Hotels are seriously missing out on tonnes of glowing reviews with this simple addition to any hotel room…
You don’t have to be a hotel manager to know the priceless power and value of a 5-star hotel review. In the TripAdvisor age, hotels are beholden, for better or worse, to the opinions of their guests. It’s without a doubt the most powerful influencing factor when booking a hotel.
Things like friendly staff, amazing service and stunning views can heavily influence a guest review; but ultimately, people book a hotel for one main reason: sleep.
It makes sense: it matters very little how good the eggs benedict at breakfast is if your guests couldn’t sleep a wink the night before.
A quick look at most review sites shows three main factors that most directly impact sleep quality: noisy neighbours, noise from busy roads nearby and intrusive light.
While Umbra can’t make the guests in room 212 close their bathroom door more gently, we can help with the other two sleep-stealing factors… and we can guarantee your guests will both notice and appreciate it. Here’s how.
Wilde Aparthotels – London
Where better in the world to test quality of sleep than in one of the busiest cities on earth? Wilde Aparthotels are an ideal option for those looking to stay in the heart of London with all the creature comforts of home. These apartment-style hotel rooms come with a cooking area, luxury bathroom suite and ultra-comfortable bed; perfect for longer stays with multiple guests per room.
Umbra has supplied blinds to two of Wilde’s London city centre locations; one in Covent Garden and the other in Tower Bridge. Both locations are iconic, with the Covent Garden site sitting on The Strand directly opposite world-famous west-end theatres, and the Aldgate Tower Bridge location on one of the busiest streets in the capital, there’s no shortage of noise, hustle and bustle and intrusive lighting to contend with. Both hotels are also priced toward the higher end of the market, and thus guest expectations are heightened, with quality and convenience as an absolute priority.
KuroLok from Umbra
Umbra manufactured and supplied their KuroLok blackout blind system. KuroLok is Umbra’s zipped-edge fabric retention blackout blind. It features an aluminium headbox and side channels which are powder-coated white or black as standard (but can be coloured to any standard RAL colour to match its surroundings). The zipped edges are retained inside the aluminium side channels to ensure a robust, seamless edge which excludes light from the outside. This zipped-edge technology also acts as a soundproofing measure and improves thermal retention in the room.
KuroLok is often specified in home cinemas for its superior light-exclusion properties, so it’s no wonder hotels see the benefit it provides with creating a pitch-black, quiet space on demand, no matter what’s happening outside. KuroLok is also optimised for motorisation, which makes remote operation easy (and, frankly, looks the part and gives your guests the feeling of absolute luxury).
Don’t just take our word for it…
So how do we know KuroLok works? Take a look at the screenshots below from the Covent Garden location. On Google, this location is rated as a 4.8; head and shoulders above what many other surrounding hotels can boast. A quick search of their TripAdvisor reviews reveals hundreds of glowing 5-star reviews that mention our blackout blinds for their soundproofing and light-exclusion abilities. Some reviewers even go as far as to say that the blinds helped them achieve the best night’s sleep they’ve had in years!
It’s a very similar story at the Aldgate Tower Bridge location with countless reviews praising KuroLok… so much so that ‘blackout blinds’ is the third most popular review term just behind the location.
Automation = natural alarm clock.
You can even automate KuroLok to open and close at certain times of the day or with voice commands. Say, for example, your guest wants to wake up naturally at 7am; your staff can set the blinds to open at that exact time. Alternatively, your guests can use voice activation through Alexa/Google Home to set it up themselves. What better way to wake up than by the natural light of the sun?
Reviews not refunds.
Quality of sleep is the primary reason people book a hotel. KuroLok is the most cost-effective, easy-to-fit and functional way to ensure the quality of sleep for your guests. If you think it’s too late to add KuroLok to your hotel rooms, opt for a battery-powered solution, with a battery life ranging between 3-6 months (depending on how often your guests play with the remote!). Plus, installation can be fast and easy with our network of certified installers. Our approved installers can retrofit a KuroLok system to any window in as little as five minutes, meaning no downtime and minimal disruption to your hotel’s operations.
Good reviews are the direct opposite of a refund: let the quality of your guest’s sleep be something that your guests shout about, rather than grumble over.
Speak to Harry from Umbra for more information at [email protected], or call us on 01792 562015.