Most hotel rooms all over the world have a copy of the Bible but we suspect they don’t get too much attention by most guests. When was the last time you read yours before settling off to sleep? One hotelier in The Lake District recently had a Eureka moment and decided to replace the choice of reading matter in his guest’s rooms to Fifty Shades of Grey.
A novel idea, excuse the pun and one that has reverberated around the world especially the USA. The hotelier in question is Jonathan Denby owner of The Damson Dene hotel near Windermere, Cumbria and we spoke with him earlier today to learn why he took the decision and what his guest’s reaction has been.
Jonathan said that he noticed lots of people talking about the book but was inspired to action when a middle aged receptionist at one of his other hotels retuned from holiday recently and was raving about what a good read Fifty Shades of Grey was, ‘a real page turner’ she said.
Always mindful of his guest’s experience Jonathan decided to replace the Bible with a copy of the extraordinarily popular Fifty Shades of Grey. So what has the reaction of guests been we asked, ‘ the result is overwhelmingly positive’ said Jonathan and went on to explain, ‘only one woman has complained so far and that was when she arrived and discovered that the previous resident had taken hers home with her’.
The guest experience learning from the exercise is developing too and from a suggestion by Wayne the hotel manager, The Damson Dene hotel is starting a book club. Every month a new book will be added to every room, guests will also be asked to nominate their favourites.
This also has to be noted to be a very clever marketing exercise at the same time and has hit The Web, TV, Radio and Press all over the world. Jonathan said that he is currently receiving circa 200 emails a day on the subject.
The US TV network NBC ran a new story on this and then on its website polled visitors on what they thought, over 30,000 took part in the poll and the result was a resounding yes in favour of The Damson Dene hotel and Fifty Shades of Grey.
We enjoyed our little chat with Jonathan Denby and will be speaking with him again soon as he is an engaging character with strong views on guest experience.
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