October 31, 2011

Loden Hotel x 3rd Anniversary Party x Coal Harbour

Loden Hotel's 3rd anniversary party in Coal Harbour on October 27, 2011.

Loden Hotel | 3rd Anniversary

The five star Loden Hotel's anniversary and awards ceremony got off to an auspicious start and never let up. The packed hotel saw a line of VIPs and guests around the corner waiting in the cold (and luckily not the rain) throughout the night before packing the boutique locale.

Loden Hotel | 3rd Anniversary

The drinks and light refreshments were well presented including serving the delicious Kronenbourg Blanc french beer. Once they let us up to the above floors and party rooms, everyone rushed into the suites full of poker games, models, and random events.

Loden Hotel | 3rd Anniversary

Inside the above floors, it was shoulder to shoulder capacity with little room to maneuver or do much of anything. The bathrooms were converted into bars with cooler ice tubs. The claustrophobia spilled out into the hallways with backed up lines leading to nowhere.

Loden Hotel | 3rd Anniversary

Evidently the hotel was awarded the International Five Star Diamond Award for third straight year, but after the mad rush to the elevators, only those patrons  who stayed in the restaurant witnessed the announcements and presentations at the Tableau Bar Bistro downstairs. All the fun had was negated by the over capacity and waiting.



There was a private room on the penthouse floor featuring the Real Housewives of Vancouver. A rude doorman slammed the door in a guest's face twice while waiting outside. The plastic looking housewives were filming inside with one shouting a racially insensitive joke to select partygoers.



The party was absolutely ridiculous, and for once, I don't mean that positively. The hotel invited far too many people, well over double the acceptable amount. It was an exercise in poor planning and frankly, dangerous. I'm sure it broke all kinds of fire codes with clogged hallways, stairwells, elevators, and lack of exits for the hundreds of partygoers. Some guests staying in the hotel were unable to walk about or leave.



I sympathized with the mostly hardworking, commiserating staff, struggling admirably to properly service all the guests. Loden is very lucky it was only a manageable series of complaints instead of much worse. I know many invited guests saw the chatter online and decided against coming and joining (or worsening) the crowded madness inside.

Despite everything, most partygoers seemed to have a good time, while the frustrated, like myself, simply left early. The oysters were pretty damn delicious though.

Photo | Kevin Wu

1 reactions:

Rick Chung said...

Took the words out of my mouth. ;)

Post a Comment