DreamCheaper
8-4-2015
This is another website that helps their customers to secure the best deal possible. Book a hotel in the ‘flexible option’, forward the confirmation to DreamCheaper and let them find you the best deal possible. They will rebook and cancel the old confirmation, and you will still get the same room!
DreamCheaper promises cheaper hotel rooms
DreamCheaper, a German start-up, has automated the process to make a deal with fluctuating room prices by canceling and rebooking the room anytime it signals the same room at a better price. Customers have to create an account on DreamCheaper and forward their confirmation email. DreamCheaper starts a process of price-comparison that continues until the day before check-in. The startup’s automated system monitors the changing room prices on hundreds of travel websites (they do vary on supply and demand).
According to DreamCheaper, customers have no risk, the website first books the new room and cancels the old one later. They take a 20 percent cut of the money saved, so it is always incentivized to get the best price. They promise to optimize 2 out of 3 reservations.
A positive development for consumers but for hoteliers it’s another player on the market looking for the cheapest deals possible. Of course at the expense of the revenue of the hotel room.
Beam: The smart projector that fits in any light socket
7-4-2015
Beam can turn any flat surface into a big screen. It is a powerful projector equipped with a smart computer, all inside a beautifully designed casing.
Beam is already funded on Kickstarter
You can play games, watch movies or share content from your smartphone or tablet. You can also watch TV on your bedroom ceiling or project recipes on your kitchen wall. Next to that, Beam can assist you in your daily activities, like waking up in the morning with the latest news and your agenda or showing you your social updates when you come home. Beam is easy to set up and control with the Apple or Android app. You can screw it into any light socket or use the included power cable to place it on any flat surface.
With Beam the makers have created an easy to use ‘internet of things’-device that can entertain and assist you throughout the day. The patent for the technology inside Beam is pending. The fundraising went amazing, they raised more money than expected.
Inspiration
If you watch the video above you can easily imagine the use of the Beam in restaurants or hotels. Imagine your specialties of the day projected on the walls or a wall of pictures in your hotel lobby, presenting your menu, pictures of your wellness center or digital paintings. Or what do you think about presenting the kitchen crew while working on the plates of your guests? In a bar Beam could be used to project games on the tables.
10 tips for small gestures that make a room more welcoming
31-3-2015
A hotel room is a room where you sleep when you are traveling. Whether this is for business or pleasure, it doesn’t really matter much. The guest pays for the luxury he or she wants to experience during the stay. Yet there are those little gestures you can use to pamper the guest just a little extra. We have collected 10 examples of small suggestions to spice up your hotel room.
Hotel amenities
We all know the standard of soaps, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, bathing caps, toothbrush sets and shaving kits by now. Many of these amenities disappear in the suitcase and are a lasting reminder of your hotel in the bathroom of your previous guests. Definitely keep the standard amenities as a giveaway. I must say, I’m still positively surprised if I find mini packs makeup remover wipes. Hoteliers, this is highly appreciated by women!
Bath Menu and sunscreen
At the Andaz Hotel in San Diego they have a bowl at the front desk with sunscreen sachets that have a high protection for your face! What a great service. At the Surf & Sand Resort Laguna Beach (Los Angeles) there are cheerful messages on the amenities of the hotel. Texts that make you happy when you walk into the bathroom in the morning.
More and more hotels are offering some kind of a Bath Menu: you can get an extended bath treatment from top soap brands. This can be a form of upselling, recently we wrote about it on horecatrends.com.
Magazines or other books besides the bed
At Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles next to the Getty Museum, the nightstand contains a book with uplifting and cheerful texts and drawings next to the traditional Bible. Guests can buy the book downstairs in the shop as well, along with other fun books in this series! You see more and more luxury hotels that present a selection of magazines in the room. And if you do it, do it right. At the Schloss Bensberg in Bergisch Gladbach we received a daily selection of various magazines!
Children in the hotel room
It always amazes me that there is so little attention to detail for (parents with) children. Occasionally we’ve encountered some toys at a room, a simple gesture which makes a child happy and the parents as well. At Shutters on the Beach Hotel in Santa Monica they have a box in the bookcase with a yo-yo and three juggling balls. For the little ones, they have also a small whale for in the bath! But even older children find these toys fun, is my experience! A beach ball in a seaside hotel or some traditional Dutch games like the reversed buckets that you keep under your feet while walking by two strings in your hand. A doll in traditional costume for the toddler could be fun too, and so on.
Even adults like to play …
Adults also love to play as well, they know that at Shutters on the Beach. At the bathroom they have locked some guilty pleasures in a bathroom cabinet. More hotels are offering excitement in this form, sometimes in collaboration with well-known adult shops like Christine le Duc.
