In More Intelligent Life, I read about the Hotel Du Vin in Birmingham where every single room is named after a different alcohol brand. So you can stay in the Krug room, or the Fullers room, and so on. Apparently, in addition to paying to have their name on a hotel room door, the brands provide the hotel with free posters, point of sale material and maps. In return, they get at least one spot on the wine list. Tim Atkin, the author of the article, mentions how he is uncomfortable with the exchange – would the bottles be selected on merit or to achieve a sales manager’s target?
I think it’s an interesting business model, and one that I haven’t heard of before in the hotel world. I know that sports brands that sponsor a team expect players to wear only their brand (though when I was with Nike I remember being told of a case where a football player refused to wear a Reebok shoe as he said it would affect his performance, despite being signed on by Reebok), but haven’t heard of buildings that feature competing brands sponsoring different areas before. Perhaps you could even pit them against each other in some way. Imagine a Louis Vuitton and a Chanel room in the same building. Now that would be something!
