Copacabana Palace This World

MUSIC: "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes

Rio de Janeiro,

South America's most glamorous and exotic city.

And on the famous Copacabana Beach stands Latin America's

most historic hotel, the Copacabana Palace.

In a fast-changing country it's a beacon of old-world opulence.

I think we feel peaceful, like an oasis.

Brazil's economy is booming, and the hotel is a magnet

for the country's new wealthy elite.

I've travelled all over the world.

The Copacabana Palace is 90 years old,

but it smell good.

The hotel employs more than 600 staff to cater for the guests'

every whim.

I have stayed in this room before, yeah,

17 years ago was the first time I stayed in this room.

Joel! I'll be there in five minutes! Save the chair for me, please!

Mwah.

-See you later.

-See you later!

-Bye-bye.

But many of the hotel staff live in Rio's poor and dangerous favelas.

TRANSLATION:

With Brazil playing host to the World Cup this summer...

-You from France, sir?

-Oui.

-Bonsoir.

..the Copacabana Palace Hotel is a window onto a country of extremes.

With 241 rooms, 13 ballrooms and banqueting suites,

the Copacabana Palace is the most exclusive hotel in Rio de Janeiro.

And probably the most famous in South America.

Wow!

Oh, this is really beautiful.

Wow, this is phenomenal.

Look at this...

For guests like Marco Antonio,

staying at the Copacabana Palace is the ultimate sign of success.

I was born very, very poor and I remember when I was a teenager,

I saw Copacabana Palace at the front -

"Oh, my good... one day I stay here."

And I work very, very hard for that.

I am a very famous hairdresser

and I work between 12 to 14 hours a day.

There is no secret, that's why I can come to

Copacabana Palace every weekend.

Where do you live? You're not from Rio.

No, no, no, I live in Sao Paulo, that is probably the richest city

in Brazil but in Sao Paulo it's very stressful.

It's the place to get the money, to work.

It's like New York - we are always running, running for the money.

Copacabana Palace is very unique because they are friends, I know everybody,

they know what I like. For example, in Brazil we don't do the eggs,

we don't like the omelettes, we love fresh fruits and pastries.

This is my favourite, with vanilla inside.

It's only on Christmas time, but during the whole year

they cook it for me at breakfast, everybody knows my name,

everybody knows... That makes Copacabana Palace very, very unique.

Mmm! Oh, my goodness! Try!

-Are you ready, boys? ALL:

-Ready!

Take it...

MUSIC: "Flying Down To Rio" by Fred Astaire

# An old sailor in old time

# Would sing an old song

# Rolling down to Rio by the sea

# With a big hello just so they'll know it

# And stand by there... #

In 1933, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers immortalised

the Copacabana Palace in their classic film Flying Down To Rio.

The hotel had opened ten years earlier, marking the centenary

of Brazil's independence.

Back then, the Copacabana Beach was an unspoiled stretch of white sand

and the new hotel was a statement of the country's ambition

to be a player on the world stage.

Fred and Ginger's flying visit cemented the hotel's

reputation as a byword for Latin glamour,

attracting Hollywood stars and international high rollers

with the illicit lure of a huge casino and elegant ballrooms.

It was the era which established Rio as an exotic,

luxury tourist destination.

The world's elite have been coming here ever since.

Anne Phillips has been in the hospitality industry for 60 years

and has worked at the Copacabana Palace since the early 1990s.

What have we got here, then?

I think every hotel have a golden book all around the world.

These are guestbooks of very VIP guests that have stayed with us

after all these years. This golden book is worth...

It was worth 2 million about 20 years ago

so I don't know what it's worth now.

Shall we have a look and see what we have...?

Beautifully, as you can see, written mostly in copperplate -

people really knew how to write in those days, yeah.

-Orson Welles I saw there.

-Orson Welles, yes.

There's a story that he threw...

a desk out the window and everything...

because he thought his...

his one love had been unfaithful, or something like that.

Anyway... But I don't know how you could possibly throw

a desk out of a window, you know?

I really don't know that he really did that, you know?

And Charles and Diana were here

and they stayed in the Presidential Suite.

Madonna, I had Madonna.

Had Madonna for ten days.

