Anthony Melchiorri

Anthony Melchiorri (born May 24, 1965) is a hospitality expert and television personality. He is the Creator, Co-Executive Producer and Host of the Travel Channel's hotel turnaround show Hotel Impossible.

Early life and education

Melchiorri was born into an Italian family and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Upon finishing high school in 1986, he joined the United States Air Force and served until 1990 at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri as a protocol officer. During that time he took night courses to complete an undergraduate degree in business at Park University in Parkville, Mo, while working weekends as a night auditor at the Embassy Suites hotel in Overland Park, Kan.^[1]

Career

Melchiorri’s first job out of the military was at the Embassy Suites in Times Square, which is now a DoubleTree. At the time, he said that his goal was to work at the Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, which he achieved 10 months later, taking a job there as a night manager. ^[1]

Over the next four years, he worked his way up to Director of Front Office Operations. He was then appointed general manager of the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side of New York City. Under his direction, the Lucerne was selected in as the New York Times Travel Guide’s Best Service Hotel.^[2]

In 2005 he left the Lucerne to take over as general manager of New York's historic Algonquin Hotel. There, he oversaw a $15 million roof-to-basement renovation of the building and its image, restoring it to the glory days of the famous Algonquin Round Table. He updated the rooms, repositioned the restaurants and earned the hotel a high rating as a Michelin Guide Hotel. He orchestrated publicity campaigns, like the Algonquin's "$10,000 Martini," won a Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International “Best of Show Award,” and created a real buzz for the renovated hotel. ^[3]

When the hotel owner sold the Algonquin for a significant return, Melchiorri was asked to become senior vice president of the first Nickelodeon Hotel and Resort, overseeing a 25 acre, 800 room property.

His next position was into asset management as first vice president of Tishman Hotels, then as senior vice president of New York Hotel Management Company. In that capacity, Melchiorri helped to develop a 310 all-suite hotel in Times Square. He then founded his own hotel management and consultancy, Argeo Hospitality. ^[4]

Hotel Impossible

After 20 years in the hotel business, with his reputation built on his repositioning of the Plaza and the Algonquin,^[5] Melchiorri decided to bring his skills as a "business fixer" to television and sold the idea of Hotel Impossible to The Travel Channel.^[4]

Each episode features a hotel with serious, sometimes near-fatal problems, that Melchiorri must deal with in under a week. Described by the New York Times as a "capeless crusader", Melchiorri has under one week to conjure up a cure and save the business.^[6]

The pilot debuted in April 2012. The show has been renewed for its fourth season.^[7][8]

Film

In 2008, Melchiorri executive produced a film based on his childhood Wisegal, directed by Jerry Ciccoritti starring James Caan, Alyssa Milano and Jason Gedrick. Melchiorri also appeared in one scene, uncredited, as Uncle Tito. It premiered on Lifetime Television Network, March 15, 2008. ^[9]

References