The Early Bird Doesn’t Get the Room

The limousine was on its way. Doormen, bellhops and room clerks were standing at attention to welcome the first guest to ever stay at the plush new Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills.

At the lobby’s registration desk Thursday, hotel officials nervously fingered the plaque that Howard C. Jenkins would receive to mark his historic overnight visit. Waiting on the desk with the key to Room 702 was a vase of fresh roses for him.

But it didn’t quite work out as planned.

Suddenly, a beat-up taxi pulled onto the circular, brick driveway and braked to a stop beneath a polished glass canopy that forms the entryway to the $70-million hotel.

As horrified hotel executives watched from the lobby, a travel-weary businesswoman named Jackie Lewis climbed unceremoniously from the taxi, paid her fare, collected her luggage and sent the cabbie on his way. Then she headed for the lobby to book a room.

Hotel marketing director Eric J. Otto hurried out to give Lewis the bad news: His 473-room hotel was booked up for the night.

Inside, hotel general manager Jon Q. Leob explained that a full house, in this case, meant one occupied room. The slow night was planned so that 500 employees and a 100-member Marriott hotel-opening squad could work out any bugs.

“A multitude of things can go wrong the first day,” Leob said. “If they do, this way I don’t have to make 473 excuses--I only have to make one.”

Lewis, a Prudential Insurance Co. employee from Newark, N.J., who had flown in for a meeting at her company’s Warner Center office, was promised a room at another hotel, paid for by Marriott. A van was summoned to take her to the Westlake Plaza Hotel in Westlake Village.

As it pulled out, the stretch limousine carrying the intended first guest pulled in.

Hotel doorman Greg Rawdin hurried up in his white uniform and red-plumed hat and grandly opened its door. Leob came out to escort Jenkins and his wife, Janet, to the front desk.

“The service is really outstanding,” Jenkins said, as he glanced around the lobby at the attentive staff members and accepted the room key from desk clerk Deborah Anderson.

Handles Company Travel

“Doesn’t anybody want to see my credit card or something?” Jenkins asked, as bell captain Wayne A. Morse ushered him toward an elevator.

No credit card was needed. Marriott officials said Jenkins was asked to be their guest in a $118-a-night room because he is the executive in charge of travel for Lockheed-California Co.

The Marriott is the first of several proposed hotels to open in the master-planned Warner Center area and is the largest in the West San Fernando Valley. So, when Lockheed opens its Calabasas headquarters later this year, Marriott officials expect to do considerable business with Jenkins, a Canoga Park resident.

Otto said the phased start-up of the hotel will continue today with the opening of another 54 rooms. The 15,000 square feet of ballrooms will be inaugurated today with a luncheon for Rocketdyne officials and a fund-raising dinner for Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly, who is running for the 21st Congressional District seat.

About 250 construction workers will continue putting final touches on the hotel until its grand opening March 18, Otto said. During Thursday’s “soft opening,” as hotel executives called it, officials tried to shoo the construction workers out of sight for Jenkins’ arrival.

After settling in his room, Jenkins reported by phone that the hotel staff was attentive--and busy. “The lights keep going on and off. They’re testing the power system,” he said.

With 600 people to look after him, Jenkins said, he didn’t anticipate any problem with room service or this morning’s wake-up call.