Yoga offer in your hotel room
At LUXURY Sunset Boulevard hotel a yoga mat in your hotel room is ready to use. There is a business card attached to it that says “Decompress with my yoga works” and it includes a code for a month of online yoga classes. Guests can also attend a complimentary yoga class at a location nearby. It could be interesting to collaborate with a local yoga teacher on this. Or if you haven’t got a gym at the hotel, working together with a gym nearby can be an option as well.
Use a minibar in a charming way.
In a number of luxury hotels the minibar is already free of charge. Given the prices you pay for the room, the cost is often negligible. It is really charming to offer some drinks for free in any case, even a simple bottle of water on the nightstand is appreciated by your guests. Every day the Andaz Hotel in San Diego offered some drinks and snacks for free. They would put these on top of the mini-bar with a friendly note attached.
Do not disturb sign
The Marriott hotel in Dana Point California has a special ‘do not disturb’ sign: Gone Surfin ! It’s definitely responding to local conditions ;-). The Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach (Los Angeles) has a ‘do not disturb sign’ sign that you put into the keyhole. That will keep the maid out if you want to sleep..
Local hints in your hotel room
It’s old fashioned but at the luxury hotels it’s certainly still common, a box of stationery and postcards. Yet there are more and more people who just send postcards from their holiday address. The Surf & Sand Resort has put a handful of shells from the beach in their box which can be added to your letter. What is a local element at your location? If it’s the view, provide a binoculars for your guests.
Responding to special circumstances for your guests …
Nothing is easier than a guest who indicates that he or she is at your hotel to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or something else. An opportunity to score for an open goal. And yet many hotels miss this! A small cake with a personal congratulation can sparkle a miracle and is often shared via social media. It is not really about what you do, as long as you do something.
Marjolein van Spronsen
That’s one way to avoid taking the stairs, take the slide!
24-3-2015
Rapidly from the second floor to breakfast? At The RedDot hotel in Taiwan you can take a slide! Hotel guests go back to their childhood, smiling on their way down.
The slide in the RedDot Hotel
General Manager Stephen Wu of the RedDot hotel in Taichung City invented the slide, inspired by the open slides at Google headquarters. Costs: 100,000 US dollars for the 30-meter stainless steel tunnel slide. The slide consists out of 102 stainless steel parts! Watch the video for more great details in the RedDot hotel like the barber chair in the lobby and the neon lights art… Which hotel in The Netherlands is going to install a slide?
Daalder mobile payment app
23-3-2015
The Dutch company Daalder launched its mobile payment Daalder app last week, an independent e-wallet for mobile payments in the Netherlands.
About Daalder
Daalder is an Amsterdam based start-up founded by entrepreneurs Renz Millenaar, Reinhard Spronk and Romke de Vries. Thomas de With, former director of the Global Transaction Bank at Deutsche Bank in the Netherlands is member of the Daalder Advisory Board. Business that are connected through Daalder receive payments via the ‘Daalder Webkassa’ (freely translated as ‘Daalder webbased cash register) which makes payments immediately visible. In addition, it is possible to send live updates and special offers to Daalder users.
Upselling with a luxury bathing service
16-3-2015
At the Ritz hotel in Kuala Lumpur, you can choose a bath ‘fragrance line’ from a Bath Menu. A luxurious gesture … We wrote about the Bath Menu in our publication ‘Royal hospitable gestures’ in April 2013.
Luxury bathing service at St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel
Recently we read an article on Luxury Launches that the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel is bringing back the Bath Ritual. This (free) service is only available to guests of the suites of the hotel. The guests can choose between 3 rituals: Journey to India, Journey on the Silk Route and Journey to Africa. The bath will be prepared while guests drink or dine. After returning to your room, your bath will be ready and you can bathe with a set of fragrances, body oils and unguents, while enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of cake or something healthy. After this relaxing bath you can use the lotion from one of the ‘ritual bath’ lines.
Inspiration: More luxury hotels offer a ‘bath butler’ service. The butler comes to your room with the luxury bath products the hotel offers, you choose the one you prefer and buy it. If a hotel offers the right products this might be a form of upselling.
A postcard from Istanbul, short film by the St. Regis
11-3-2015
The opening of the St. Regis Istanbul on 1 March 2015 is celebrated with a short film to introduce the St. Regis into Istanbul. St. Regis Hotels & Resorts and Emmy award winning actor and director John Malkovich have partnered to make this film.
About A postcard from Istanbul
A film about Istanbul and love, A Postcard from Istanbul was shot at the historical locations of the city and at The St. Regis Istanbul. Featuring Julian Sands and Turkish actress Belçim Bilgin, the film unveils the sensory treasures and charm of the city. It tells the story about a screenwriter in search of inspiration, who travels to Istanbul and discovers the city’s attractions with the help of a tour guide.
