Nearly 40 years after leaving his post as general manager at the Sheraton Grand Mirage, hotelier veteran Erhard Hotter is still nervous about “naming names.”
As a former porter at one of Australia’s most notorious and hedonistic hotels in the 80’s and 90’s it’s no surprise.
Hotter, a soft-spoken German who is nearly retired at 82, once presided over all aspects of the Gold Coast’s legendary Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort — a hotel that made headlines this week after it floated for $200 million .
Built by fugitive developer Christopher Skase in 1985 – 16 years before he died of stomach cancer in Spain – the hotel has become the ultimate beacon of ’80s excess, drawing guests from across Australia and the world to get started.
Christopher Skase (with his wife Pixie) built the Sheraton Mirage as the ultimate beacon of ’80s excess
Guests from across Australia and around the world came on holiday and headed to the Sheraton Mirage on Southport Spit
“And some of them are still alive today, so I don’t want to get too specific,” Hotter – who served as GM from 1988 to 1995 – told Daily Mail Australia.
“But of course we attracted some very high profile people. Many Hollywood actors and famous people from Europe.
‘And the very rich from Sydney and Melbourne. The Mirage was the kind of place that built a reputation as a social theater and it was our job to make sure guests got what they wanted.”
On one occasion, the New York Knicks basketball team disembarked in the hotel’s gleaming marble foyer, with one player notably measuring seven feet five.
“So we ordered a custom bed for him,” says Hotter.
“He was so happy that he could sleep comfortably, he couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe we did that.’
There was the prominent Brit visiting, who always wore only Versace pajamas and bathrobes and made his own sangria at the pool bar until late at night.
Or the longtime guest and celebrated drunk who ordered a shepherd’s pie and a bottle of Jack Daniels Red Label before bed.
Mirage guest Joan Collins photographed at the hotel with locals Heather Haynes and Donrecka Issakidis in the early 1990s
Former Mirage GM Erhard Hotter reveals some of the secrets behind the famous hotel that is now up for sale
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall checked into the Mirage in 2018 during a state visit
Or the famous Australian writer who called ahead to let us know of a ‘specific need’ that required ‘specialised’ catering.
“He said, ‘I can only wear socks because I have gout,’” Hotter said, adding that the condition, once dubbed ‘the disease of the rich,’ is not uncommon among her affluent clientele.
“You’re getting pretty good at spotting it. It’s the way they walk,” he says.
There were also favored guests, the sentimental favorites returning year after year who became part of the “Mirage family”.
“Michael Caine was one. Peter Allen was different,” says Hotter, who hosted the Australian cabaret legend every Christmas with his extended family.
“Peter came for a month every year with his mum and nieces and nephews and he did a few shows at the (Tweed RSL Club) Twin Towns so he had a lot of demands because he was working late nights.
“But we would do anything for him because he was such a lovely guest.
“The staff loved him and on his last visit it was tough because he fell ill.
“So we had the kitchen make him special soups and brought him fresh fruit.
Favorite guest Peter Allen often spent Christmas at the Mirage with his mother Marion and the extended family
Ex-GM Erhard Hotter (C) with regular Michael Caine and wife Shakira in 1995
“At the end of that visit, he came up to me and said goodbye and we both had tears in our eyes. Because we knew it would be the last time. And of course he died six months later.«
Then there were the famous “majordomos” (Spanish for “supreme steward”); the young male personal butlers handed out the VIP villas, whose duties regularly included escorting some of the wealthy female clients on shopping sprees through Marina Mirage’s posh boutiques.
“They would go shopping with the customers and maybe carry some bags for them and ride in the limos with them,” Hotter said.
“I think some of the women enjoyed it. A young handsome polite guy to go shopping with.”
And what of the folklore that some of the “majordomos” might even have extended their services to the guest rooms on a more “intimate” basis?
“It wasn’t officially allowed, but… who knows if they carry the bags into the rooms.
“Let’s just say we’ve never had any complaints from guests.”
But if the Mirage Resort was a symbol of decadence, its core was the Rolls nightclub — a whirlpool of mirrors and velvet cloaked in a haze of cigarette smoke (when indoor smoking was legal, if not encouraged).
Rolls in the basement was Skase’s personal playground. He was known to climb onto podiums and swing his way to tunes from his favorite singer, John Farnham, while waiters in black tie poured bottles of Veuve Cliquot and Moet & Chandon.
The ultimate hosts; Skase and his wife, Pixie, gained a reputation for throwing wild parties that drew VIPs from Australia and overseas
A view of the hotel’s famous seafront promenade that spans the resort
The centerpiece of the nightclub was a vintage 1934 Rolls Royce – the original, not a replica – which could be booked by guests who would climb in, close the doors and “do whatever”.
“I mean, it really wasn’t that comfortable, but what they did inside was up to them.”
But Rolls, with its huge overhead and distance differences from Surfers Paradise’s party strip, eventually closed after a short but wild ride.
Around the same time, word was circulating around Mirage that the Skase and its embattled empire, Qintex, were slipping.
Skase and his wife, Pixie, who frequently flew by helicopter from the Gold Coast to the Mirage in Port Douglas, were spending less and less time in Southport, where they owned a detached villa overlooking Main Beach.
Hotter left Mirage for a position at the Sheraton Nusa Dua in Indonesia and managed international hotels for another 30 years.
Skase sold the remainder of his stake in Mirage and disappeared to Mallorca when his $1.5 billion Qintex group collapsed – leaving a string of devastated shareholders with hundreds of millions of dollars out of their own pockets.
Meanwhile, other resorts were quick to adopt Mirage as the epitome of Gold Coast generosity.
Despite going bankrupt in 1994, Mike Gore’s visionary Sanctuary Cove had become the new Mecca for millionaires looking to moor their mega yachts and play golf.
Then, in 2001, the Palazzo Versace became Broadwater’s new hotspot, attracting Hollywood glitz and the European super-rich.
Opening Night: George Hamilton and Catherine Oxenberg were among the international rich and famous who attended the 1985 opening of the Mirage
The Sheraton Grand Mirage traded hands a few times before Star Entertainment Group took over in 2017, only for the embattled casino operator to list it for sale this week.
His future now seems uncertain. As one developer put it to Daily Mail Australia this week; “It was a miracle in its day, but it’s old and looks like it needs quite a bit of work.”
For Hotter, who decided to return to Mirage to celebrate his 80th birthday in 2021, it still holds a place in his heart.
“It’s such a shame it’s not the same anymore because it was just so stylish and so fabulous and now of course the Gold Coast has changed so much,” he says.
“But I was lucky enough to have been there during that time, before all the social media, when it was all about having fun in the moment.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11866257/Secrets-Sheraton-Mirage-Ex-boss-reveals-wild-secrets-famed-Gold-Coast-hotel.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 Secrets of the Sheraton Mirage: Ex-Chef reveals wild secrets of famed Gold Coast hotel