You do wind up working through the night sometimes,

especially if they are keeping... like Tom Cruise is keeping

to California times, you wind up giving them

breakfast about 4 o'clock in the morning, or something like that.

Francis Ford Coppola. Yeah, he was very nice.

And this was Robert de Niro.

I had him down here.

And he was here when Francis Coppola was here.

And it was difficult because we didn't know he was coming

so we had to... manoeuvre a lot, keep him happy,

till we could get him up to the sixth floor.

The sixth floor is home to some of the most exclusive

hotel rooms on Earth.

-Yes, the penthouse room.

-This is the penthouse floor?

Is this where...the top guests stay, then?

-The most expensive rooms?

-Exactly.

More recent guests have included Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus

and the King of Sweden.

The price isn't made public,

but if you need to ask, it probably means you can't afford it.

Housekeeping...

-Can I come in?

-Yep.

The room is not...

We need to finish.

We need the flowers.

Head of housekeeping, Graciela Viera,

is making some last-minute checks before the next VIP arrives.

It's dirty.

Doorman Jorge Freitas is the longest-serving employee

at the Copacabana Palace. He's known to everyone in Rio as Cafu.

First job and last job.

He's seen huge changes during his four decades

working at the hotel.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship

and the economy suffered.

As Rio became notorious for poverty and violence,

the tourists stayed away.

The Copacabana Palace nearly went out of business.

The hotel was rescued in 1989

when it was bought by a British-based luxury hotel group.

Since then, the fortunes of Brazil and the hotel have changed.

THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE

Today, the hotel is run by its first female manager - Andrea Natal.

From managing the front desk, she's worked her way up to the top job

in Rio's hotel trade.

Wow!

Beautiful!

Wow!

CAMERA CLICKS

We probably need a new one, we need to talk to the supplier because

you can see that it's not like before.

CAMERA CLICKS

There is some glue here.

-Glue?

-Yeah.

It's kind of yellow.

It's all about details.

It's important to you to have everything absolutely...

-Yes, completely.

-..perfect?

No. We cannot have any issues about cleanness, never, ever.

And the maintenance needs to be impeccable as well.

-What, the manners of people?

-The maintenance.

-Oh, right.

-Maintenance.

-Maintenance.

-Yeah, yeah.

Like here in the ceiling, we can see some...

..erm, fingerprints.

-That's from people that come to see the air conditioning.

-OK.

That's... It's very tough to be housekeeper in this hotel.

-Is that right, Graciela?

-Yes.

-It's not easy.

There's too many things to do.

-Hello, good morning.

-Good morning, how are you?

-Fine, how are you?

-Good.

-Good, OK.

ANDREA: Once you are inside this hotel, I think we feel peaceful.

We have an open-air bar with a beautiful pool

and I think we have, in the hotel,

the most comfortable mattress...

SHE CHUCKLES

..ever!

So, in my life, and that is something that is very, if I can say...

remarkable.

Keith Richards...

-Keith Richards, OK.

-Yeah...wife... bought two mattress from us.

We need to find people that love to serve.

If I can say that. That love to pamper guests.

-I think the hotel business is all about that.

-Pampering.

Pampering. It's making sure that the guests are happy, enjoying their stay

because they are here for that.

SAXOPHONE PLAYS

Although the international jet set still flock to the Copacabana Palace,

nowadays many more of the guests are wealthy Brazilians.

I love flowers. I remember when I came here for the first...

HE GASPS

Oh, my goodness! How they can do it?

Look at the mix of the different colour.

Marco is a celebrity hairstylist who's made a fortune through

his hairdressing salon.

How a human being has so good taste they can create something like this?

I mean, crazy, with this flower at Cipriani.

I always make picture and I post on my Instagram,

and last time my miniature appear on the popular page.

Let's take one more.

-How many followers have you got?

-One million.

-One million?

I'm a Twitter king, I have 500,000 on Twitter.

I have 350,000 on Instagram and 300,000 Facebook,

so altogether, it's one million.

Another thing about Copacabana Palace...

I've travelled all over the world.

The Copacabana Palace is 90 years old,

but it smell good.

I hate hotels, legendary hotels which smell, like, old.

