Hotel’s quirky move to help wake up guests
A popular hotel chain has come up with a quirky idea to ensure its guests never miss out on breakfast again.
A popular hotel chain has come up with a quirky idea to ensure guests never miss brekky again.
It’s undeniably annoying being forced to wake up to a blaring alarm that often leads to hitting snooze several times.
But the team at the Holiday Inn Express by IHG have come up with a world-first hotel experience designed to transform mornings, one mouth-watering scent at a time.
It’s a breakfast alarm clock. And while it might sound strange, they’re convinced it’s going to be a game-changer for guests.
“A team member joked ‘what if we wake up the smell of breakfast’,” Rob Fahey, General Manager of Holiday Inn Express Australia told news.com.au.
“It’s similar to a normal clock excluding the blaring alarm.”
Mr Fahey said guests who trial the new Breakfast Alarm Clock can choose their preferred wake-up aroma and will be gently roused each morning by a diffuser-style scent alarm – either coffee, bacon or blueberry muffin.
He said the unique concept was inspired by new research commissioned by the hotel that revealed 1 in 3 Aussies find it harder to wake up on time while travelling, with 15 per cent admitting they’ve skipped breakfast because they’ve overslept.
“[This] is a fun way to help guests to reclaim their mornings and make sure they never miss brekky,” Mr Fahey said.
And you wouldn’t want to, as the hotel offers free hot breakfast for guests.
The research also found 60 per cent of Aussies say a pleasant smell helps, or would help, them feel better when they wake up, especially while travelling.
When asked which scents would lift their morning mood, Aussies named coffee or tea
(60 per cent), bacon and eggs (43 per cent), and baked goods (42 per cent).
These top picks have now been bottled into three familiar wake-up scents available with the Breakfast Alarm Clock.
Holiday Inn Express hotels across Australia and New Zealand, as well as participating hotels in Singapore, Thailand and Japan will now offer guests the chance to trial the exclusive in-room scent experience.
For a burst of local flavour, guests in Singapore and Thailand will be woken with a buffet of
coffee, mango and blueberry muffin scents to choose from, while guests in Japan will have then choice of coffee, nashi pear and blueberry muffin.
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These scents have been inspired by local research that also found fresh fruit and pastry were among the top three favourite buffet items in the region.
The Breakfast Alarm Clock experience is available for a limited time from October at
