'Grand Purlet Hotel's' Grand Re-opening!
Join us for snacks, tours of the new additions to the hotel, and a celebration dinner. Reserving a room is not necessary to attend.
Time: 6:30 in the Grand Purlet Hotel lobby.
We hope to see you there!
Wander gave these fliers to every person he saw, whether they were obviously tourists or not. As for Sylvia, she went to work hanging the fliers along the walls of buildings and on the sides of street lights, making sure to hand out a few to anyone who looked like they would be interested.
"How are you doin, Sylv?" Wander asked, his now empty tote bag bouncing against his side.
"Pretty good, used up most of my fliers," Sylvia answered, "And I see you handed out all of yours."
"Yessum," Wander said proudly, "I hope we have enough room for everyone."
"Well, worse comes to worse, we could always have people sit outside and eat. But remember Wander, not everyone we give a flier to his guaranteed to come."
"I know, I-" Wander cut himself off when he noticed a nicely dressed Purlet woman holding a microphone with a cameraman behind her. "Sylvia! May I borrow one of your fliers?"
Sylvia took one of her remaining fliers and gave it to Wander. "Why?" she started to ask, but the nomad was already racing towards the woman.
"Alright Johnny, we'll just have a quick lunch at that nice deli across town and then I guess we'll go back to the station and edit the footage we shot this morning," the woman said, checking her watch.
"Sounds good to me," the cameraman replied in a gruff voice. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Excuse me, friends." The two looked down at the strange, smiling orange man.
The woman rolled her eyes. "Look kid, we're professionals. If you're trying to get on the news, do something worth reporting."
"Oh I'm not trying to get on the news, Ma'am," Wander replied, "but I would like to invite you two to come to this!" He handed the flier to the news reporter. "It should be a fun time, I guarantee! Alright, see you two later!" With that, Wander left, leaving the small news crew a bit stunned.
The cameraman glanced at the flier. "'Grand re-opening'? Well, it is a slow news day, what else would we have to do?"
The woman, not really wanting to resort to 'soft news' but at the same time wasn't looking forward to sitting in her office until quitting time practically bored to tears, let out a small huff. "We'll see." She stuffed the flier in her jacket pocket and started walking again. "Come on, let's get going."
"Okay, I know you're an optimist but I think even you would know they wouldn't let you on the news, Wander," Sylvia said as soon as her friend returned.
"Like I said, wasn't planning on being on the news," Wander replied, "Just thought they would like to know about the hotel. Come on, let's pass out the rest of these and then get back to the hotel and see how it's lookin'."
"Fine." It only took about five minutes to finish off the fliers, and by the time the two returned to the hotel, it was just a couple minutes after six.
Not taking the time to ask how they were doing, Wander immediately asked the first employee he saw how they could help set up. Within minutes, Wander and Sylvia were back to working, although it was just small things like polishing the silverware or placing hors d'oeuvres on plates.
"You've already helped enough, you know," Adelpha told Wander as they passed each other, "You and Sylvia both."
"Well no offense, but I don't think there's such a thing as helping out too much," Wander simply replied. He grinned, and then suddenly started shaking. "Oh I'm so excited! There's going to be so many people here and everything looks great! I just know you guys are going to do great tonight!"
The maid giggled. "Thanks, I'm pretty excited too. I can't remember the last time we planned a big event like this."
"Has your dad seen all this yet?"
Adelpha's smile faltered a bit. "Um, no. He left to go take care of a few things before we started setting up the lobby, so no he doesn't know. Hopefully, he doesn't mind either."
Wander started to reply, but Sylvia called for him. The nomad quickly excused himself and ran off. Noticing the clock in the lobby, she could see that it read 6:20. Guests would be arriving any moment, but she still had one thing left to do.
Reaching up, she yanked the thin, black ribbon out of her hair, letting the dark blue locks fall and frame her face. It had been her father's rule that all the maids wear their hair up for a sense of uniformity. Tonight was all about a new start, a new identity for the hotel, so she figured the 'hair rule' wasn't in effect that night. Looking down at the silver desk, she smiled at her reflection. Even the cowlick in her bangs - which usually annoyed her to no end - looked just right tonight.