Listen...

HE SNIFFS

Isn't it, oh, extra clean? It smell...verbena.

Isn't it? You see,

it's a legendary hotel but...

so clean you can...you can...

walk here with white socks... ten hours.

At the end of the day, you check your sock, it's white.

It's so clean.

They renovate it all the time.

We are going to show you the apartment that I...

My favourite. I almost live here.

This is the eighth floor. I love number eight.

And look here.

Every time, every time I come here, it's like an apartment.

It doesn't look a hotel. Isn't it?

They send me... and they send me champagne.

When I arrive here, they send me strawberry and champagne.

I don't drink. I don't drink. Nobody knows but I only... Just a "cheers".

Look at... You see?

Always clean, it smell clean. That's why I like it, come on.

I like that. Decorative but the light.

I don't like hotel too dark, you know what I mean?

I like...you see here...

And let me show you my favourite... It's here.

Come on.

Every morning... Look at that, that's my favourite part.

Is the terrace.

I never forget, exactly this terrace, when the Pope come here,

three, four million people...

OK? Praying, singing... The young.

The new generation.

I never forget that.

Probably the most intense, the best day of my life,

when the Pope was here.

And you can see him and you feel the energy that day,

the new youth, the new young...

They have faith.

It seems like before, we lost it.

But right now everything is new, it's something like a new beginning.

Joel! I'll be there in five minutes!

Save the chair for me, please!

Not surprisingly, all this luxury comes at a price.

How much is a room like this, to stay in?

It's something around 1,600 reais.

-About 800?

-Yes.

-A night?

-A night. With breakfast.

SHE CHUCKLES

The increasing number of rich Brazilian guests is

a product of the country's extraordinary economic boom.

Fuelled by its huge natural resources,

Brazil is now the seventh-biggest economy in the world.

As manager of the Copacabana Palace

Andrea is a key member of Rio's new elite.

We are going to Village Mall,

a luxurious shopping centre

one hour from the hotel, from here.

It is the first shopping centre in town where you can find

Prada, Gucci...

..Miu Miu, you know, all the luxurious...

-Big labels.

-Big labels.

Where, today, they are launching a new magazine

and they invite me to participate with them

in kind of talk show

because, for them, Copacabana Palace represents luxury in town.

Everybody dreams about,

erm, having a night at the Copacabana Palace.

Just as it was when it was built in 1923,

the Copacabana Palace is a symbol of a new, outward-looking Brazil.

ANDREA:

In this new Brazil, there are people who can afford to pay

£14,000 a day to hire a ballroom for a wedding or corporate function.

This is our famous Nobre Room.

This is the Nobre Room of Copacabana Palace.

We have it connected to the Golden Room,

where we used to have all the big presentations of the famous people

that stayed here and that presented themselves here.

And the most interesting is because we have the view of the beach.

You will see why people love the Blue Room!

Brazil's economic growth and the promise of the World Cup

and Olympic Games have led to a boom in the tourist trade.

Copacabana Beach is now crammed with luxury hotels and apartments.

But this is still a city of extremes.

On the hillsides overlooking the seafront are many of Rio's favelas,

sprawling shanty towns, notorious for poverty,

violence and drug gangs.

Rio's two worlds come together on the city's beaches.

Yeah, look here, OK, no problem. I am the security hotel, OK?

OK, thank you.

Joel provides security for the hotel guests who come to the beach.

SHE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

The hotel staff come from every strata of Rio society.

Manager Andrea Natal is in charge of an army of people

who cook, clean and carry for the wealthy guests.

SHE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

-You seem to know everybody.

-I know everybody, yes. Almost, yes.

-How many staff are there?

-Er, right now, we have almost 600 employees.

-600. Full-time?

-Full-time, yes.

And you know them all, or you've met them all?

I mean, I know... Yeah.

If I don't know the name, I try to know the name. But, er... Yeah.

I like to be with them.

So, Thursday, we have Chinese food in the employees' cafeteria.

-Do you eat here?

-Yes, I try to come at least once a week.

Right.

-Hola!

-Hola.

So, today, as we have every day here,

we have black beans, as our basic, rice...