The St. Regis Istanbul
The St. Regis Istanbul is situated close to the Bosphorus and is surrounded by luxurious boutiques, the very best culinary offerings and the finest of art and entertainment. Mere steps away are attractions such as the Maçka Park and Taksim square. The 5-star luxury hotel has 104 rooms and 14 suites.
Inspiration: Create your own ‘short film’ around a special occasion in your hotel or at your location. It could go viral and reach a lot of potential guests.
Cooperation into practice between MeetingReview and Olery
11-3-2015
Guests can write a review about their experience in the conference hotel ‘Kontakt der Kontinenten’ at one of the issued iPads, the App or in a aftersales survey of the hotel. These reviews are now visible on Meeting Review. This is an independent review platform for meeting locations. The conference hotel is the first location that uses business reviews not only internally but also publishes those reviews externally.
Conference hotel ‘Kontakt der Kontinenten’
Reviews are not yet common for conference and events centers. Commercial manager Lars Beckers of the conference hotel knows how important reviews are and has directly embraced the initiative of MeetingReview.com. He thought it was not desirable though to ask his guests to write a review twice about the same meeting (on MeetingReview and his own website).
Cooperation between MeetingReview and Olery
Integration with Olery Feedback provided the solution. Olery is the company that collects and analyzes reviews of hotels, for example on TripAdvisor.com, Zoover and many other website. Guests start a survey about their meeting and are asked if their assessment may be published on MeetingReview. If no permission is given, the answers will only be available internally. If there is an authorization, the answers to the questions are also passed to MeetingReview. The assessment will be screened by MeetingReview and if it complies with the terms of use, it will be published on the website of the Conference hotel.
The partnership between Olery and the conference hotel derives from the need to be able to publish the guests experiences, posted on various website, transparently on the website of the hotel. Visitors of the website of the conference hotel are able to see the exact and average score of the online reviews due to the Olery integration. At the same time the employees immediately know how the provided service has been rated. By merging various sources, the reliability increases. A partnership that provides transparency to future guests and guests who attended a meeting at the hotel.
Travel light
10-3-2015
Travel light is powered by TNT Express, they take care of the transport of your skis, snowboard, golf set or even your luggage to your holiday destination. The luggage will be picked up at home and ready upon arrival at your holiday destination.
Travel light as part of the service to your hotel guests
We have already seen several hotels that accommodate in solutions for the luggage of their guests. At the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne, they have a ‘Leave it at Hyatt’ service, enabling visitors to safely store their belongings on site, ready for their next stay.
Some hotels in ski resorts offer the same service for skis and snowboards, with the effect that their guests travel lighter and return! If your hotel welcomes guests who take extra luggage such as skis or golf sets regularly, you could point them to this possibility. The service of Travel Light allows your guests to book flights with only hand luggage. The luggage is traceable via a track and trace system. On the website of Travel light you will find an instruction video, how to pack your luggage and send it to your holiday destination and back.
Poptails
5-3-2015
Poptails, the summer funs at Sky Bar, Bangkok’s highest rooftop bar at the Lebua State Tower hotel. Poptails are premium classic cocktails paired with brain-freezing popsicles. ‘Poptails’ derived from the two words – popsicle and cocktails.
Poptails are made of…
The master mixologist at ‘The Dome’ at the Lebua State Tower hotel created the poptails to create fun and excitement around his cocktails! Premium is referring to the base spirits – the Havana 3 Years Rum, Absolut 100 Vodka, Olmeca Tequila and Plymouth Gin – that are used to create these cocktails. They serve a Rocky Road Martini: (Chocolate martini) – 1.5 oz Absolute 100 Vodka – 0.1 oz white chocolate liqueur – 0.5 oz hazelnut liqueur, rimmed with dark, Dutch chocolate and garnished with a Rocky Road Popsicle made of chocolate, marshmallow, peanuts, water, simple syrup and milk.
The other cocktails which are served with a popsicle: Berrymania (with a creamy berry / lemon popsicle), The Clover Pop (with a pineapple popsicle) and The Pop Star (with a melon and raspberry popsicle).
The Sky Bar
Due to the Sky Bar’s innovative cocktails, striking atmosphere and spectacular views, it earned the distinction of being named “the most stunning rooftop bar you’ll ever see” by The New York Times and is one of the highlights of Bangkok’s nightlife scene. So, if you’re planning to go to Bangkok, this is the place to drink a cocktail. They also serve a Hangovertinis, a cocktail created for the cast of ‘The Hangover Part II’ while they were filming at Lebua. This cocktail has gone on to become Thailand’s signature drink.
As said the view is amazing and the cocktails at the Sky Bar are delicious! I know, it’s one of those places I can say of: ‘Been there, done that’. But unfortunately they didn’t serve the popsicles then, so I don’t mind going back! ^Marjolein
