Risk Diary: How a little inn became 'in' with the hip crowd Thursday, March 27, 2003 By Donald I. Hammonds, Post-Gazette Staff Writer The phrase "home away from home" is an important one to Michael Plesset, managing partner of the Shadyside Inn. Started with his late brother about 15 years ago, the inn and its more than 100 suites in Shadyside off Fifth Avenue has proven popular with celebrities and business people alike. Jonathan S. Plesset, Carol Synan and Michael Plesset stand in one of the suites offered through the Shadyside Inn. This suite is in a mansion on Howe Street and actress Sharon Stone was one of its guests. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette) What prompted the two of you to go into the hotel business -- and why this inn? My younger brother and I had just taken a chance and bought a building in Miami Beach, Fla.; and we got a call from somebody coming down for the winter [who] wanted to know if they could rent the apartment for three months for $1,500 a month. We almost fainted. Here we were renting unfurnished apartments in this building on the ocean. So we thought, why not do this in Pittsburgh? How did the business progress in Pittsburgh? What got you going? We put an ad in the paper and we got a call from (movie director) George Romero. He said, "Gee, we're doing this movie here and we want to see one of your suites." He thought it was nice -- we had only 10 suites at the time. He came over with Adrienne Barbeau and really liked the place. She went back, and I swear the phone started ringing off the hook from California. We got a call from a musical traveling group wanting 58 suites, I think it was, and we couldn't do it. So we thought, let's expand. This is the mid-'80s. We caught the eye of the University of Pittsburgh, and Dr. [Thomas] Starzl, the transplant surgeon, made arrangements for some doctors who were coming in from all over the world to see transplant surgery being done. Some of the patients' families stayed here, too. And we got business from the royal family of Saudi Arabia as well. They all wanted a home away from home along with good service. What were the risks of opening a small hotel business like yours. Pittsburgh doesn't seem like the kind of city where that would be successful. We took our time. We did things a little at a time. We turned a couple of apartments into suites, and then we said, well, what about doing a little more? We phased in a lot of things. It wasn't a particularly painful risk because we already had the location, and that's the main thing you need. We provide a suite for less than many hotel rooms, and that brought in repeat business; so it really wasn't a hard risk. How do you compete with the big hotels? And with other hotels with more familiar names and reputations opening near you soon, what will you do to compete and how do you cut the risk? We feel we're the small guys in a desperate fight with the big guys. So what we do is to take care of and focus on our customers. It's about them. We've also got location. , We have the price and amenities, and the rest is service. If we can get them the one time, we're pretty sure we got them. What special lengths do you have to go to in order to serve celebrities -- and what are the risks of housing such well known people? We just ask them, "What can we do to make your stay more comfortable?" And then we do it. There was one lady star who didn't want aluminum pots and pans in her suite. So we got her steel. Hey, whatever it takes. The astronaut Buzz Aldrin stayed with us a couple of times, and all he wanted was to make sure there was a big color television in his suite. That was it. Then there was Paul Newman. He borrowed a baseball hat from our head lady here so he could wear the hat and nobody would see his face and eyes. Believe me, if you saw how blue his eyes were, you'd know it was Paul Newman. So he borrowed the hat and wore it. What, if anything, would you do differently if you were to do the same project today? Actually nothing. I'd do it the same way. The primary thing I'd remember is that old, tested real estate saying -- location, location. location.

Shadyside Inn Helps Princess of Nigeria

(Letter from University of Pittsburgh's Robert D. Regan, Ph. D.)

Dear Shadyside Inn,

Thanks to you and all at The Shadyside Inn for helping Princess Eweka, of Nigeria, get settled in Pittsburgh.  Seven years ago I met her husband at an international training program at Pitt.  He became enamored with Pittsburgh and planned that his children would attend the University of Pittsburgh.  That dream became a reality this year when Princess Eweka came with her two sons to help get them settled in an apartment and start school at the University this term.  I had always told them that the one endearing thing I liked about Pittsburgh was that the people were so friendly.  The Shadyside Inn staff only helped prove this point.  Thanks to all.

Sincerely,

Robert D. Regan, Ph.D.

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Visiting Pittsburgh
by Laura Landro
from The Wall Street Journal, October 2001

As my family unloads our bags from two cars in front of the imposing old William Penn hotel in Pittsburgh, the doorman explains that it will cost us $22 each to valet park overnight.  Overhearing this, a young man walking by stops me, takes me aside and tells me that, for a fraction of that amount, we can use the self-park across the street.