As well as the canteen, there are some more unusual staff perks.

So, this is a special room for the employees,

where they can read, they can study and they can relax.

It's a nice place, nobody...

will think that I would be here.

-A place to hide!

-Yes, a nice place to hide. And work peaceful.

Even at the luxury Copacabana Palace,

pay is low by British standards.

Many of the hotel workers earn only the industry minimum wage

and take home less than £300 per month.

The hospitality industry employs nearly 350,000 people in Rio.

But working here is a plum job.

When they show that they are working here at Copacabana Palace,

in their CV, they immediately get a job in another place.

There is a lot of offer, work offer, everywhere.

Lots of work available in Brazil?

-Yes, especially in Rio, with all these events.

-The football and the...

The football and the Olympics.

So...yes, I mean, new hotels everywhere.

Yeah. Does that make it more difficult for you?

Much more. Much more.

-What qualities do you look for?

-I think it is all about attitude.

We need to find people that love to serve.

Many of the staff live in the favelas

and poorer parts of the city.

The hotel runs a scheme to train chambermaids

for work in this rarefied world.

-Housekeeping!

-Housekeeping!

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

-May I clean?

-May I clean your room?

-That's it, good girl.

Anne Phillips helps teach the women English.

Come on. Let's go. Good, good.

One... OK, one...

One, two, three, four, five...

-er...

-Six.

-Six... Er, eight...

-No, seven.

Seven, eight, nine, ten.

Wey! Fantastic.

-How long have you been teaching Jessica?

-Jessica, three months.

But I'm here for... I'm not here...

I'm here for about five to ten minutes, but she listens to her MP3.

Oh, you've given her an English course on an MP3?

Yes, they all live miles away,

they live from an hour-and-a-half to three hours away.

So, if they can sit down on the bus or sit down on the train,

then they listen to the MP3s, because I really recorded it very loud.

And was it always, erm,

staffed by people who lived a long way away, like Jessica?

It's always been staff that have lived a long way away

because the poorer people could never afford to live near Rio.

At one time, 60% of our staff lived in favelas.

The favelas, as a whole...

..are housed by fabulous people. They really...

2% were drug dealers, so, you know, the rest were people like Jessica.

Has that changed a lot, in Brazil, in the last 21 years?

Um...

Yes, because they have modernised the favelas a lot.

They couldn't do wooden huts any more,

they have to have brick buildings and they have modernised.

They've all got televisions.

They've all got light, they've all got water,

they've all got sanitation.

Brazil's on the up?

Brazil is more than on the up. It is growing.

It's a second to first world country, my opinion it is

a first world country, but then I'm a little bit prejudiced,

that way.

Here, come on. Let's get the ball. Come on.

Come on!

British businessman Benjamin Bowen is one of the hotel's most loyal guests.

He's currently living in the hotel indefinitely.

Come on!

As always, he is accompanied by his loyal companion,

a bichon frise named Lady Bella.

Ready?

That's my exercise for the day.

Show me the suite, to begin with,

then we can talk about what you're doing.

So, this is our living room and we have the most wonderful view,

when the sun is shining, of course,

of the Copacabana beach and there is usually lots of bodies on there.

-Not today, though.

-Have you stayed here before?

I have stayed in this room before, yes.

17 years ago was the first time I stayed in this room.

-This is the living room.

-That bicycle, presumably, isn't...

That doesn't come with the room, no.

That's when I'm trying to do my exercises. Um...

It doesn't get a lot of use, as you can probably see, but...

Is this four months' worth of luggage?

No, the rest is in storage,

otherwise I think it would look like I'm living in a shop.

But...

We are now going into the bedroom.

Is it true that when you arrived,

-the hotel had photographs of Bella or something, is that right?

-Yeah.

I don't know where they got it from actually, but suddenly her

photograph is by the bedside.

What happens in here? Well...

This is a few of the clothes I have here, we sort of rotate them.

And, um, this is sort of where... We are waiting for the other clothes

to come back from laundry today.

Oh, and then I have my secret supply, of course - you can never leave

home without your Yorkshire tea, just in case you start to miss home.

But, actually, it hasn't had much action this time round.

-That's Bella's eau de parfum.

