Four Seasons Peter Humig on the magic of downtwon

Peter Humig is no stranger to the hotel world. After growing up in Switzerland and beginning his hospitality career in Germany, Peter started his Four Seasons career in Berlin and never looked back. Over the last 20 years, Peter has worked for Four Seasons properties in Washington DC, Philadelphia, San Diego, Whistler and he most recently opened the Four Seasons New York Downtown. (As of July, Peter has been promoted to Regional Vice President & General Manager of Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel.)

On his hospitality genes:

What I do is not a job - it all comes from passion. My parents were both General Managers and it used to be common to live in the hotel so when I was little I lived in a five-star ski resort in Switzerland. I watched my parents interact with guests at these old school balls with women in big dresses and this whole magical world. What they did is what I’ve wanted to do ever since I can remember.

I learned from my mom you need to truly understand what motivates people. Today, even more than 20 years ago, people have a choice in their careers. To make people want to stay and give you give you 110% is an art. It’s a wonderful thing to work with people who are committed and motivated to a common cause, like getting a hotel up and running. In the hospitality industry, you can spend all of your time talking to people and never stuck behind a computer in an office. In so many industries, technology has taken over. A computer will never replace our jobs because we have to be alive in the rooms, in the lobby, in the kitchen -- a computer can’t do that.

On his literal favorite underground New York recommendation:

Under the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is an abandoned secret subway station with a car that was used to shuttle Roosevelt from the train to the hotel without it being a safety concern. It’s one of my favorite things to do because hardly anyone knows about it.

On escaping to Brooklyn:

I like going outside Manhattan; Brooklyn has so many treasures. I have 4 kids and we love to go to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. It’s one of the best I’ve ever been to - it’s not your typical “Disneyworld” experience - it’s authentic, it’s cool, child appropriate. It’s made for kids and the parents who schlep their kids there. The Arboretum at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden is incredible. There’s a bar we go frequently to with an incredible selection of whiskeys. Cecconi's is the restaurant everyone knows in Dumbo, but it’s an incredible classic Italian restaurant and my favorite spot for lunch.

On the beauty of downtown New York:

Downtown New York is the new Manhattan, the new Midtown, the new exciting place for people to come to. Everything is new since 9-11. The 9-11 Museum is very moving, and part of American history. It’s and very tragic. When I went with my staff to visit, people cried because they lost relatives in the attack and 17 years later, the pain doesn’t just go away. If you haven’t gone there, you haven’t seen New York because that’s what New York is all about now - the memorial that stands for the fact that we can’t be defeated.

South Street Seaport is just a  couple of stones’ throws away from us and very new with incredible architecture. And then half a block away you have cobblestone streets and Italian- style outdoor restaurants - there’s the old and the new combined, which you don’t have in Midtown. You can go to an outdoor concert and grab an ice cream at the store and there are no cars, no five lanes like in Midtown. You can and walk through the streets like you do in Italy. Down here is where you can experience the real New York. Delmonico's is the oldest fine dining restaurant in the US. We have the oldest church, with the oldest cemetery and across the street is the Oculus, the most modern building in New York and a $4B structure home to 350 stores.

Eataly is a great place to go on a rainy day… so many things to taste and enjoy to make you feel like you are in Italy. The gelato is crazy expensive for just a small cup but there some incredible seasonal flavors.

There is a fantastic Russian shoemaker down here who has a hole in the wall shop a few blocks from the hotel. I stumbled in there on a rainy day when I had dirty shoes and I had an appointment to go to and I walked in and he polished my shoes up... that was three years ago and I always go back and now now we send all of our guests’ shoes there because he’s a craftsman, the shoes come back better than new.

On where what he loved to eat in Whistler:

There are almost the same amount of restaurants as residents in Whistler. Every weekend we would debate where to eat because there are a gazillion choices. We’re fond of Italian food and pizza and Donabella is a great cool and casual place.

Barefoot Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Whistler and considered one of the best in Canada. They have a vodka tasting room that is like a giant freezer with thick ice walls and inside the ice walls they have 50 or 60 different bottles of vodka. They give you Canada Goose jackets and you start tasting. It’s so cold that the vodka develops a taste but you don’t feel the alcohol and afterwards, you go from 10-20 degrees to 70 degrees and the transition from cold to warm is incredible. When the Real Housewives of Orange County stayed with us, one of the ladies got her tongue stuck on the ice. They also do Champagne sabering!

My favorite understated and under-appreciated restaurants in Whistler is Sake Sachi.

On who does luxury best:

The Middle East hotels are trailblazing properties for the rest of the luxury industry. The US cannot compete, between labor costs and costs of construction. There are two Four Seasons properties there in Dubai - the Four Seasons Jumeirah Beach  and Four Seasons Dubai, which is in the financial center and a smaller hotel. The Jumeirah Beach property has several food & beverage outlets, a massive pool landscape, several bars, and an indoor shopping mall. There is a beautiful breakfast room where I met the GM on a Sunday and they had an amazing multi-room breakfast display that I assumed was just for Sunday brunch. There was everything - different kinds of scrambled eggs and special honey and amazing produce and this and that. It turns out they do it 7 days a week. They had a croissant table with almond croissants and chocolate croissant and butter croissants. In the US, you typically just get one croissant option and it’s par-baked. That kind of luxury just isn’t readily available in the US.

On the curious nature of being a luxury hotel General Manager:

What fascinates me about my job is that I can go from speaking with a billionaire paying $30,000 per night directly to a housekeeper who is raising two kids and I have to cater to both audiences equally. One is embodying the highest level of financial success and the other is just trying to put food on the table. There’s hardly another job like working in hospitality where you have to switch between the two on a dime. But the funny thing is... the billionaires have the same problems as the people struggling to put food on the table... that’s what’s always fascinated me.

On what we don’t know:

I’m a downhill ski fanatic. I grew up in a ski resort and I would always go out on the mountain early or late and wait for traffic to die down and just rip it down the mountain. Everyone these days has carvers or powder skis but I have these tall skis that I can ski faster on. I’m hoping to go to Jackson Hole soon - it’s one of those ski resorts with very steep terrain and I like the blacks and double blacks.

On his favorite hotel experience:

I think hotels that redefine the overall hospitality landscape are impressive. In 1992 I was in Hong Kong at The Peninsula Hotel and I was told to check out Felix, the restaurant on the roof. The showstopper was the restroom, which was on the outside of the building and had glass walls. So while you are in bathroom, you can look down and out onto Hong Kong at night.