MY DRAP Customer Story: Fairmont Austin

For this month’s hospitality customer feature, we sat down with Jonathan Siemers, Director of Purchasing at the prestigious Fairmount Austin.

How did you get into the industry?

After I graduated college, I started working in restaurants; I’ve always wanted to open franchises. I opened eight restaurants in about five years. That is, until a car crash and some revelations brought me to Austin. When I made the move from St. Louis to Austin, I was recruited over to the Fairmont prior to it being built! That was five years ago, so I’ve seen this hotel being built literally from the ground up. 

I started at the Fairmont as a restaurant Manager and was later transferred to the purchasing side. Coming from a strong Food and Beverage background, it was an easy transition for me.

How did your relationship with MY DRAP come to be?

Fairmont Austin did a huge Food & Beverage conference (FABCON), where I first met MY DRAP’s COO Pearl Gniwisch; that’s when we got things up and running. We were looking for an upscale, linen-like coaster that was more elevated. MY DRAP was more than up to standard for Fairmont’s vision.

How have you been using MY DRAP? Any unique use cases?

We are now on our fourth iteration of our custom coasters. We have seven different restaurants and venues throughout our hotel, and the color schemes are different level to level; we love that we are able to adapt a MY DRAP napkin to whatever design or motif we’d like. 

Currently, we use them at our lobby bar, which is one of the highest grossing bars in the company. We use them in our in-room dining amenities and in our semi-private lounge, Room 725. We also use them in our Fairmont Gold Floors, which is sort of like a hotel within a hotel with this super elevated lounge and gold theme; we love that with MY DRAP, we are able to switch up the colors to match the ambience. The diversification of offerings is great.

What do you appreciate the most about our products?

The high-quality, luxury feel of it. It gives it a unique novelty, because there’s nothing like this that’s currently being offered. There’s an aspect of elevated luxury, compared to the standard black napkin we were using before MY DRAP.

Why is MY DRAP a top choice for Fairmont Austin?

We’ve nailed down a great cadence with MY DRAP- the ease of service and the quality of the product itself hasn’t wavered. In addition, the products haven’t gotten diluted by competitors; there’s nothing like this on the market that matches the quality standards we have set out for the Fairmont. It’s also reasonably priced for the quality, so we’re really satisfied overall!

What sort of feedback do you receive from clients?

Our guests as well as our teams feel abandoned when they don’t have them or are running low! They love the fact that the napkins have such a clean look, and that they don’t stick to the drinks 🙂