-Your dog has eau de parfum?

-Yeah.

-So, it's called Oh My Dog.

-Oh My Dog?

HE CHUCKLES

-Is that something you brought with you?

-Yeah!

You know, this was really smart.

They had her own little basket

and they've got her own shampoo

and conditioner, specially for - not only dog shampoo

but specially for white dogs.

-What, the hotel done this?

-Yeah.

-At your request?

-No. No, no, no.

This was already...

And they did kindly have a cologne for her,

but, as you can see, it hasn't been much used

but Oh My Dog takes some beating, so that remains in situ.

You've stayed in some of the most famous hotels

in the world, The Commonwealth and The Four Seasons.

-This one is right up there, isn't it?

-Oh, God, yeah.

What makes it so special, this hotel, for you,

that you'd want to come here for several months?

I think, erm...

You've got to make someone feel really comfortable and at home,

and that would be...

One would automatically assume that that happens

but that is actually very hard to do in reality.

You've got to get to know somebody and what they like,

what they don't like, the staff and...

And to make someone really comfortable, I mean,

the other night it was raining, I was tired...and I wanted soup.

And I didn't want to answer the door, I wanted to lay in bed

and watch a DVD and that's exactly what I did.

And that's comfort.

Is what you are buying here not just the chrysanthemums

and the facilities and the high-class fixtures

and fittings, are you buying a whole kind of world of...a community?

You're part of...

You become part of the room.

The suite. You are the room.

You step out of an elevator, you end up knowing every single doorman,

every single security guard. You know their shift patterns.

You know who's off on what days. Erm...

You become sort of really one of them, in a way,

but except you're obviously dialling zero and they're not.

They're not dialling zero but it's comfort, really.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

Bye-bye.

-See you later.

-See you later! Have a nice day.

Below stairs, Head of Housekeeping Graziela Vieira

is preparing her army of maids for the day ahead.

Vivianne Eloy is one of the 60 maids who maintain the hotel's

pristine rooms.

She has worked here for two years.

The neighbourhood where Vivienne lives was once the most

notorious favela in the whole city ruled by violent druglords.

Following the announcement that Brazil was to host the World Cup,

the government launched a series of operations

to clean up Rocinha and some of the other favelas.

This area has now officially been pacified

and brought under police control.

More than 70,000 people live in this favela.

Open sewers run under the narrow alleyways.

Despite Brazil's economic growth,

one in five of the population still live below the poverty line.

Away from the main roads,

crime and violence is still a problem in the favela.

Recent gun battles between police

and drug dealers have terrified the local residents.

Vivienne is a single mum who lives with her three children in one room.

In recent years, life has improved for Brazil's urban poor.

There is now electricity and running water in most favelas.

But Vivienne still has to get by on just under £70 a week.

The wealth that Vivienne sees every day at work

emphasises the stark contrasts of the new Brazil.

With more billionaires than Britain or France, Brazil has one

of the biggest gaps between rich and poor of any major country on earth.

These inequalities have brought widespread social unrest.

In recent months, there have been protests about government

corruption and the price of transport and education.

But there is little sign of this among the guests

of the Copacabana Palace.

The hotel is adapting its old world opulence for the new, wealthy

Brazilian clientele.

The latest addition is a new Asian restaurant.

In charge of the project is Japanese Brazilian Felipe Ishihama.

The Asian restaurant doesn't have a name yet

so we are thinking about it to create a very nice name, very strong names.

This is the amazing bar with our sushi men which will be placed just right here.

We stole him... He stole them!

Been poaching people, have you?

Yeah, we took them from Sao Paulo from one of the best

restaurants in Sao Paulo, but originally they are from Japan.

So, for me, this is a privilege.

This is one of the biggest bars in the city

and to manage this bar, for me, I am very honoured

because it is a privilege because it will be the best.

I know my guests, I have been working in Rio for two years already

so my public was all very young, wealthy,

part of the elite of the city so speaking with them,

they are all excited for the opening of this restaurant

because there doesn't have in the city a restaurant like this

here in Rio.

So, this is our decoration.

It's not the original one yet

but it will be the same but the original, bigger.

It was very expensive, I heard! She has a very nice...

