Baby On Board!

So we have a new Royal Prince and isn’t it fun to see how the hotel industry has been responding to this momentous event?

Quick thinking companies have sped off the mark with a whole host of baby inspired packages and breaks. JW Marriott Grosvenor House hotel in London’s Park Lane, leads the pack with a one night ‘suite dreams’ package in a luxury suite ‘Fit for a Royal Baby’. As well as a hand-made cot with a coronet, Beatrix Potter inspired furniture, a bespoke dolls house and a Balmoral Silver Cross pram, the whole experience will set back prospective parents an eye watering £2,230 per night.

Baby showers are on the menu too with St James Hotel & Club in Victoria and London Marriott County Hall both offering their own versions revolving around afternoon tea.

The Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane certainly boasts the best of Royal connections, located as it is on the site of the Queen’s former childhood home, 145 Piccadilly. Their Royal Suite has recently been refurbished and you can enjoy a delicious Royalty inspired afternoon tea in the hotel’s Wellington Lounge too, so their marketing collateral points out.

But surely the prize for the most tenuous link to the Royal birth has to be Kensington Hilton’s Tot-ter Around Kensington package. A two night shopping package for ‘Mum’s to Be’ includes a VIP card for discounts at Westfield Shopping Centre whose entrance just happens to be opposite the hotel. Well that just sounds like a shopping break to me!

Whatever the content of these packages might be, the ability to hook up with a topical event is always going to reap dividends for any good marketer and the media just can’t resist lapping up the stories, The Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph being just two examples over the weekend.  We have to be creative in our output so bring it on!