Through the year,
Luxury Travel 360 regularly published articles about promotions that were
creative - and that worked effectively to generate ROI in the form of business
driven, publicity garnered, image enhanced, etc. We went back to
some of these promotions to see if they were still in place, and still creating
brand buzz, or if they had ended to make way for other initiatives.
Here's an update on
the staying power of several innovative promotions we covered.
Ritz-Carlton Chicago's"Stay As Long As You Like" program
enables guests to store clothing and other items (including, in one case, a
Christmas tree) to ease their packing and unpacking chores.
According to Michele
Grosso, the general manger, "The program continues to be an extremely popular
service for our frequently returning guests. We have storage closets full of
their clothing and other items -- one guest even stores a guitar with us. We not only store
their items, we place them in the guest rooms according to their preference.
And when they leave, we pack up the items for them.
"For guests who come
several times a month," says Grosso, "this allows them to travel lightly,
avoiding baggage fees at airlines. They literally walk off the airplane and
find their hotel room just as they left it -- with all the conveniences and
necessities of home."
"Our return on the
investment, " says Grosso, "is a happy guest who continues to make our hotel
their home."
Dinner in Bed on the Beach program
at the Four Seasons Hotel Bali,---guestswho reserve enjoy a lavish five course dinner-in bed-onbeach- naturally. We checked back with Putu
Indrawati, a resort spokeswoman, who told us, "Yes, we are still hosting the
dinner twice a week every Tuesday and Saturday (it had been expanded from once
weekly).We still get a very high
level of interest from couples and honeymooners."
And how about Scent Dinners at
Rosewood Hotels where dishes were paired with scents by the brand's "scent consultant."
While those dinners did sell out, they have run their course, according to
Kersten Rettig, a spokesperson. She adds that there are plans for a different
food & beverage program next year to help celebrate the brand's 30th
anniversary.
Meanwhile, Rosewood has maintained
a very popular Hot Type program, where they provide free advance copies
of New York Times best selling authors new releases before they are available
in stores.
The brand also recently introduced a Flip Digital recorder
for Rosewood, in which guests may borrow the popular Flip camcorders to record
their vacations; more, the hotel will burn a DVD and send the videos home with
them.
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