"Alright everyone," she could hear her brother say, "Get in positions, remember to be friendly and courteous!" She could hear the excitement in his voice as he tried to remain professional.
After a couple more minutes, the first guests started to arrive - and they were none other than the ones who were already staying at the hotel! During his room makeovers, Wander made sure to slip notes under all the occupied doors, telling them - if they could - to wait until that night to check out so they could enjoy the fun of the grand re-opening too.
Even so, Keane and his staff treated them just like they were planning on treating however many potential guests showed up that night. They were offered tours of the new rooms and sections of the hotel, snacks, and even a chance to ride in the new Grand Purlet Hotel garden tour wagon.
Since anyone could pull it and most tourists came to Purlet for it's infamous, beautiful flora, Wander knew that people would love to have access to them while staying at the hotel, and the Garden Tour Wagon was the perfect answer to this. They planned to have the tours hourly, with the puller taking them to all the best picture spots nearby and even taking a ten minute stop to let guests explore for themselves. The tour didn't cost anything extra, and people were sure to love it.
Alongside the tour wagon was the hotel taxi. As luck would have it, Keane had a not-exactly-new-but-still-nice black car that could easily take guests to and from the town a couple miles away. He had also allowed Wander to paint the word's 'Hotel Taxi' on the sides and back of the car. Also being a free service for guests, the ones who were businessmen or wanted to explore the non-garden parts of Purlet, they would definitely appreciate the taxi.
Any sense of nervousness was quickly fading away as Keane saw how much the guests were enjoying these new accommodations. This positive experience would help Keane when he started interacting with the new people, who were just starting to arrive.
From his first day at the job, Keane's position as manager was pretty much just make sure everyone was doing their job and then stand behind the front desk when it was time to do his. Now, he was standing right by the lobby front doors, welcoming anyone who came in.
"Glad you could make it," Keane would say, taking a page from Wander's book and trying to be as friendly as he could while still being professional, "Our open rooms are just down the hall and there are snacks by the front desk. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them." He shook hands, he smiled, he interacted with the guests. To him, that was almost the most fun about all this.
"Excuse me, mini sandwiches coming through!" Wander said, weaving through the crowd while balancing plates in his hands. Noticing a new group of people standing next to Keane, he smiled at them. "Hello folks, glad to see you!" He held out the plates of mini sandwiches along with crackers with cheese and potato wedges. "Snacks?"
Over by the first floor hallway, Sylvia - as well as another maid and one of Adelpha's closest friends named Francesca - was leading a small group. "Alright, stay together everyone, we're gonna check out the new rooms now before heading outside."
There were several rooms with the doors open, and each one was different than the last. Some rooms had received a new coat of paint courtesy of Wander, but only one or two walls of it. In a sense, this made the rooms look unique. The beds had new, softer blankets with 'slept in' (really Wander just bounced on them a few times to make them softer) mattresses. Some of the chairs and couches in a room had throw blankets and pillows, giving it more of a home feel, and all the curtains were open to let light shine in and to show off the great view.
"We have also included room service," Francesca started to say, "Just let us know when you check in, and we'll gladly wake you up at a certain time and even bring you a hot cup of coffee." Several businessmen in the crowd nodded, pleased with that new addition.
Going outside, the tour continued with the new pool - now with several tables and chairs, becoming more of a social area, and a homemade diving board - and the new stables, now simply called 'Day Care'.
Sylvia had done an excellent job dividing the space in the secondary building. With a hotel as fancy and quiet as theirs, there wasn't really a place for children, which was probably why not a lot of families stayed there. But now there was a place for not only pets to stay, but for kids to have fun. In the late mornings and afternoons, guests could drop off their kids at the day care and the employees would watch them. There would be toys and games, and the employees would also make sure to keep the animals away from the children so neither would risk getting injured. Then again, the animals had plenty of space too, and were more than happy to share.
