Swiss mister comes back to the beach
Alicia Robinson
After 12 years away, Thomas Gurtner has come home. What’s unusual is
that home is a hotel.
Gurtner has returned as general manager of the Four Seasons on
Newport Coast Drive, just in time for the hotel’s 18th birthday this
month. He takes over for Mehti Eftekari, who started as the hotel
manager during Gurtner’s first three-year stint as general manager.
Eftekari is now at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.
A native of Switzerland, Gurtner has spent most of his
professional career in the U.S. He’s logged 20 years with Westin
hotels and 15 years with the Four Seasons chain. He has worked
internationally in cities as far as Anchorage and Boston and as
exotic as Honolulu and Hong Kong.
But none of them are quite like Newport Beach to Gurtner.
“When I left here, I left my heart in Newport Beach,” he said. “I
really always wanted to come back. I can’t think of a better place.”
What enticed him to leave was a plum assignment opening a new Four
Seasons hotel in the Big Apple, a job he calls “the pinnacle of my
career.”
Next he went to Hong Kong, and then to Boston to oversee a major
renovation of the Four Seasons there. A reshuffling of company
management brought him back here in March.
“We were delighted to have him back, as sad as it was to see Mr.
Eftekari go,” said LaDonna Whipple, who has worked at the hotel since
it opened and is the only female door attendant in the Four Seasons
corporation.
The job of general manager requires Gurtner to be something of a
jack-of-all-trades. He has handled a boiler failure and offered
career advice to one of his pastry chefs in the course of the same
day. Every morning he meets with staff to review any customer
complaints from the previous day.
Gurtner sees himself as a coach who oversees a team of about 400
employees. His success is directly tied to their efforts, he said.
The hotel itself has enjoyed great success since Gurtner first
became general manager in 1989. Under his leadership the Newport
Beach Four Seasons earned its first five-diamond rating from the
American Automobile Assn., an award it has earned for 12 consecutive
years.
While the hotel has matured over the years it looks as good as it
ever did because of ongoing renovations, Gurtner said. In recent
years, renovations have touched every part of the hotel, including
the guest suites, pool area and fitness center.
In the community the hotel has a reputation as a high-end
establishment that attracts wealthy and famous people, said Gail
Ossipoff, communications director for the Newport Beach Conference
and Visitors Bureau.
“All we hear is good things [about the hotel],” she said. “We do
events over there and they’re always perfect.”
The Four Seasons is one of Newport Beach’s favorite hotels, in
Gurtner’s opinion, because of the service it provides.
And the teamwork that goes into providing that service makes the
hotel a fun place to work, Whipple said.
“It’s the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be
treated -- and at the Four Seasons we have the power to do that,” she
said. “It’s so fulfilling to be able to make somebody’s vacation
extraordinary, or even better, to make their work day extraordinary.”
* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.
She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at
alicia.robinson@latimes.com.
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