That’s the kind of thing that I like about Pittsburgh, where most of my family hails from.  People walk up to you in the street and try to save you money.  At times like this, when travel no longer seems like a fun idea or even a safe bet, a visit to a great old American city might be a good way to get back on the road again.

Pittsburgh has it’s share of chain hotels, but it has been overlooked by upscale luxury chains such as the Four Seasons.  The Ritz-Carlton almost made it here, but it never panned out.  Recently, however, Mariott opened an upscale Renaissance Hotel in a refurbished historic building downtown.  There are a few decent small hotels and inns, such as the Priory and the Shadyside Inn.  And partly because of its past as a gritty industrial metropolis, Pittsburgh is a truly interesting place to visit, with great historical sites and more modern attractions such as the Andy Warhol museum.  Its neighborhoods range from the former mansions of Mellons and Carnegies to folksy ethnic areas and eateries of the converted warehouse district known as the strip.

In deciding where to stay, I thought it might be nice to find a place with a flavor of the Pittsburgh where my parents fell in love.  That was how I ended up at the massive William Penn, opened in 1916 and commissioned by Henry Clay Frick, who proclaimed it would be the best hotel between Chicago and New York.  Its French classical style made it the poshest place in town when my parents were courting.  My dad and his college buddies, veterans attending Duquesne University on the GI Bill, used to don their best blazers and crash affairs at the hotel’s grand salons to score some free chow.  After he married my mom, a young nurse at Allegheny General Hospital, they often attended gala affairs as invited guests at the hotel, with its soaring arched lobby, intricately carved moldings and crystal chandeliers.

 These days, the William Penn lobby still has its historic, grand features, albeit with a couple of modern touches, such as a Bruegger’s Bagels and a Starbucks.  It has changed hands several times, most recently when it was purchased last winter by Omni Hotels.  The William Penn’s marketing director, Bob Page, says Omni just began a $22 million refurbishment of the public spaces and the hotel’s façade.

 Though many of the public rooms are unique, retaining the flavor of historic Pittsburgh, I’m afraid I can’t say the same for the guest rooms, which though comfortable, aren’t particularly charming.  Only about a fifth of the Omni’s nearly 600 rooms have minibars.  The furnishings, fabrics, and beddings are institutional, and the amenities are rather parsimonious, with teensy shampoo bottles.  On the other hand, the hotel is nowhere nearly as expensive as most high-end hotels in large cities; the weekend rate for rooms with a king-size bed was $109, and a one-bedroom suite was $350.  The hotel does have several high-end suites, including a presidential one, that range from $1,500 to $2,400.

 Keeping a homey feel in a place this size isn’t easy.  We had asked for our rooms to be near each other, but the king rooms were small and cramped.  Though we had called ahead to reserve a crib for my two-year-old niece, when we arrived the hotel was out; the best they could do was a roll-away bed with rails on the side.  To rent a VCR to play a child’s video would have cost $100, which we decided to pass on; the hotel did, at least, give us a little kids welcome pack with a sippy cup, a boomerang and some stickers.

 In typical Pittsburgh fashion, though, the staff was professional and eager to help; when we said one of the rooms was too small to move around in, the young woman who checked us in went to work finding us something bigger.  Though we had to move to a floor away from the rest of the family, we did get a more spacious room.  However, the window looked out on one of the dark inner columns created by the hotel’s three-bayed structure.  Mr. Page says some rooms have larger and more comfortable “configurations” than others.

 Fortunately, we didn’t spend too much time in the room.  We had invited a big crowd of Pittsburgh relatives to meet us in the Palm court lounge in the lobby for cocktails, followed by a family dinner in the Terrace Room, where the young staff did a good job of serving our slightly unruly group.  The Continental food with a Mediterranean influence wasn’t bad – not to mention the generous Pittsburgh portions.  Following in my dad’s party-crashing footsteps, my brother and I peeked into several function rooms; the folks at one wedding, more nice Pittsburghers, were more than happy to invite us in to have a look around.  We rode to the top floor and admired the Urban Room, an Art Deco ballroom with black glass walls decorated with murals by artist Joseph Urban.