I think spirit inside of her.

And if you get closer to her, you can see a tiger.

Because we believe, in Asian culture, that all women

and every person, there's a tiger inside of you.

Look, I will show you where is the tiger, OK?

The tiger is just right here.

You can see the nose and these eyes here, look.

As a restaurant manager, Felipe isn't one of Rio's super rich.

He is part of a growing middle class that is changing the face of Brazil.

Instead of a swanky apartment,

he has chosen to live on the edge of one of Rio's favelas.

Ten years ago there was guns, there were shootings,

it was very dangerous here. At that time, I couldn't...

I would not risk myself.

But nowadays, wow, it is a different kind of lifestyle.

Many of my friends, they tell me,

"Felipe, why are you living there? You are crazy."

I would not live here if I wouldn't feel respected, if I wouldn't feel safe.

Around 40 of the city's estimated 600 favelas have been brought

under control by police.

In this neighbourhood, the effect has been dramatic.

The area is now being gentrified.

The levels of society are becoming almost the same.

There is no more, like, these divisions that we had ten years ago

of the real rich and the very poor class.

Before, the middle class didn't exist too much.

It was very rich or very poor.

For example, here in the favela,

a lot of people that live here, it's not who are poor people,

because even the woman who I rent the house from, my landlord,

her sons are working for big companies and they just live here.

I feel, and it is true, that you have less poverty

and you have much more middle class now.

As I am working in this hotel for almost 20 years, I remember

years ago that people struggled to buy a fridge, to buy a TV.

Today everybody in the hotel has a mobile phone.

So life for the Brazilians is easier, much easier than years ago.

It makes me happy and, again, we can see that poverty is low.

People are having the possibility to organise their lives much

better than years ago.

Every month, Andrea organises a breakfast to reward her staff.

THEY LAUGH

With the new Asian restaurant opening soon,

manager Felipe is on a recruitment drive.

Tell me an experience, for example,

that you said about anticipating the needs and wants of our guests.

There was a guest and you couldn't make him happy, make them

happy just on anticipating their service.

Yes.

So, when I was working at another hotel, you know, there was

a woman, a polite woman, and I know her name.

And I know what her favourite food and her favourite drink,

-and when I saw her...

-Her passing around?

Her passing around me.

I told her, "Please, have a seat. Let me assist you.

"It is a pleasure to serve you again."

Guests nowadays don't need to order any more.

They need to be remembered, they want to be valuable,

they want to feel valuable.

-They want to feel...

-Important.

-..special, important.

Because they are.

They are the ones who make our dream come true, of working

in a luxury place, in a luxury hotel, in a five-star hotel, pay our bills.

So they are the ones who help us.

LIFT PINGS

I have a very special guest in house.

So he is very regular, very important for us, as all the others.

It is his birthday today,

we are going to have a special party for him.

Everybody is coming around five o'clock, 5:30. Of course I am here.

I am looking after everything.

SHE LAUGHS

Really? Wishing you a happy birthday? Oh, my God.

He knows we are preparing something special for him.

-But he doesn't know who is invited.

-Who is invited?

We have some other guests that he met this weekend,

some others he met before.

Some people from our staff as well.

Raining.

-A lovely day in Rio!

-Yeah!

THUNDER ROLLS

Hello. Happy birthday.

APPLAUSE

-Perfect. Thank you.

-This is nice!

Thank you so much.

SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

THEY SING "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU" IN PORTUGUESE

CHEERING

It is the opening night of the hotel's new Asian restaurant.

The restaurant is the latest

chapter in the story of the Copacabana Palace,

as it adapts to Brazil's new reality.

The money is in the new hands now.

So we have new people, new guests, thank God,

young people coming to the hotel.

People that are just discovering the hotel.

People that want to be here

because they know that someone famous was here.

Or they want to come here

because they are curious about what happened in this hotel.

We are the only hotel that has a history to tell.

And the history of this grand old hotel has mirrored the highs

and lows of the whole country's fortunes.

The strategy is to be always the best hotel in Brazil.

That is what we want to be, that is

the position we want to keep for ever, of course.

MUSIC: "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes feat. The Black Eyed Peas