Random acts of kindness for Valentine’s Day
3-2-2015
McDonald’s uses the ‘random acts of kindness’ marketing technique from 1 February until Valentine’s Day. All over America their guests may be randomly selected to pay for their meal with selfies, hugs, high fives, and other forms of love.
Random acts of kindness
In 2009 we already wrote about the unexpected friendly gestures the Hyatt hotel group did to their guests. They gave away free massages, offered breakfast and randomly selected guests that didn’t had to pay the bar tab. Also companies like KLM used acts of generosity in the past. With the prominent position of social media in our lives these unexpected gestures are a strong stimulant for positive mouth-to-mouth or ‘mouth-to-media’ advertising.
The effect of the gestures by McDonald’s
On the internet more and more videos and pictures with the responses from guests who are offered a free meal are posted. This works out great. The company invests in an advertising campaign and free meals, their guests talk, write and share videos with their friends about it.
At the website of RAK, random acts of kindness, you will find a lot of inspiration for your act of kindness. They even have their own #RAKweek2015 for stories about random kindness from 6 to 15 February.
Creative dreams in the hotel rooms of The Hospital Club
26-1-2015
The Hospital Club launched fifteen unique new hotel rooms in their creative hub in the heart of London.
Sleeping in The Hospital Club means…
The luxury boutique bedroom extension to The Hospital Club provides members, guests and clients with a welcoming home-from-home where they can work, rest and play. Guests can fuel their creativity at the restaurant. The hotel rooms have a unique twist, like in their amenities which include inspiring turndown cards (brain power tool kits by the School of Life) and an erotic mini bar by Holloway Smith Noir available for those wishing to explore their creativity in other ways! There is a cocktail trolley at 7pm each evening and suite guests can enjoy a bespoke bartending experience in their rooms, with their own personal bartender. Rooms are available in four sizes: small, medium, large and suite.
Association with the contemporary art world
Continuing the strong heritage and association the Club has established with the contemporary art world, each room features the works of individual artists, including Alyson Mowat, James Alec Hardy, Dominic Beattie, Noah da Costa, Rick Guest, Jacob Love, Harriet Clare, Kristof Jeney, Christian Thompson and David Degreef.
Being part of the creative hub as guest
All bedroom guests have full access to the facilities of the Club including the production and screening facilities and the enviable schedule of member events which include comedy nights, mixology classes, industry networking drinks as well as premium ticketed events such as chef master classes.
About The Hospital Club
The Hospital Club is a unique hub in the heart of London, offering the members of the creative industries the environment and facilities they need to create, connect and collaborate. As part of London’s creative community, the role of the hub is to discover and host the best creative talent and produce, publish and celebrate their work. In addition is The Hospital Club Studio London’s most central and luxuriously appointed TV production facility (which regularly hosts WATCHDOG (BBC), THE AGENDA (ITV) as well as clients including Disney, MTV and BBC Comedy.
CORK2CORK sustainability initiative of the NH hotel group
22-1-2015
NH Hotel Group recycles two tons of cork in its hotels. The CORK2CORK initiative from the NH Hotel Group has so far yielded more than 1994 kilograms of recycled cork.
More than 75 hotels of NH Hotel Group in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany have collected corks from wine bottles since the start of the project, which were then used for the construction and isolation of hotel walls and floors. This CORK2CORK makes a substantial contribution to the realization of the sustainability goals of NH Hotel Group.
CORK2CORK
CORK2CORK is part of the sustainability policy of the NH Hotel Group and has been rolled out in cooperation with Amorim, a global producer of cork and building materials of cork. It’s their goal to give a second life to bottle corks used in hotels by reusing it as construction and insulation material. The collected corks account for 8000m2 of wall and floor space used for the construction and renovation of more than 300 hotel rooms.
“We are very proud of the result of this Cork2Cork program. We have given a beautiful natural product a second life. This is one of the example projects which shapes our sustainability policy towards internal and external stakeholders,” said Mónica Chao Janeiro, Director of Environmental Management and Sustainability of NH Hotel Group. “The enthusiastic response and the beautiful result of this action motivates us to continue on this path with sustainability projects in our operations.”
Natural cork as material
After recycling natural cork, it is excellent to use for the production of wall and floor covering. Thanks to its insulating effect, cork is capable to counter sound effects and contribute to energy-efficient heating or cooling a building.
The Six Friends Theory by Mercure
16-1-2015
The six-degrees-of-separation theory claims that everyone on this planet is connected with each other by a maximum of six people. Mercure hotels introduced a worldwide digital campaign: ‘The Six Friends Theory’ and is looking for the perfect candidate to test the theory. From 20 January till 20 February the perfect candidate can apply through a worldwide selection process.