The zbornak could see everyone's faces in the group, not an unimpressed frown or scowl among them. 'They're really liking it,' she thought with a smile. Maybe because when Wander thought of the new additions to the hotel, he wasn't just thinking what would help the hotel make money, but what would make the guests happy too.
'Way to go, buddy,' she thought as she led the group back towards the hotel.
Back in the lobby, the room was filling up fast. But everyone was talking and seemed happy, so Keane felt like things were going well. Hearing the front door open once again, he turned around. "Hello, welcome to-"
"Wow, I can't believe I've never been in here before, this place is gorgeous!"
Keane couldn't believe his eyes. Standing right in front of him was one of the most well known news reporters on his planet, Violet Penpap, and she had brought a cameraman!
As for Violet herself, what she thought was just some hotel was in fact that fanciest one she had ever seen! Her eyes went from the shiny chandelier to the room full of people. "So people are interested, guess I owe Johnny a soda," she mumbled to herself before turning to her cameraman, "Alright, clear a small space by the front door, and then make sure you get a good shot of the lobby before I start talking, we can edit that in some- oh." She turned to Keane, moving a stray strand of her straight black hair out of the way. "You don't mind if we do a story on your grand re-opening, do you?"
"N-Not at all, Ms. Penpap," Keane replied, "Go right ahead!" The woman gave him a small smile and then turned back to her cameraman.
"Oh hey, I know those two!" Wander said, suddenly appearing beside Keane, "I knew those two would be interested in this place. Good thing I caught them and gave them a flier."
"You convinced them to-?" Keane couldn't believe it, but he knew if he tried to figure out how Wander did it, he still wouldn't know how. Maybe Wander was just a people person, or maybe he did it on accident. Whatever the reason, Keane decided to say the one thing he actually had to.
"Thank you, Wander."
"Why, your sister's the one who made the fliers, you should go thank her. I think I saw her over by the front desk, or was it the dining room?" Keane just laughed.
()()()()()()()
"Refill, Sir?"
"Nah, I'm good."
Gorman continued to stab his remaining food with his fork. The hotel owner couldn't really afford to be eating out, he had only went out to pay some bills and get the paperwork to extend some loans. When his mind moved onto what he wanted for supper, he decided that eating at some diner was better than eating in his dark office or the mostly empty dining room. Besides, he had only paid for a glass of water and a thin sandwich, that wouldn't break him (at least not this month).
Hanging from a corner of the room, the commercials playing on an old tv ended and the news program to began. They started with weather, followed by the biggest news in the universe and finally, local news.
"Hello everyone. Tonight I'm here at the Grand Purlet Hotel for it's grand re-opening." Gorman's head shot up. Grand Purlet Hotel? As in, his Grand Purlet Hotel?! And what did she mean by grand re-opening?
Eyes glued to the screen, Gorman could see that his lobby was filled with people, Purlet and tourists alike.
"The hotel opened two years ago, but it seems that there's some new additions they want to give attention to. For example, nearly all the rooms have gotten redone and there are several new services offered that are free to hotel guests. There is also the new dining room which will be revealed at seven o'clock." Gorman looked up at the clock hanging above him. It read 7:20, so it must have been recorder earlier. "Now, has the GPH caught the attention and - more importantly - business of the people in the universe? Let's find out."
Violet then went on to interview several people there, asking what they liked best about the hotel and she even interviewed his son and daughter. As soon as she ended her report, Gorman quickly paid, thanked the waiter and went out the door without saying another word.
One more chapter to go! We'll finally get to see what Wander and Adelpha did to the dining room as well as Gorman's opinion on everything, plus we'll see if Wander did manage to help or if it was just too good to be true. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story, it's been pretty fun writing it.
I'm actually thinking of starting another multi-chapter Wander over Yonder story, but that's only in it's beginning stage so it's not a certainty. But I'm sure I'll be writing at least a couple oneshots for this show before it's through. Anyway, thanks for all your support, please keep reviewing and I'll see you guys in the final chapter. Have a nice day!