The use of power banks in the hospitality industry
15-11-2018
For restaurant owners it will always be important to continue to respond to the needs of the modern guest. The modern guest with his cell phone, we mean! We have already seen several solutions for this, from actions to enthuse guests to switch off the phone during dinner to offering various possibilities to charge their mobile. This doesn’t always have to go hand in hand with huge investments, an example of restaurant De Dorpskamer in Ermelo (the Netherlands), which offers their guests power banks to charge their mobile phone at the table.
Take-away restaurant Vita Mojo | Food based on your DNA
23-10-2018
A meal that is tailored to your DNA? It might sound like complicated and overly remote but this is changing: ultra-personalized food or eating exactly what your body needs! Vita Mojo in London is the first take-away restaurant that offers these meals. In addition, we spotted several other providers that are working on food based on your DNA, examples of Nestlé and of a DNA company in America that works with Amazon to deliver personalized meals at home.
We would like to taste the meals of Vita Mojo … however, handing over your DNA sample to third parties? Your DNA sample is pretty much the only thing that’s really ‘yours’ nowadays. Would you do it?
Frosted Key Lime shake | When will we see pie shakes in the Netherlands?
23-10-2018
The American fast food chain Chick-Fil-A is currently testing the Frosted Key Lime shake in Austin, Texas. The concept of shakes with cake taste is certainly not new, last summer we already mentioned Polly’s Pies shakes in Los Angeles in one of our articles on horecatrends.com. A pie shake is made by mixing scoops of ice cream with a piece of pie. The drink is then topped with a dash of whipped cream and garnishes as desired. In this case, the dessert Florida Key Lime pie has been an inspiration for the final Frosted Key Lime shake, which must taste like pie, but isn’t a mixture of pie and ice cream.
We still wonder when we will see this kind of shakes in the Netherlands!
Funny ‘small welcoming gesture’ | By Hotel Le Royal in Luxembourg city
22-10-2018
Everyone who follows our website knows that we like to inspire in the field of ‘small welcoming gestures’. Recently we have spotted such a nice and humorous little gesture that might inspire hotels in the Netherlands for our ‘Sinterklaas period’, in the last months of the year. The hotel Le Royal in Luxembourg City has a humorous chocolate coin on the bedside table after the turndown service!
Wellness Hostel 4000 | Luxury wellness hostel in Switzerland
19-10-2018
At the beginning of October, our colleagues from Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy, published their sector research ‘De hostel in beeld’ (published only in Dutch). This publication shows that the youth hostel image has been stuck to the hostels for years, it’s now changing partly thanks to the newer, contemporary trendy concepts. Nowadays, hostels also profile themselves partly as hotels, with less large dormitories and more private rooms. This ensures a separation in different types of hostels: the classic youth hostel, budget hostels and boutique, design hostels. A nice example of a hostel where it is not just about the overnight stay is the Wellness Hostel 4000 & Aqua Allalin in Saas Fee, Switzerland. And in 2020 a second Wellness hostel will open in Laax, Wellness hostel 3000 & Aua Grava.
Restaurant Ducasse sur Seine | Haute cuisine, hospitality, culture and technology on the Seine
17-10-2018
Restaurant Ducasse sur Seine; haute cuisine, hospitality, culture and technology on an exclusive cruise ship in the Seine. Since 18 September, the ship sails past the highlights of Paris in 90 minutes, while guests can enjoy a 3 to 5-course menu at top level. We already wrote about the upcoming opening in our ‘trends we spotted’ in August, now we know more!
Eaton Workshop in Washington DC | New, social, creative hotel concept
16-10-2018
Eaton Workshop opened last September in downtown Washington DC and besides hotel rooms they offer their guests an interdisciplinary hotel experience. Eaton Workshop consists of distinct parts: House, Hotel, Media, Wellness and Impact. This hub for change makers, entrepreneurs and creatives is at the cutting edge of culture, media, hospitality, welfare and progressive social change. Leonie van Spronsen stayed in the hotel twice and writes about it below.