Purpose
The purpose of the campaign is to select a candidate from somewhere over the world, then let him/her meet an Aboriginal of the Bundjalung tribe and prove that they are only six links away from each other. They don’t know each other but they will get together via friends and friends of friends whom connect them.
Participation
From 20 January adventurers are invited to post a video of themselves on the Facebook page of Mercure. In the video they have to tell who they are, what talents they have, what their motivations and passions are and why they are the best friend of the world in just one minute. A video can be posted till 20 February.
The 50 videos with the most likes are directly going to the finals. A jury that consists out of six people including Jean-François Julian (a Movie Director) and Isabelle Musnik (Editor-in-Chief of INfluencia) will select the winner in a final interview. The selection takes place between 20 January and 10 February 2015 and the results will be announced between 17 and 24 February.
The Six Friends Theory
The first prize of the campaign is a trip around the world with stays at several Mercure hotels. The winner will be on his way for seven weeks from the beginning of March. ‘The Six Friends Theory’ exists out of six meetings, six destinations and six Mercure hotels worldwide. At each destination the winner will hear where he is going to find the next friend. These friends will give him a local experience and guide him to the next assignment towards the Aboriginal.
The winner will be on his way together with a film crew, directed by Jean-François Julian. It is his job to capture all the meetings and experiences of the winner.
There are also different rewards for the other 49 candidates from the finals like overnight stays at Mercure hotels and Samsung tablets.
Book a room for a few hours
7-1-2015
When booking a room in The Netherlands online, Dutch hotels are often limited to a standard rate for one night. It’s hardly impossible to book a room for a few hours.
Minimum stay
There are website that gave it a try, such as ‘Day-Use Hotels‘ which we wrote about in 2012. That website is in the Netherlands still limited to Hotel & Spa Savarin and offers a minimum stay of five hours. The website of between9and5.com gives a little more options for a room, although even there fixed time frames apply with a minimum of five hours. It’s still not possible to book a room for a few hours.
Expanding time windows
With an emerging international 24-hour economy, arrival and departure times are no longer as set as they used to be. If guests themselves could indicate during which time they wish to use the room, hotels would get the maximum out of their available rooms.
Capsules in Asia
Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong are more familiar with booking rooms by the hour, since it is a regularity that tourists or businessmen rest a few hours in capsule hotels. Green Plaza Shinjuku Capsule Hotel even offers 630 cabins, but these are restricted to men only. A capsule measures 190cm by 100cm by 90cm and has air conditioning, a TV, radio, alarm clock and adjustable lighting.
Book a room for a few hours
Although sleeping capsules seem claustrophobic to us and do not fit our culture, Dutch guests from the region might find it pleasant to book a hotel for a few hours in the Netherlands as well. Only not like the tourists and business guests do in Asia. It can be an opportunity for dating purposes.
Dating in hotel rooms
The dating market is hot! There is an interesting market for the visitors of dating sites like Second Love and Ashley Madison. Apps like Tinder and Grindr are in high demand and it is becoming easier for ‘adventurers’ get in touch with like-minded people. This (online) dating market is an interesting business for hotels. There’s taboo on renting rooms for these occasions, but for hotels it’s a chance to earn extra money by renting rooms for a few hours that would otherwise still be vacant. Which hotel offers an easy booking system to book rooms by the hour? Let us know via tip@spronsen.com, we’ll be discrete.
The vending machine of the future
6-1-2015
The Luce X2 Touch TV vending machine uses facial recognition and could deny you an unhealthy snack if you gave the machine an insight in your medical records and the product could harm you. The future of vending machines in hospitals and schools and offices?
The future is near with this vending machine
The Luce X2 Touch TV vending machine is created by Italy-based Rheavendors and recently launched in the UK by Smart Vend Solutions, the machine features a touchscreen display to select an item just like a standard vending machine. However, customers with an account can go through a facial recognition check – to approve the snack (or not) before it’s delivered.
In the last two years, Rheavendors developed the facial mapping software for the machines to allow or disallow products based on the user’s age, gender or dietary needs. For example, if the machine is configured to identify an individual with a nut allergy, it will then prevent the user from ordering a particular item with traces of nuts.
