Author: laura@elevenalphabet.com

Two things the GVPR team is passionate about are children and dogs. Each team member has either children, or a dog, or some combination of both. They undeniably bring us all happiness and enrich our lives. When I founded GV Public Relations, I knew I wanted to partner with organizations whose missions were to help children and animals in need. Of course, I wanted to contribute financially to these organizations, but it was also important to me to make a deeper impact and leverage the team’s talents for a greater good. Earlier this year, GV Public Relations started supporting two nonprofit organizations that are dear to our hearts – No Kid Hungry and Paw Works. No Kid Hungry is a nonprofit organization whose sole mission is to help end childhood hunger in America. Paw Works is a Southern California nonprofit animal rescue dedicated to partnering with county and city shelters to give abandoned animals a second chance at life.

In June, GVPR garnered substantial media and social media coverage for No Kid Hungry’s Taste of the Nation culinary festival that took place in Los Angeles on June 5, helping to sell out the event. This festival brought together over 40 LA-based chefs, mixologists and local makers and artisans, as well as renowned chefs from around the country. All of the event’s proceeds went to No Kid Hungry. It was an inspiring day that drew hundreds of attendees, all in support of a great cause. No Kid Hungry also just launched a new summer campaign that provides a hotline for people to call in order to find where free meals are available in their area. Summertime, when schools are not in session, is when children are most in need of access to nutritious foods. You can learn more about this new summer campaign, here.

GVPR is also now on the committee for Paw Works and is helping to put on its annual fundraising Ties and Tails Gala on October 22, 2022. This celebrity-attended black-tie ticketed event will raise critical funds to help the organization rescue thousands of animals in need of homes, as well as help build future animal hospitals. The theme of this year’s Paw Works Gala is Mad Hatter.

As everyone knows, the past two years have been brutal on the hospitality industry. Many hotels and restaurants closed. Employees were laid off or let go. Properties that managed to stay open had incredibly low occupancy rates. My heart broke for everyone impacted.

And yet, throughout all of the craziness, many hotels launched during the pandemic as well. Most media and influencers were not traveling at this time, which is critical for media coverage of a property. Myriad hotels that truly deserved full feature stories in top publications as well as national awards, weren’t getting the attention and accolades they deserved. Now, as we start to come out of the pandemic, GVPR is treating hotel clients that may have opened one or more years ago, like they are just launching. Journalists and influencers are once again able to personally experience the hotels and write about their incredible design, food, art collections, unique amenities and hidden gems. It is gratifying and exciting to see hotel clients get the attention they’ve been seeking and the awards they deserve. One such example is GVPR’s new client Daxton Hotel, which was recently spotlighted in a full-feature Travel + Leisure story about being the coolest new luxury hotel in Michigan.

Having been through the trenches of the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, the GVPR team is so grateful to be with our hospitality clients as they come out on the other side. As occupancy starts to go up, as ADR starts to rise, as restaurants and bars and spas start to buzz again with activity. We truly feel like we are part of each of our client’ teams and love cheering them on as things slowly start to go back to some version of ‘normal.’ we certainly aren’t ‘there’ yet, but we love being on this journey with our clients to get there.

Revenge Tea Time

The term “revenge travel” has become used quite a lot. People have been kept at home for so long, they just want to get out and travel again, no matter what the price. I want to coin the term “revenge Afternoon Tea.” This trend has become so popular, that people are booking out entire restaurants for their private Afternoon Tea with friends and family – for bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays or general celebrations. And people are dressing up for the occasion. Whether it’s a Bastille Day themed tea at The Ballantyne, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Charlotte or a new Afternoon Tea with The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills complete with a live harpist, people are going all out, even optioning to upgrade with Champagne cart cocktails. Even celebrities are getting in on it, with the cast of Netflix’s Selling Sunset filming an episode over Afternoon Tea at The London West Hollywood’s signature restaurant Boxwood.

Dirty Shirley Cocktails

Frose. Aperol Spritz. The Dirty Shirley. These colorful concoctions are all delicious, colorful and gram-worthy. Hotels, restaurants and bars around the country are creating their own riffs on these cocktails and are sharing their recipes for people to also make at home. The Bellmoor Inn and Spa in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is now featuring The Shirley T Black-Berry Wine Spritz; whereas hotel ZOSO in Palm Springs, California is featuring the Shirley T. Black Tea.

Hotel Pet Packages

During the pandemic, a friend of mine told me that she started dogsitting. She wouldn’t watch dogs for weeks or days…but for hours. While dog owners went shopping or out to dinner! During the pandemic, people didn’t leave their pets at all, for months on end. They went everywhere with their four-legged friends. Dogs have therefore become so used to having a human companion at all times, that they developed intense separation anxiety and cannot stand to be alone anymore. This has sparked a trend in hotels creating pet packages, so pets can travel with their people. For example, Daxton Hotel in Birmingham, Michigan now provides a pet package that offers homemade dog biscuits, a dog toy, waste bags and a map to local dog parks; Bethany Beach Ocean Suites in Bethany Beach, Delaware now offers dog water and food bowls, dog treats and toys and a discount to a local pet shop. The London West Hollywood in Los Angeles even has its own homemade dog food menu that can be ordered through in-room dining!