Alex Kitain - 04 / Feb / 2021
Turning hotel room coffee from basic to brilliant
Offer your guests a unique experience worth talking about
Alex Kitain - 04 / Feb / 2021
Offer your guests a unique experience worth talking about
If you type 'hotel room coffee bad' into Google, you will be shown countless articles that discuss why the coffee offering in so many hotels is so poor and what you, as a discerning individual with a preference for great coffee can do about it.
Of course, you can take your own grinder, whole beans, scales and AeroPress coffee maker wherever you go but does it really have to go that far? Why is the coffee in hotel rooms still such an afterthought while restaurant and bar concepts are going from strength to strength?
Part of the reason is cost. Hotel room coffee is mostly offered free of charge, thus the hotel earns zilch on it. The other reason is lack of knowledge and understanding. Sure, it's easy to just plonk down a Nespresso machine in every room and be done with it but there is a fast-growing group of hotel guests who simply expect more. Who will feel cheated when they pay €400 per night for their luxury room but end up finding nothing but instant coffee in the minibar.
A Le Meridien study from 2013 revealed that 53% of respondents prefer a good cup of coffee over sex in the mornings. Wow. That's a big statement! And they want this great cup of coffee in the comfort of their rooms.
What this study shows is that coffee is incredibly important as part of many peoples' morning rituals and one of the most important aspects of recreating this home-away-from-home feeling while being in a different city.
Larry Mogelonsky, managing director of Mogel Hotel Consulting stated in an article: "Thinking of coffee as more than just a direct – and highly profitable – revenue stream, it's also a point of pride for a hotel as well as a prominent contributor to a great guest experience. After all, what hotel wants to be known for having a lousy brew? What hotels want their past guests to shine them in a negative light because their coffee service was subpar?”
For too long, hotel room coffee was not considered important enough to deserve a second look but our case studies have proven that a great cup of coffee can have a knock-on effect and increase the TRevPAC. At The Hoxton Hotel in Amsterdam, where Freshdrip was an overnight success, offering an innovative coffee-making solution in the rooms also had other effects that were unexpected by the management.
Lisa Devlin, former head of housekeeping at The Hoxton Hotel Amsterdam explained: "Before we had Freshdrip in the rooms, no one ever mentioned the in-room coffee in a review or social media post. When we replaced our previous solution with Freshdrip, Tripadvisor and Instagram were suddenly full of beautiful posts and great reviews.
It helped us create consistency between our barista-made coffee downstairs and the in-room coffee experience while keeping guests in the building for longer.”
While it's too early to exactly quantify the amount of extra revenue that can be generated by an innovative coffee solution, it is clear that it can significantly improve the guest experience and surpass someone's expectations. It's not for nothing that countless media articles from the likes of USA Today, Forbes and others have decried the poor state of coffee making facilities at leading hotels.
Since launching Freshdrip, we have continued to build our list of forward-thiking design hotels across Europe who have woken up and smelled the coffee and are going the extra mile to surprise their guests where they often expect to find nothing to get excited about.
Freshdrip offers an affordable and hasslefree alternative to existing options and has been delighting hotel guests with visible effect.
All you need is a kettle, nice mugs and the willingness to make a change.
Are you ready to turn your hotel room coffee from basic to brilliant? We're here to help. Just send us an email or give us a call to get your personalised offer and join leading hotels like the St. George Hotel Helsinki, Sweets Hotels Amsterdam, The Jewel Hotel Prague, The Dylan Hotel Amsterdam and more who have already made the switch.