 Our sightseeing took us around the historic area near the hotel, guided by plaques describing a tumultuous past, such as the union-busting battles that brought in 8,000 state militiamen to quell riots at the nearby Homestead steelworks.  We drove to the Oakland district near the universities, where we visited the botanical gardens of the Victorian-glass Phipps Conservatory.  My niece marveled at the butterflies flying free in one of the greenhouses.

 The morning of our departure, we all gathered once more in the lobby.  As we prepared to walk out the door, a woman from the staff came running with my mother’s wallet, which had fallen out of her purse in the coffee shop; a patron had returned it to the main desk.  We didn’t even have to look to see if everything was in it.  After all, this is Pittsburgh.

Film Office, Shadyside Inn Help Stars Shine in Pittsburgh
by Scott Robertson
from Allegheny Business News

You want to see the stars shine?

You can see it often in Pittsburgh, and you don't even have to come out at night.

Pittsburgh has become a second home to the stars of Hollywood, opening a lot of business for local hotels, travel agents and freelance film production people.

Robert Curran, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, says the city has been host to 17 complete feature films over the past three years. Production is under way currently on the 22nd film in the past three years.

"The film Office opened in February, 1990," Mr. Curran said. "It was an effort by the state to try to attract this kind of business. Before, the film people might come here by chance. But now they are actively seeking Pittsburgh because of the fine crew people here and the excellent production resources.

And the costs. Costs of hotel rooms in Pittsburgh are considerably lower than they are in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, which helps make for a more cost-effective and more efficient production.

One local hotel, the Shadyside Inn, has benefited tremendously from the local film boom. Michael Plesset, who owns the Inn with his brother Jeffrey, said the Inn specialized in providing the comforts of home to people who will be in town for length periods of time.

"We have over 100 suites that are much bigger than conventional hotel rooms," Mr. Plesset said. "They have full kitchens, baths and dressing rooms. We're trying to bring the things we learned when we stayed at different places. We've found that when you treat someone well and smile at them, it sticks."

They've also found that news travels fast on the Hollywood grapevine, and also on the medical wires, courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh. The Shadyside Inn has gained many of its visitors through word of mouth. Sometimes, they're words Mr. Plesset doesn't even understand.

"We had Jodie Foster in here for three months (during filming of "The Silence of the Lambs") and Maureen Stapleton stayed a month," Mr. Plesset said. "She [Mrs. Stapleton] was just a real nice lady. She came in in a full length mink coat, but she would sit around and shoot the breeze. It was really cool."

Ms. Foster brought 8 to 10 other people with her, including designers, security personnel, gaffers and production people.

"It's funny because as soon as these people leave, we get calls from Hollywood," Mr. Plesset said. "It's a real exciting time because there are more people coming. These people just knock us over. I guess we're all a little star struck."

But the non-stars are important too. The Shadyside Inn has housed many prominent medical professionals who have come to learn or teach at the University of Pittsburgh.

"The word gets around in Hollywood that they stayed here, so a lot of people call and ask," Mr. Plesset said. "The same thing is true with the medical people. I was standing here one day and a group of Japanese people came in. They had a letter with all kinds of Japanese symbols on it, and right in the middle it said 'Shadyside Inn.' I guess they have their own little network too."

Mr. Plesset got the message that day, even though it was in Japanese. In order to promote the Inn, he took classes to learn Japanese so he could make his guests feel more at home.

"We want everyone to know we are serious," Mr. Plesset said." We have had the Bell Telephone company in here taking computer training classes where they're staying 10 to 14 weeks. We were fortunate to win that business and we want to keep it."

Mr. Plesset and his brother have placed their Inn to be the spot to stay for people who will be in Pittsburgh for three or four weeks. Places like the Hilton, Vista International and Westin William Penn are available for overnight stays.

The influx of film industry people has led to some unusual requests, but the Shadyside Inn has been able to handle them. Ms. Foster, for example, was very concerned with security, a result of the much publicized letters written about her by John W. Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

"Way before Jodie ever came here an advance team showed up," Mr. Plesset said. "We showed them the place and that it was all concrete with heavy metal doors. But it was like they were buying a car and going around kicking tires."

The Shadyside Inn is a three-building complex in the area of South Aiken, Walnut and South Negley in Shadyside. Mr. Plesset offered to allow Ms. Foster to choose her suite each day from a hat so she would not even know where she would be staying each night. That security precaution, however, was not deemed necessary.

