“We hope that by providing guests these top-tier instruments that it creates a memorable trip,” mentioned Audrey Hardy-Lenhart, the hotel’s director of gross sales and advertising and marketing. “And that hopefully they come back and see us again or at least tell their friends about it because it was such a unique experience.”
Although the phrases “lending library” could initially call to mind books, more motels are getting inventive with loaner applications, providing musical devices, films, houseplants, outside gear and more. It’s a transfer they hope will create buzz about their property, present novel methods to discover the local people and enchantment to friends who aren’t as eager on hanging out on the hotel bar.
One of the most typical hotel lending applications includes vinyl LPs and file gamers. The Elizabeth Hotel, in addition to the Saint Kate in Milwaukee, the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, the Ace Hotel in Portland, Ore., the Highlander Hotel in Iowa City, the Kimpton Alton in San Francisco and the Edgewater in Seattle, are among the many myriad lodging to supply that model of library. Each has a whole lot, if not hundreds, of information accessible for friends to play, freed from cost, typically with a small choice in the room at check-in, which can be traded for different titles.
“It’s a nice resource, especially for guests who would rather spend time in their room than communal spaces,” Hardy-Lenhart mentioned. “It’s unusual that a hotel provides guests opportunities for interaction beyond just food and beverage. For us as a brand, it’s important to create these new ways to engage guests.”
Another hotel chain with a lending program aimed toward homebodies is Kimpton. Nine of the model’s U.S.-based motels supply a number of chessboards that can be despatched as much as friends’ rooms. Although recreation closets are one other fashionable take (the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach, Fla., and the Bowery Hotel in New York are simply two others that supply parlor video games akin to Chinese checkers and playing cards), Kimpton’s program was launched in response to the pandemic and the then-newfound recognition of chess because of the Netflix present “The Queen’s Gambit.”
“It’s always our priority to provide heartfelt care to our guests, and during the height of the pandemic, we had to get creative on how we still did that as we re-envisioned our guest experience,” mentioned Kathleen Reidenbach, Kimpton’s chief industrial officer. “The chessboard lending program allows us to extend interactive on-property programming to travelers staying with us. For those who may not be interested in our nightly social hour or bike rental, the chessboard lending program provides an alternative activity to enjoy in the safety and comfort of one’s guest room.”
It’s not the one lending program the hotel chain has on supply this yr. The model lately launched a lending program for sundown lamps, which give a kind of sunshine meant to assist fight seasonal affective dysfunction, at 10 of its properties. Over the years, Kimpton’s varied motels have dabbled in different applications, together with one the place friends might try a goldfish to maintain them firm (though that one has since been discontinued).
Although lending library applications have been round at motels for years, mentioned Felicia Rahm, director of gross sales and advertising and marketing at Hotel Zags in Portland, Ore., they’ve develop into even more fashionable with friends because the onset of the pandemic, as a result of they provide vacationers more alternatives to recreate both in their rooms or exterior in the neighborhood. The hotel’s Gear Shed focuses on the latter.
“There’s a lot of things in there,” Rahm mentioned. “We have ukuleles, e-bikes, hoverboards, skateboards, helmets, fishing poles, tackle boxes, cameras, Nintendos. It’s quite an eclectic mix of things.”
Acting as a conduit for visitor experiences, Rahm mentioned, was the driving purpose the area was created.
“The hotel really caters to the urban adventurer, people who want to get out and explore Portland,” Rahm mentioned. “We hear all the time that people took a bike and went to a food truck or to the [International Rose Test Garden], which is great. Building experiences that have positive impacts is important for us.”
Other lodging share Hotel Zags’ perception {that a} free set of wheels helps vacationers have richer, deeper experiences on the street. Numerous motels, such because the W in Scottsdale, Ariz., Hawthorn Suites in Naples, Fla., the Halcyon in Denver, and the Heywood Hotel in Austin, have launched complimentary bicycle applications.
Although the Catbird Hotel in Denver didn’t open till August 2021, nicely into the pandemic, its director of gross sales and advertising and marketing, Austin Cooper, thinks its twin lending applications met the second.
“It’s thinking about what these folks enjoy in their own space that they’ve created for themselves at home, and how can we bring that to them as a service here,” Cooper mentioned.
One of Catbird’s lending applications includes potted vegetation. The hotel partnered with ReRoot, a neighborhood houseplant boutique, to offer flora (and transient care guides) that friends can deliver to their rooms to enliven the area.
Cooper mentioned a part of the reasoning was that persons are staying longer at motels with the rise of distant work. Having entry to extras akin to vegetation makes their residence away from residence really feel homier.
The hotel’s different lending program is known as the Playroom. From it, friends can lease Vespa Primavera scooters, Polaroid cameras, backgammon boards, soccer balls, picnic kits, Vitamix blenders, panini presses, Ninja air fryers and more.
“It’s all things that make guests feel at home here or gets them out into the area,” Cooper mentioned. “We really want them to get a sense of the neighborhood and to be a part of the community.”
At the top of the day, Cooper mentioned, journey is about having experiences and making reminiscences. Access to libraries, conventional or in any other case, offers vacationers a number of more instruments to take action.
Berg is a author primarily based in Colorado Springs. Find her on Twitter (@baileybergs) and Instagram (@byebaileyberg).
Potential vacationers ought to take native and nationwide public well being directives concerning the pandemic into consideration earlier than planning any journeys. Travel well being discover information can be discovered on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s interactive map exhibiting journey suggestions by vacation spot and the CDC’s journey well being discover webpage.