we call it our "Premier Suite". Two rooms of beautiful furniture (all of our rooms will have this furniture). We have added in different textures of fabrics and have mixed solid, subtle strips and yes, animal print into these rooms. It is not busy, but very relaxing.
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We want each suite and guest room to feel like your home away from home. We also have junior suites, these suites have the same furniture but they are an L-shaped room. The bed, desk and seating is in one area and the dining and kitchenette area is in the L-Area.
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When we were looking at ways to decorate the hotel we came across many styles that were BLAND. They were all khaki and white. They had no life, no depth- like a brown box with white sheets. We wanted to create an atmosphere of LIFE. We wanted cheery, relaxing colors that would open the room. Yes, we still have alot to do, but we are getting there. This cannot be a rush job- this has to be a perfect job.

We will continue to work everyday until we bring you a new DOWNTOWN PLAZA HOTEL.

Thanks-
Jay and Staff

Thursday, October 4, 2007

A Brief History Lesson


The Original Downtown Plaza Hotel (DTP)of Tulsa was built in 1966. It was the first modern hotel in downtown Tulsa. In 1966 downtown Tulsa was a thriving business center with many shops, restaurants, and theaters. The DTP offered to the guest many ammenities that you don't find in any hotel today. I was unable to find a photo of downtown Tulsa from 1966, but I did find one from 1952.

The DTP had on site a full service Restaurant, Lounge, Hair Salon, Dry Cleaner, Gift Shop,nd Small Market place. It was a city inside a hotel. The guest never had to leave the property.

After a little research about this magnificent place, I have found that it was indeed a PLAZA. The Webster's dictionary definition of Plaza:

Main Entry: pla·za
Pronunciation: \ˈpla-zə, ˈplä-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Spanish, from Latin platea broad street — more at place
Date: 1683
1 a: a public square in a city or town b: an open area usually located near urban buildings and often featuring walkways, trees and shrubs, places to sit, and sometimes shops.

Over the last 40 years with the drive for the suburbs, the downtown area of Tulsa, like many cities in the United States died. Over the last few years there has been a large comeback of the downtown areas in the smaller cities, like Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Austin, Colorado Springs, St. Louis and the list goes on.

Many younger Americans are moving back into the downtown areas and they are investing their money in Businesses and real estate. Why the move from the Burb's to the downtown? Well, from the way I see it and from living in the downtown areas of Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Ft. Lauderdale, Savannah and St. Louis everything was accessible 24 hours a day and was within walking distance or via subway or taxi.

It was the place to be. Where you could feed off the energy of the city at anytime of the day. The buildings are beautiful and everyone belongs.

So we at the DTP are proud and excited to part of Tulsa's 2025 project. A project to bring more to Tulsa and more back to the downtown area. Tulsa is building an 18,000 seat arena (The Bank of Oklahoma Arena)set to open late summer of 2008 and Tulsa is spending several millions of dollars on a full renovation of the convention center.

Our plan for the DTP is to bring her back to life for everyone from anywhere in the world to call home during their visit to one of our countries most beautiful cities and a place for locals to gather in our restaurant, lounge, and other venues that we will be adding over the next few months.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.

Jay and the DTP staff

New Reservation System



It is done! Finally after three weeks of planning and entering room type, rate plans and our general information data and 4 days of training (Thank you Ms. Tracy Jackson for taking your time to teach us everything you know), we took our new InnQuest-Roomaster reservation system live today. So, what does this new reservation system mean to you?

The new reservation system will link up to our website and allow you to make you reservations directly with us-NO MORE MIDDLE MAN! This reservations system is one of the best out there. It is easily learned by the staff and will make your check-in / check-out times faster.

So, we still have a lot of learning to do on the "Back of the house" portion. It is very hard to switch from one system to another, when you have had to train on the new system while still using the old one.

I cannot describe to you the feeling that I have everyday when I see the how far we have come since June 29, 2007. The hotel already has a better look and feel. It shows on the faces of our staff and you can see it in the eyes of our return guests, who see the transformation each time they stay with us.

So, as a great friend and mentor says "Onward and Upward"

Thanks for tuning in!

Jay and the DTP staff

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Check out our web-site


Well folks we have a great new web-site!

I want to thank Mr. Brian Franklin of The DoubleShot coffee company (www.doubleshotcoffee.com) for taking the time from his busy schedule to be our web master. THANKS BRIAN!

Our web-site will continue to evolve and you will learn more about and see more of the Downtown Plaza Hotel of Tulsa as it under goes a massive renovation. Soon you will be able to book reservations directly on our site.

I am very happy to report that everyone is running on schedule! Our plumbing company PACE and the guys at Simplex-Grinnell fire safety are doing an outstanding job!

Stay tuned for more and visit us daily at www.downtownplazatulsa.com

On my next post I promise to tell you all about the history of this hotel and share some old and new photos.

Thanks
Jay and everyone here at the DTP