3 great ideas that create a wonderful sense of arrival for any conference hotel to deliver….
I discovered a great article on luxury hotel innovations written by Coyle Hospitality that enhance the guest experience. These would really be fantastic for any conference goer and make a conference organiser’s life a lot easier too.
1 – This is my favourite one — ipads supplied for each guest. The Plaza Hotel in New York have enhanced their guests experience by offering each guest an iPad from which they can do just about everything they need while staying at the hotel, including control the temperature in their room, order room service, make restaurant reservations, communicate with the concierge, request wake-up calls, explore NYC destination guides, and even check airline schedules and print boarding passes. How great would it be then to pre-load the ipads with the conference agenda, list of delegates, apps to network with, articles on the conference speakers, the conference organisers contact information, things to do in the area and a feedback on the conference app.
2 – Good bye to the front desk(This one I just love too as it is my pet peeve checking in at hotels) — Arriving guests are met by roving hosts, who sit down with them, offer a free glass of wine or coffee, and complete the check in process on a tablet computer (or iPad). It is soooo welcoming and sets a relaxed tone for the stay.
This I would just love for a conference experience as networking would be made so much easier, conference delegates generally arrive around the same time so this would kick off networking straight away. I find the “Front desk” just places a barrier between the guest and the hotelier, the most welcoming guest houses don’t have them, why should hotels? The new Hyatt brand – Andaz has this “welcome” as standard and more and more luxury boutique hotels are moving towards this also.
3 – This is niche within a niche – introducing hypo-allergenic rooms. This has been introduced by Hyatt Each “Respire” room gets a one-time shock treatment to minimize irritants, hypo-allergenic mattress and pillow cases, a powerful air purifier that’s listed as a medical device by the FDA, and other treatments that eliminate allergens on carpets and upholstery. – The number of asthma sufferers is projected to hit 400 million by 2025, so this may no longer be niche, just necessary.
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