Special Edition: A Covid Time Capsule

Welcome to the Cutting Room Floor, a newsletter where I round up all my personal finance articles, put out exclusive content and interviews, and flag my favorite job listings from around LinkedIn.

The whole era of early Covid seems so strange and dreamlike at this point. We knew hardly anything about this new virus, except that it was killing our friends and family and neighbors, and we had no defenses against it, and the ambulance sirens seemed to wail all day and all night.

Well, let's open a little time capsule to remind you what those moments were like. I had done this piece for an editor who said they wanted it, and then ghosted me, so it's been sitting on my hard drive ever since. (Freelance life, amirite!)

It's about a fellow I knew who was in charge of one of the world's most famous hotels, as cities emptied out and the whole world screeched to a halt. That image captivated me: What was it like to walk those halls alone?

Here it is in its entirety, published for the first time ever. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Alone at The Savoy

Living the hermit life, at one of the world’s top hotels

If the image of a lonely hotelier wandering the halls of a grand property rings a bell, it’s probably thanks to Jack Nicholson.

In the Stephen King book “The Shining,” Jack Torrance – portrayed in the classic film by Nicholson -- is the caretaker for Colorado’s isolated Overlook Hotel, and slowly goes mad from the experience.

Not to spoil the plot, but things don’t end well.

In the age of Covid-19, the modern equivalent might be Philip Barnes. As managing director and regional VP for luxury chain Fairmont, Barnes oversees London’s The Savoy – one of the most iconic hotels in the world.

In normal times, the 130-year-old hotel plays host to royals, film stars, and some of the wealthiest jetsetters on the planet (Royal Suite: From around $20,000 a night.)

These days? It’s just Barnes.

Gone are the nicely tailored suits, as he pads around the empty halls in jeans and a T-shirt. Gone are the housekeepers – he makes his own bed and scrubs his own bathroom. Gone are the executive chefs, as he tinkers around the kitchen and forages on Toblerones and bags of chips rescued from room minibars.

In one sense, the experience sounds very cool indeed. Who else can say they bedded down in one of the planet’s top luxury hotels, as the world outside went crazy?

“It might sound fantastic, to be here in The Savoy looking down at the Thames every night,” says the 66-year-old, who has been in his current job since the end of 2016. “But what I really am is a hermit.”

And hermits sometimes find strange things happening, like Nicholson encountering ghostly 1920s butler Delbert Grady. (“You’ve always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I’ve always been here.”)

Barnes claims not to have seen any apparitions yet, or sensed any presences – but the halls of The Savoy are certainly filled with old stories. Past residents include familiar names like Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe. Charlie Chaplin stayed for months at a time, and Fred Astaire once danced on the roof.

The current owner is Saudi royal Prince Alaweed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who bought the property back in 2005. He also owns other luxury hotels that find themselves in a similar conundrum, like the George V in Paris.

But day-to-day oversight falls to Barnes. Thankfully there has been occasional human contact, so he doesn’t go completely crackers: He has opened up the kitchen, to assemble meals for London’s needy – almost 2,500 so far.

And shortly before the pandemic hit full force, the hotel had recruited Jan-Peer Lehfeldt as an assistant manager in food and beverage. When London suddenly locked down and he couldn’t move into his home, Lehfeldt – along with his wife Nicky and six-year-old daughter Alisha – also found himself stuck in five-star limbo. Little Alisha must feel like Eloise at The Plaza, and recently got to enjoy the “best Easter egg hunt known to man,” says Barnes.

So, the obvious question: With his choice of every room in the building, which one did Barnes take?

Surprisingly he didn’t decide to flop onto the Royal Suite’s four-poster bed, as late-night TV host James Corden once did, for a well-known segment when he took on various jobs at The Savoy.

Instead he took a regular room to start. Then, about five weeks into the pandemic and realizing this was going to be a long haul, Barnes upgraded to a one-bedroom suite with a river view. He gets to gaze down the Thames at the London Eye and Big Ben, which makes quarantining a little more tolerable.

What torments him is the thought of his 500-odd staff, who are currently furloughed with no real visibility about the future. That includes such prominent faces of the hotel as head butler Sean Davoren, and head doorman Tony Cortegaca.

Even with society opening back up, Barnes isn’t certain about what lies ahead. “Even with government approval, the pandemic has essentially shut down international travel,” he says. “No one is coming, and no one is planning to come. I don’t think things will be the same for a very long time.”

After this strange interlude of history, Barnes is scheduled to take on another role in the fall, to be Fairmont’s regional VP for southern California and open up the Century Plaza in L.A.

But until then, he is taking good care of his luxury London prison. Right now he is mulling what to do with a few cases of expiring Peroni beer, his favorite brand – which he might tackle in his preferred hotel spot, the Beaufort Bar.

“Apart from our renovation in 2007, the hotel had never closed down before – not even during WW1 or WW2,” Barnes sighs. “I guess I’ll go down in history as the person who closed The Savoy.”

Hope you enjoyed that little postcard from another era. As always, feel free to get in touch via Twitter (here), or email ([email protected]) -- to suggest story ideas, or to hire me, or just to say hi!

-CT