2011 Year in Review

posted 17-01-2012 by NCL

Happy New Year to our past, present, and potential customers, clients, followers and friends.  2011 was a record-breaking year for us, to say the least.  We liquidated a total of 2824 rooms, which is our largest number of liquidated rooms in a single year, this century!  We couldn’t have reached that number without the help of our office staff and road crew, so many thanks goes out to all of you.

And we certainly couldn’t have done it without the support and trust from our clients in 2011, including SBE Entertainment, Crescent Consulting Collaborative, McCarthy Building Companies, The Tynan Group, The Levitin family, Frew Nations Group, and the City of Cedar Rapids.  Your confidence in our experience and ability to complete a project on time and up to your standards (and ours), is what makes us who we are, and further validates us as THE leading expert in hotel liquidation management.  We are often copied but NEVER duplicated!

2011 Year in Review

Best Western Oritani – Hackensack, New Jersey – 100 Rooms – April, 2011

This was a great start to our year.  Everyone recharged their proverbial batteries and got back into the swing of things.  The NCL crew took Hackensack by storm.  I, of course, had them on the lookout for The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but they had no idea what I was talking about.  The crew worked around the clock and emptied the building in a few weeks.  As always, Edgar made sure everything that went out the door had a receipt.

Sahara Hotel and Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada – 1,720 Rooms – June-Sept. 2011

I’m sure most of you know about our liquidation sale at the Sahara, and I hope you had the chance to attend.  I’ve talked to many of you, both at the sale and via email, and I’d just like to say that it was such a pleasure talking to each and every one of you.  What a great time!  SBE was an amazing company to work for.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit one of their locations, I urge you to do so.  They are top notch and I can’t wait to see the SLS Las Vegas when renovations are complete.

The NCL crew worked tirelessly to empty the Sahara.  They were even able to donate to some local organizations, including Habitat for Humanity in Las Vegas, towards the end of the sale.  We liquidated the Sahara “to the walls” and everything sold.  I hope Clyde, the camel, is enjoying his new home at U.S. Micro Corporation.

Former Crowne Plaza Five Seasons – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – 252 Rooms – July, 2011

This was our first time ever in Cedar Rapids, so we welcomed many new customers.  Everyone was so friendly and excited about the upcoming renovations at the property.  The furniture was only a few years old, so the items flew out the door.  On a side note, I’d like to thank the mother and daughter who suggested Zins Restaurant to me when I asked them for downtown restaurant recommendations.  The food was delicious!

NASCAR Cafe – Las Vegas, Nevada – August, 2011

The NASCAR Cafe sale was literally “a sale within a sale”.  Halfway into the Sahara liquidation sale, we were given the okay to the liquidate the contents of the NASCAR Cafe, located inside the former hotel and casino.  The cafe sold out in just four days!  Apparently the customers took the advice of the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s article titled NASCAR ENTHUSIASTS, Start your debit cards.

Clarion Hotel SFO – Millbrae, California – 252 Rooms – August, 2011

The Clarion Hotel SFO closed in June, 2011 in anticipation of being converted to a Starwood aloft property.  In order to assist the general contractor with their construction schedule, NCL cleared the property in three weeks so they could move forward with the conversion.  While I wasn’t able to personally travel to this sale, I did have the pleasure of typing up many of the price tags and signs for the sale.  I guess that means I was there in spirit ( I wanted to write “HP Color LaserJet 2600 spirit”, but my coworker advised against it – oops).

Mega Resort Hotel Liquidation Sale – Tonawanda, New York – 500 Rooms – Sept. 2011-Feb. 2012

Last but not least, NCL set up shop in Tonawanda, New York, near Buffalo and Niagara Falls, where we housed guestroom and suite furnishings from a nearby resort.  Renovations were on-going at the property, so we removed the furnishings to a store location and opened to the public in September.  We are wrapping up this February.  A big thank you goes out to Linda and Bobby for your commitment to NCL and your willingness to relocate for an extended period of time.  We’ve received nothing but kind words from locals who visited the store and were greeted by a friendly staff.  It wouldn’t have been possible without you.

