Sweden: The pilot project involved housekeeping services, provided by Clarion Hotel Amaranten, to be delivered at home to members of the Nordic Choice Club loyalty programme.
Project ‘Hotellkänslan’ or ‘Hotel Feeling’ in English has been running since October 2019. Around 24 members living close to the Clarion Hotel Amaranten in Stockholm were invited to have their duvets, sheets, pillows, towels, and luxury bathroom products provided by the hotel.
Nordic Choice partnered with local housekeeping startup, L2Go, which has offered its app to members for scheduling cleanings and to coordinate staff for in-home work.
Subscribers are able to earn loyalty points, receive vouchers for complimentary breakfast, as well as discounts for meals in the hotel’s restaurant through using the service.
“We realised we are spending quite a lot of time focusing on the guest nights – loyalty in our program is built on how many nights you spend with us. But that’s a very short time of a guest’s everyday year that we are actually in contact with them,” said Christian Lundén, director of future business at Nordic Choice Hotels.
“If our most frequent guests are visiting us maybe 60 days a year – that’s a great frequent guest – what happens with the other 305 days? How can we become a bigger part of our guest’s life in their own town and not just when they are travelling?” he said.
During the pilot, the cost has been around $60 per regular visit, and $90 for a service that uses more luxurious products.
Lundén expects to expand to other Nordic Choice properties across Scandinavia, with a vision to add other benefits such as discounts for the hotel’s spa, or use of the fitness and business centre. Additional partnerships are even on the cards.
“If you want to have flowers, we can bring flowers to the apartment. If you like to have new socks in the drawer every month, we can have a partnership with a clothes company to bring things like that into your home. If you are going to have a nice dinner on Friday, we can go there and prepare that for you,” explained Lundén.
Although the long-term plan is under development, Lundén is confident that the ‘Hotel Feeling’ project will continue beyond the pilot.
Nordic Choice Hotels has about two million members in its loyalty programme, and currently holds a waiting list of people throughout Scandinavia that are interested in participating once it expands.
