Northstar

Feature Loyalty Programme 25 MAR-APR 2020 MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS MCMAG-ASIA.COM N ordic Choice Hotels' pilot project, Hotellkänslan (Hotel Feeling in English), is extending housekeeping services as part of a pilot project to a small set of loyalty programme members' homes. These members live near the Clarion Hotel Amaranten in Stockholm and can also use the hotel's bedlinen and luxury bathroom products. "We have been thinking what would be the next step for our industry and what can we do with our guests especially around loyalty," said Mr Christian Lundén, director of future business. "We realised we are spending quite a lot of time focusing on the guest nights - loyalty in our programme 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. 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 traveling?" Nordic Choice Hotels has launched a pilot project for Nordic Choice Club loyalty programme members to have housekeeping services in their homes. WORDS MITRA SORRELLS The Nordic way Nordic Choice has partnered with a local housekeeping start-up, L2Go, which is providing an app that loyalty members use to schedule their cleanings and the sta! to do the in-home work. Along with the cleaning and products, subscribers earn loyalty points and receive two vouchers for free breakfast at the hotel and discounts for meals in its restaurant. Mr Lunden said the project has been very well-received and he is con"dent it will continue beyond the pilot. "We are already in their homes so what else could we bring to our members when we are there? What about the hotel restaurant making lunch packages that we can bring and put in the fridge and they can have for work the coming week? "And then we can have partnerships. If you want to have #owers, we can bring #owers in the apartment. If you like to have, every month, new socks in the drawer, 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," added Mr Lunden. And along with bringing perks into the home, he envisioned adding bene"ts to entice guests to visit their local Nordic Choice property, such as discounts for the spa and use of the "tness facility and business centre. "It's like they don't see the hotel when they are home – they see it as something they travel to. But if I am a member in Nordic Choice Club, why shouldn't I get bene"ts with my membership when I'm home?" he said. Mr Lunden expects it will expand to other Nordic Choice properties throughout Scandinavia and that eventually, the hotels will use their own sta! to do the cleaning, since that can "ll gaps when the properties are not fully booked and can ensure the services are identical to what is provided in the hotel. The cost has been around US$60 per visit for the basic at-home cleaning and US$90 for an enhanced service with more luxurious products. The long-term plan for pricing is still being developed. Stockholm: location of the pilot project, Hotellkänslan, for Nordic Choice Hotels. How can we become a bigger part of our guest's life in their own town and not just when they are traveling?" – CHRISTIAN LUNDÉN, DIRECTOR OF FUTURE BUSINESS, NORDIC CHOICE HOTELS

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