Eaton Workshop | Opened with a Human Progress Festival
There are many reasons to become an entrepreneur but one reason that is very hip these days; to make the world a better place. This comes in all shapes and sizes but it often it ends up being more commercial than ethic or quite the opposite: very ethic but not profitable at all! These are not the only two options if you ask Katherine Lo, founder of Eaton Hotels, who started her company to prove you can be a profitable and ethic entrepreneur. Katherine and her team opened their first Eaton houses in Hong Kong and Washington DC in September, in special ways. Eaton Washington DC was officially opened with a “Human Progress Festival”, three days of party in the form of spiritual workshops, themed debates, indie radio, more traditional parties and meditation. Check their Facebookpage for videos of their events.
Loved my stay at the Eaton hotel!
Otherwise the hotel is stunning, hip, cool but a typical hotel however you cannot miss the progressive approach to running a hotel. This hotel has 209 rooms and the lobby features an indie radio station studio, at check-in you receive a healing crystal and the staff is of all backgrounds and languages. Lots of attention for details, like for example you will find a list of amenities you can have brought to your room; things like razor kits, shampoo and oh, the declaration of human rights. Yep – this is not your 13 in a dozen type of hotel. At the wellness you can enjoy new age spa treatments and there is a co-working space in the hotel. As for their food & beverage: they have two restaurants, American Son and Kintsugi, both run by their chef Tim Ma. At American Son you’ll find an American melting pot menu, they use a lot of vegetables and local products. In season some vegetables are even harvest from the rooftop garden of the hotel. At the menu of Kintsugi are third wave coffee, Ayurvedic beverages, and experimental healthy pastries, plus comfortable seating areas and countertops to work from, and a selection of periodicals.
Katherine Lo has next to their other hotel in Hong Kong plans for Eaton hotels in Seattle and San Francisco. I truly hope she will pull this off and prove once and for all that it is possible to have an ethical and profitable business, because I think the world could use that! And if anyone can do it, it would be a girl that was surrounded by the knowledge and wealth of the Langham imperium growing up. I have stayed twice at Eatons by now and really enjoyed it! ^Leonie van Spronsen
Inspiration from Bergen, Norway | Hotel Norge by Scandic
12-10-2018
Hotel Norge in Bergen has been around since 1885 and this summer reopened their new, modern home for travellers with a curious mind. The hotel embraces Bergen’s history and combines it with an international and contemporary lifestyle. Check out the video underneath the article and spot the special features of this hotel such as the giant eternal sun in the lobby which can be seen as the heart of the building, the escalator tunnel, the amfi staircase in café Norge and their own fragrance ‘the escapist’. Inspiration from Bergen in Norway, with a touch of Amsterdam as concrete was involved in the design.
CitizenM bowery hotel | A luxury and cultural experience in downtown New York
4-10-2018
September 27th , the citizenM bowery hotel, full of luxury and cultural experiences, had officially opened its doors. With 300 rooms and a staggering 75m high, it becomes the tallest building in the neighbourhood and the world’s tallest modular hotel. Alongside a living room plaza and carefully curated art, the hotel introduces CoffeeM to the US, and is also topped with cloudM rooftop bar, offering 360 degrees of views over Manhattan.
Hotel Les Roches Rouges | It’s retro
1-10-2018
Located at the French Riviera, well almost above the Mediterranean Sea, in Saint-Raphaël, hotel Les Roches Rouges is heaven for those who love to sleep with the sound of the waves. A contemporary Boutique style hotel with a high dose of retro, reintroducing the shower curtain, simple blue tiles in the shower, retro shower faucets, retro images and many more detail in the design and small gestures that bring back a lot of memories. Like the iron tables at the terrace, the large French oak communal tables, lots of concrete walls and wooden details. And old fashioned cocktails in small bottles in your room. The hotel is very #Instagrammable.