"We get a lot of world travelers in here to see Dr. Starzl," Mr. Plesset said. "Sometimes they are very concerned with security, too."

The Shadyside Inn offers suites in the range of $2,400 per month, which breaks down to about $80 per day for suites containing two bedrooms, a balcony, a videocassette recorder, color television, linen service and several other amenities.

The Plesset brothers are beginning their fifth year managing the business.

Take one: Realtors get stars in eyes when film crews visit
from Pittsburgh-Tribune Review, Real Estate section, Sunday, Jan 26, 1997

Movies have been big business in Pittsburgh in recent years, and the local real estate industry has shared in the glitter.

With 48 major television and feature movies filmed here since 1990 - plus numerous other films and commercials - the film business has brought approximately $183 million into the regional economy.

Part of that spending has been for renting or buying homes or apartments.

Shadyside Inn has proven to be a popular spot for film personnel looking to lease housing. Rental units in the Shadyside facility are completely furnished and come fully equipped from the salt shaker and utensils in the kitchen to the linen for the beds in the bedrooms.

Michael Plesset, a partner in the Inn with his brother, R. Jeffrey Plesset, recalls playing host to such stars as Paul Newman, Jodie Foster and more recently, Sally Field.

"We also provide housing for directors, producers, set designers, costume designers, the camera people and other members involved in the production," Michael Plesset said.

Although Shadyside Inn offers completely furnished apartments, some items may have to be changed to conform to the celebrity renter's wishes.

"One person insisted we replace aluminum pots and pans with steel pots and pans," he said.

There have been times, although not often, when Shadyside Inn had to torn away a member of the movie industry.

Plesset said he was unable to accommodate Randy Quaid when the star was in town for 'Kingpin' because all the units with king-sized beds were taken. That was one of Quaid's requirements, he said.

Where the Stars Come Out.
from Shady Ave Magazine, July 1998

Michael Plesset, co-owner with his brother, R.Jeffery, of the Shadyside Inn and Suites, says that they will rent their 100-plus elegantly furnished apartment for "a day, a week, a month, a lifetime." On top of that, guests do not have to commit to a length of stay.

That philosophy has proven to be potent selling point for niche market-quests that want a self-contained, home like environment when they are on the road.

The Pittsburgh natives honed their concept in Florida. They developed a building on the beach where some guests rented their furnished apartments for the season. If it worked in Florida, it would work in Pittsburgh, they reasoned.

"Why stay in a hotel room when you can have a full suite for less money and it includes parking, phone service, and a full kitchen?" Plesset wonder. "Our operation is turnkey" he said. "Our units are in six buildings, including two restored homes, and are not mass produced. They are different in size, shape, and furnishings, and they all have high quality carpet in white, beige, or gray, ceiling fans, mini blinds, and phones with remote access answering machines. The kitchens are fully-equipped with a service for four, microwave, toaster, coffee maker with coffee, pots and pans, garbage bags, and even spices and steak knives.

Some have dishwashers. We tell our guests that our lobby is Walnut Street, just a block or two way." he said.

The brothers' formula for elegant temporary housing is particularly attractive to business travelers, families, recipients of organ transplants and, of note, visiting celebrities.

Shadyside Inn's first Hollywood luminary was Adrienne Bardeau, who was filming a move with local director George Romero. "She had two requests--a recumbent exercise bicycle and she asked that we bypass her vacuuming her hallway during the day because they were shooting at night and she needed her sleep. She lived here several months and told us how much she appreciated her stay," Plesset said.

Bardeau obviously spread the word around the movie community, because subsequent guests have included Sharon Stone, Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, Ellen Burstyn, Marsha Mason, Julie Harris, and Julianne Moore.

"In real estate, you win by sincere service, and we become close to our guests. They, in turn become our advertisers," he said.

One anonymous guest was so pleased with his surroundings that he placed a ceramic frog in the garden of the main building. Plesset's children added to the collection, and guests can hear a throaty ribbit when they walk by. In addition, the resident cat, Stinker, makes himself comfortable throughout the complex.

As an extension of its support staff, Shadyside Inn has a web page to answer frequently asked questions. It is taking on-line reservations and has Internet access to the suites . Also, the inn is beginning to install web web TV's and eventually will add computers and e-mail.