Louvre Hotels Group provides a welcome breath of fresh hotels to business travelers tired of the standardized chains, setting itself the goal of positioning Golden Tulip as the world’s first 4-star brand.
Business travelers have changed… but when it comes to choosing a hotel, it’s still the same old story. Just like the Millennial generation, which will represent half of all business travelers by 2020, these clients are looking for a seamless hotel experience that allows them to balance professional and personal life, taking time out for themselves and their real and virtual communities. Today, they are increasingly turning their backs on hotel chains perceived as boring, lacking charm, surprise or authenticity.
In this context, Golden Tulip tweaks upscale hospitality and the whole client experience to brand themselves as the first 4-star chain in the world.
“Business travelers, and tourists in general, have become ‘experience collectors’, looking for that special place or moment worthy of being shared within their communities. A stay in one city should not resemble a stay in any other. It should be exceptional, a blend of local authenticity and the must-have amenities of modern comfort. This means hotels can no longer content themselves with being the last stage of a journey where you sleep for the night, but must be a place to live, work and play, all day, every day,” sums up Françoise Houdebine, VP Sales & Marketing of the Louvre Hotels Group.
Golden Tulip puts a “playful” spirit at the heart of the brand’s repositioning. “Business travelers no longer split their day into work on one side and leisure time on the other. Golden Tulip has taken on the mission of re-enchanting their stay by offering not only a full range of services but an overall experience,” continues Françoise Houdebine.
Tweaking the basics
The first phase of this repositioning consists of giving the basics a make-over. At the heart of the hotel you will find an open and multifunctional lobby, designed to be a modern-day living space. In addition to check-in/check-out, this hub encourages exchange and encounters, providing clients everything they need to get down to business or sit back and relax. Food service goes beyond the basics you have come to expect, adding surprises throughout the day, adapting to today’s clients by serving what they want, when they want it. Enhancing the stay experience, a continually renewed ‘beauty bar’ is available for business travelers to select and test hygiene products. Weather permitting, the hotel roof will transform into a terrace for convivial, panoramic evenings, making memories that travelers will want to share with friends and family when they get home.
Plugging the hotel into city life
The other central theme of this repositioning consists of making the hotels a place to be, not just a place to sleep. Not home, not the office, but a hybrid venue, where things happen and lives are lived. The hotel will step out of its traditional role to embrace its human, geographic and digital environment. Concretely, at the hotel entrances, an interactive wall will allow travelers to plan their visit by zooming in on the day’s cultural and sporting events, the best jogging trails, weather reports, public transport solutions as well as invitations to share a taxi between clients, for example.
Pop-up stores will appear in the lobby, offering encounters with art, culture and local crafts. In the same spirit, tandem bicycles, a nod to the brand’s Dutch roots, will be available to clients for exploring the city as a couple, with a colleague or another client, providing another form of encounter.
