OPINION

Why lost hotels today love lingerers, lovers, and liver

From artsy outings to liver-flavoured ice-cream for dogs, hotels are pulling out all the stops to craft unique experiences for their guests. As brands take a back seat, the ‘experience’ is now all consuming to encourage guests to stay longer.

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by Vijay Verghese/ Editor

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Bruno the hard working robot barista at COMO Metropolitan Singapore being intently watched by a guest as the white arms whir and move and mix to get a perfect Cup of Joe ready/photo: Vijay Verghese

AS THE SAYING goes, necessity is the mother of invention. And so it is with Asia’s hard pressed hotels, now wrestling with the aftermath of the Covid cuts and overwhelmed by new openings and younger competitors. No longer is resting on laurels and coasting along an option.

This has brought into sharp focus the guest experience to differentiate brand ethos — from the first welcome at arrival, to room trimmings, F&B concepts, and service. How does a hotel set itself apart when online marketing is so heavily focused on ‘best rate guarantees’ or cheapest prices, however one gussies this up? This is a fundamental problem for hoteliers, as well as guests who are less knowledgeable today about hotel marques than twenty years ago before the brand intermarriages and endless offspring.

Hotel managers I talk with often scratch their heads when trying to explain subtle differences in offshoot brands. I often want to shake some of these new offerings by the scruff of the neck and ask: “Kid, do you know who your father is?” The sad truth is, with the advent of AI and the cheap boilerplate options online, hotel websites — especially for larger brands — are almost identical. Precise, actionable information is rare as hen’s teeth. This hits customers hard.

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Young Millennials, who didn’t mind banging their knees on uncomfortable furniture in cut-price Airbnbs, are now grown up and earn better. They are shopping for the little luxuries and ‘experience’ to elevate their travels. But how? Price is a fickle reckoner of quality.

{I often want to shake some of these new hotel offerings by the scruff of the neck and ask: 'Kid, do you know who your father is?'...

The stay experiences are getting ever more inventive. At the COMO Metropolitan Singapore, Bruno the two armed robot barista moves about fixing hot cuppas delighting young Chinese and Japanese ladies who video his every elegant spasm. At the Dusit Thani Bangkok, a neighbouring mall has injected new life with guests pouring in to this re-imagined address for a look-see in between shopping and strolls around an attractive new roof park.

The Conrad Singapore Orchard , which replaced the Regent, focuses on its restaurants and bars to set itself up as a community meeting spot for foodies, and morning joggers, cyclists, and dog walkers regularly gather at Dolcetto for a cup of Joe or more. In Bangkok, around the green glen that is the Kimpton Maa-Lai, dogs are aplenty and ice-cream is on offer in the lobby, all crafted to look like your favourite canine. But the pooches have not been left out. They get doggie ice-cream. Word is the favourite version is ‘liver flavour’. Woof!

Traditional luxury addresses like The St Regis Singapore are morphing into contemporary spaces with pastel tones and guest friendly touches like light switches that actually obey guest commands. Newly renovated rooms have dropped the previous fixed combination ‘mood light’ settings like ‘romance’ and ‘movie’. Now you can actually turn the lights on and off as you wish. One press potable water (hot and cold) faucets are on hand doing away with plastic bottles. And the spooky ‘stained glass’ mirrors in the bathrooms that gave me a fright on my first stay there have been replaced by normal mirrors. Artyzen is touchie-feelie Peranakan. Hurrah!

In Hong Kong, the standard bearer Mandarin Oriental is undergoing a transformation yet again. The next iteration will see an expansion in F&B and also feature a rooftop night spot — not at the hotel but at the neighbouring Prince’s Building to replace the popular Sevva on the 25th floor. The new-look Grand Hyatt Singapore too has doubled down on the food experience, replacing mezza9 with Le Pristine. The MGM MACAU that specialises in art and whimsy — check the Dali sculptures — is now also home to the POLY MGM Museum that hosts world class exhibitions. These are the extras that are stretching guest stays a little more.

Meanwhile in typhoon-hit Philippines, The Peninsula Manila is developing new ‘academy programmes’. “These are crafted experiences to show guests old Manila,” explains Mariano Garchitorena. “It is all a deeper dive.”  ‘Ethical tours’ are part of this, where guests can watch traditional dressmaker Lenora Cabili at work, comfortable in the knowledge that her craftspeople are “paid per stich not per dress”. But what sets the hotel arrival experience apart from the rest? Apart from Makati’s only helipad, Mariano jokes, “The arrival at the lobby is not for the faint of heart as all eyes turn towards you, or so it is said.”

A bespoke Peninsula green jeepney with aircon — an accurate replica of the original six-seater vehicle — is available for tailored excursions. But it is service that sets this hotel (and others like it) apart. A former Peninsula GM once said, “In the Philippines, service is a religion. It’s not work.” Vive la différence.