Recently I bought a watermelon soda ( I hate artificial watermelon flavored things) just because it had Demon Slayer characters in it . I am 29 years old and I’m ashamed of myself
In my experience, that strategy often consists of unleashing angry, obscenity laced tirades on your rubber duck and I’m not sure the other hotel guests would appreciate that.
It’s to encourage loyalty, like wearing branded clothes, using branded bags, or loyalty programs. This one is very benign though, so I don’t find it in any way something to complain about.
A good hotel with good service may get a reference here or there, but a decent hotel that gives you a cute thing to take with you, post pictures of, and tell people all about the cute quirky thing some place or other does?
People do the advertising for them.
It’s like the snarky tumblr/twitter/facebook fast food pages.
I manage a hotel and while this would be a small help towards marketing, you’re just gonna forget about that duck in when you get home. Maybe you post it on social media or tell a couple friends. Really I am way more interested in the positive impact a small gift like this has with guest satisfaction scores and guest/staff engagement. I bet tons of people talk to the front desk about the cute duck which might give us a chance to recommend a good restaurant or solve a minor issue the guest might not have mentioned to us. It’s a unique ice breaker to start a relationship between the staff and the guest which is incredibly important for achieving high guest service scores.
Haha yes sometimes the housekeeping team does have fun with the towels and that’s probably more for them then you really. It’s a good creative outlet on slower days.
I appreciate useful convention merch/promotional handouts, but I have no problem looking a rep right in the eyes and telling them “No thanks.” Followed by “I’m just going to throw this away once I get home.” if they insist.
It might make me sound like a jerk, but I’m not going to collect plastic waste. Let someone who might actually want that whatever take it home.
A supplier my work purchases from gives a small “gift” once your orders reach a certain dollar value. We were laughing because we hit the “free calendar” tier and it was the most amazingly lackluster beach calendar with the most overused beach stock photos that we’ve all seen at least a dozen times each
I stayed at a hotel a while ago that left a little plushie on the bed when I checked in. It was a generic wolf plushie, kinda scratchy, not especially high quality, with a goofy little detective hat with a pineapple pattern (the hotel was called Stay Pineapple) sewn onto its head.
It said on the tag that if you took the plushie home with you they’d add $35 or something to your tab when you checked out. That’s the manipulative capitalism part. They didn’t have the plushies in a little gift shop – I almost certainly wouldn’t have bought it if they had – they put it on my bed so I’d already have picked it up and hugged it and stuff and have to “leave it behind”.
I very much feel the sentiment in this tweet.
It’s not even that good of a plushie. Why did I take it home?
That’s what I’m saying. This is less manipulative capitalism and more customer experience. It would hold literally no weight on my decision to stay there or at that chain (assuming it’s a franchise) again. If the room sucks it sucks. Duck won’t fix it. It’s a far cry from McDonald’s putting toys in happy meals.
It’s not about that. It’s about getting people to post online about the cute duck they got from the hotel. It’s to plant a positive association of the chain in the subconscious of people scrolling by and seeing the cute story.
A year from now with 2 hotels across the street from each other for the same price, they won’t even remember why they have a positive association with the chain. But it’ll be there.
But I also don’t mind it. If providing a positive experience drives a positive e perception and more money for a business that’s fine. It’s okay to manufacture good press by doing good things.
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