All in all, 2011 was a tremendous year filled with challenging endeavors, excitement, beaucoup frequent flyer miles, making new friends and reconnecting with old ones.  We look forward to continued success in 2012!

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The Twilight Zone

posted 19-09-2011 by NCL

Welcome to the latest installment of Tales From The Road.  I can only imagine how strange it must be for someone to walk into a hotel liquidation sale for the very first time.  I’ve often heard it referred to as The Twilight Zone by customers and I can definitely see how someone could get that feeling.  I, on the other hand, feel like I’m in The Twilight Zone when I walk into an open and operating hotel.  For this post, I thought it would be interesting to talk to some of our crew about how they got started with NCL, what their first liquidation sale was and whether or not their first day of work felt as if they had just crossed over into The Twilight Zone.

Debbie Hayes joined NCL in 1981, fresh from the alter.  She made the decision to join her husband on the road primarily because of the experience she had visiting him at a job site prior to their “I do’s”.  Debbie visited Don while he was setting up the liquidation sale of the Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia.  She told me how exquisite their room was, a suite no less, and how cool she thought it was that they could pick from any room in the hotel to stay in.  Fast forward to her first sale as an NCL employee at the Palm Beach Hotel in Florida “No hot water and twin beds”.  If you could have seen the look on her face when she said that, you’d be laughing right now, too.  Even with the cold showers, she still said her first NCL job was so exciting because it was something totally different.  Debbie said that she loved seeing all of the people enter the sale and go on their very own scavenger hunts.  Nowadays, Debbie is NCL’s controller, based in the corporate office, and she knows to ask if there is hot water before she agrees to go on a job site.

Paul Redmond joined NCL in 2000, after leaving active duty in the military, by way of yours truly.  Paul and I have been friends for many years, so I was happy to put him in touch with Don when he left active duty.  After all, I knew NCL was looking for A Few Good Men.  Hey-o!  Paul’s first sale was the St. Moritz in NYC (not too shabby).  If you’ve ever been to a sale in New York City you’ll understand what Paul meant when he said “It was hard to get used to the madness of it all.  Sometimes I had to step back and observe”.  Controlled chaos is what he called it.  Paul also shared a Twilight Zone moment with me from our liquidation sale at the El Rancho in Las Vegas.  He told me how creepy it was turning on all the lights to the casino every morning.  One particular morning, Paul was walking through the dark, empty, casino floor heading for the lights, when all of a sudden he heard a “Bzzzzzzzzzzz” followed by a high-pitched scream.  The buzzing was the sound of a bug flying into his ear and the high-pitched scream was Paul’s reaction to said buzzing.  Oh how I wish I could have witnessed that.  Paul has since moved on to the world of stock and bonds (not because of the bug incident) but still enjoys talking about his time on the road with NCL.

Greg Hall got started with us by chance, in 2007.  He ran into Mike Lunsford one weekend and asked if we were hiring, interviewed with Don Hayes the following Tuesday, and was on a plane to Los Angeles the following Monday (that’s typically how things work around here).  Greg’s first sale was the Le Meridien in Beverly Hills (now the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills), and since he didn’t have a lot of time to process or prep for his new career as a hotel liquidator, he really didn’t know what to expect.  Greg had the unusual pleasure of getting to stay in the hotel while it was open for a few days, as they arrived onsite before the closing.  Maid service, room service and cable were a few of the amenities Greg got used to those initial days, not to mention it was a 4 star hotel.  I imagine he thought it was a pretty sweet deal…and then the hotel closed.  Greg told me the biggest adjustment for him was learning to live without TV, specifically ESPN.  When you aren’t used to that type of quiet in the evening, it can be a bit unnerving.  He quickly learned a trick of the trade and found a DVD player for his room.  “One of the first things we do when we get onsite is find the closest Redbox”.  Nowadays, Greg is seasoned in the oddities of a sale site.  Having just returned from four months in Las Vegas, managing NCL’s liquidation sale of the Sahara Hotel and Casino, Greg is looking forward to spending some quality time with his TV.

Well that’s all for now but I’m working on gathering some more stories to share with you all (maybe even some ghost stories for the upcoming holiday).  Till then!  Meredith

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