By Tim Smith, General Manager, The Pfister Hotel
Now more than ever, hotel guests are looking for truly unique experiences to enhance their stay—an added value that cannot be rivaled by competitors. The most natural way to identify and offer these interactive experiences is by accentuating your existing brand and highlighting what you do best.
Now more than ever, hotel guests are looking for truly unique experiences to enhance their stay—an added value that cannot be rivaled by competitors. The most natural way to identify and offer these interactive experiences is by accentuating your existing brand and highlighting what you do best.
As host to the largest collection of Victorian art of any hotel in the world, The Pfister Hotel has been a huge proponent of the arts for many decades. This is a big differentiator for us, so we’ve tried to showcase the arts in many different facets.
For example, to help keep the art collection and hotel’s history alive, last fall we launched an augmented reality tour of some of the work. Guests are invited to download an augmented reality application from their smartphone that prompts them on a guided tour of our extensive collection. The tour provides a real-time, digital, full-motion experience for guests, featuring games, videos and other graphics. This feature offers us the ability to provide tech-savvy guests the opportunity to connect and engage with a 120-year-old hotel in a modern format.
In addition to showcasing our current art collection, we wanted to find a way to expand upon it and offer a more interactive art experience for our guests, while creating an even stronger connection with the local community. As a result, in 2009, we created an Artist-in-Residence Program—one of the first of its kind in the country—that features a selected artist working on the lobby level of the hotel in an art studio and gallery that is open to hotel guests and visitors.
Each day, hundreds of guests pass the lobby-level studio, many of them stopping in to speak with the artist and watch artwork unfold in front of their eyes, serving as a one-of-a-kind experience they can’t get at any other hotel in the world. The program has been really beneficial for local artists, as well as building our connection with the community.
Not long after we established the Artist-in-Residence Program, we were inspired to create a writer’s residency, as well. With a long and storied history, our hotel has hosted presidents, rock stars, and everyday people from around the world. We wanted to find a way to capture our guests’ stories and experiences and share them with the public. Our “Pfister Narrator” spends time in the hotel’s lobby and other public spaces, speaking with guests and sharing their stories on The Pfister’s blog. Our guests are always surprised to hear we have a program like this and are even more thrilled to share the blog posts they are featured in with their friends and family.
Capitalizing on our brand and incorporating the arts into our hotel has helped create meaningful experiences for our guests and has fostered many wonderful relationships over the years.
For example, to help keep the art collection and hotel’s history alive, last fall we launched an augmented reality tour of some of the work. Guests are invited to download an augmented reality application from their smartphone that prompts them on a guided tour of our extensive collection. The tour provides a real-time, digital, full-motion experience for guests, featuring games, videos and other graphics. This feature offers us the ability to provide tech-savvy guests the opportunity to connect and engage with a 120-year-old hotel in a modern format.
In addition to showcasing our current art collection, we wanted to find a way to expand upon it and offer a more interactive art experience for our guests, while creating an even stronger connection with the local community. As a result, in 2009, we created an Artist-in-Residence Program—one of the first of its kind in the country—that features a selected artist working on the lobby level of the hotel in an art studio and gallery that is open to hotel guests and visitors.
Each day, hundreds of guests pass the lobby-level studio, many of them stopping in to speak with the artist and watch artwork unfold in front of their eyes, serving as a one-of-a-kind experience they can’t get at any other hotel in the world. The program has been really beneficial for local artists, as well as building our connection with the community.
Not long after we established the Artist-in-Residence Program, we were inspired to create a writer’s residency, as well. With a long and storied history, our hotel has hosted presidents, rock stars, and everyday people from around the world. We wanted to find a way to capture our guests’ stories and experiences and share them with the public. Our “Pfister Narrator” spends time in the hotel’s lobby and other public spaces, speaking with guests and sharing their stories on The Pfister’s blog. Our guests are always surprised to hear we have a program like this and are even more thrilled to share the blog posts they are featured in with their friends and family.
Capitalizing on our brand and incorporating the arts into our hotel has helped create meaningful experiences for our guests and has fostered many wonderful relationships over the years.
Tim Smith is general manager of the historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, which is owned and operated by Marcus Hotels & Resorts, a leading hotel management company. Smith has worked for Marcus Hotels & Resorts for the past 28 years in various sales, marketing, and management roles. A force in the hospitality industry, Marcus Hotels & Resorts provides expertise in management, development and historic renovations. The company’s portfolio includes a wide variety of properties including city-center meeting hotels, upscale resorts and branded first-class hotels. For more information on the latest news and updates, please visit: http://media.marcushotels.com and follow the company on Facebook and Twitter (@MarcusHotels).
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