Smart Vend Solutions managing director, Malcolm Standage, about the vending machine: “Now touch screen technology, cashless payment systems, Smartphone integration and automatic dispensing is shaping the future of the industry and we want Smart Vend Solutions to be positioned as a specialist in this marketplace. Through our exclusive partnership with Rheavendors, we are determined to explore unprecedented avenues and endless possibilities in vending. Launching the very first full production facial recognition technology represents an advancement which will bring unlimited benefits to businesses and consumers across the UK.” If you want to know more, contact their office.
Zenzez combines Hotel, Lounge and Showroom
2-1-2015
Matthijs Wilmink and Paul Mulder are the founders of ZENZEZ Hotel & Lounge. Zenzez is an attractive design- and cityhotel located at the edge of the city center of Apeldoorn (The Netherlands).
Interior
Zenzez Hotel & Lounge is fully furnished by the styling team of Riviera Maison. The owners created the hotel to be distinctive and to offer a contemporary and affordable luxury product. Guests of the hotel can buy the furniture and accessories during their visit. That makes Zenzez a hotel, lounge and showroom all in one.
Zenzez
Zenzez Hotel & Lounge is the first hotel in the Netherlands that is founded through crowdfunding. The hotel is located at a renovated Jugendstil villa from 1904 and has 10 rooms. The hotel is also suitable for business meetings and it has a luxuriously furnished businessroom. At the lounge you can go for a lunch, cup of coffee, high tea or a glass of wine.
Dishes of amateur cooks on your menu
23-12-2014
Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo (Grau, Friesland, The Netherlands) inspired us with their search for the tastiest meatball and ‘snert’ (a famous Dutch pea soup) to place on their lunch menu. If campaigns like is are done right, you can reach a lot of potential guests. Especially if you involve local food bloggers.
Meatballs and ‘Snert’ on the lunch menu
Restaurant Oostergoo started a competition to find the best home-made meatballs and snert. On 13 December, the meatballs and the soup were tasted by the famous Dutch chefs Joop Braakhekke and Albert Kooy to assess whether the dishes would fit in a restaurant as well. This because the winning meatball and snert will be on the lunch menu at the Hotel-Restaurant Oostergoo. The winners are Mr. Scholten de Weerd (meatballs) and Ms. Gerda Uiterwaal (pea soup).
Dishes of amateur cooks on the menu
The amount of variations of food competitions you can think of are of course numerous. But especially with the huge amount of amateur cooks and the popularity of cooking it’s not difficult to create your own theme. Enthuse the local press to pay attention to your search for a great dish, have a (local) celebrity judge the dishes and leave a spot (or a few) free at your menu. And of course, make a party from your food competition!
NH Hotels show their hearts!
22-12-2014
The NH Hotel Group recently launched this year’s edition of the annual globally Christmas Campaign “Hotels with a Heart”. The campaign is in partnership with the Ronald McDonald Children Fund, Iris Hospital in Belgium and the Lenval Children’s Hospital in France.
Hotels with a Heart
The NH Hotel Group offers free nights, afternoon teas, Christmas dinners and cooking workshops in its hotels for families who have had a hard time because of the illness of their child. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the “Hotels with a Heart” initiative, which has gained a prominent place in the Corporate Responsibility Program of the hotel group.
Corporate Responsibility ambassador
In the Benelux, UK and France 43 hotels will invite special guests in the period from 22 December, 2014 until 11 January 2015. In total, about 300 hotel nights are offered worldwide. To make sure the families will lack nothing during their stay, every hotel has an ambassador to watch over every need of the families.
Campaign video
The campaign video about this initiative is published in several languages. It could have been an even stronger campaign if every country would tell another story instead of ‘just’ another variation in subtitle and voice-over. This would have strengthened this great gesture!
Pop-up hotelroom ‘Scandic To Go’
17-12-2014
Hotel guests in Sweden can now have their hotel room delivered anywhere in the Nordic region. Prospective guests of ‘Scandic To Go’ can apply to have a room, complete with air-conditioning, shower, Wifi and breakfast, moved to their favourite location.
Pop-up hotelroom
Instead of picking a location and then try to find a hotel nearby, the service lets guests select the exact location of their hotel room. The Nordic hospitality chain has built a special 18m2 mobile hotel room complete with two beds, bathroom and a terrace area for enjoying the sights of the chosen destination. And it even includes a breakfast each morning. The ‘Scandic To Go’ is of course kind of a mobile home. It has already been placed at the beach in the South and in central Stockholm.
Scandic To Go
Scandic To Go is part of the Scandic Hotels, they even offer you the opportunity to win a night at your favorite Nordic spot. The only thing you have to do, is snap a photo of that place, share it on Instagram and tag it #scandictogo and explain why you want to enjoy the #scandictogo experience there.
