the hotel factory was involved in the conceptualization of a music hotel and observes that music theme provides added value for the clients and an increase of tariff per stay for the hotel.

Nowadays, conceptualization is much more important in the hospitality sector. In the past it was simply about offering the basic facilities, quality of service and design all according to its category, now differentiating by conceptualization and a targeted segmentation has become a key of success. Services, facilities and design are all built around the chosen concept.

An upcoming trend is hotels with a music theme, applied in very distinct ways. Having music in the spotlights of a hotel experience concept is something we have seen more the last years and we would like to share with you some success stories of hotels applying it each in its own way.

In all Europe, well-known hotel chains are expanding their brands by integrating the music theme into their differentiation strategy. In Spain, prestigious companies such as NH Hotels, Palladium Hotel Group and Meliá International are one of those, and started their music focus on the famous fiesta island Ibiza:

• The Ushuaïa Beach Hotel, part of the Palladium Hotel Group, had a successful opening in 2011 and it didn’t take long before it was the talk of the town. One year later it opened Ushuaïa Tower and from 2017 on the disco Space will be in its hands.

• Another success story of Palladium Hotel Group is the alignment with Hard Rock International to open Europe’s first Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza (open since 2014) and afterwards in Tenerife (opened in 2016). In this moment they are studying the possibilities of opening two new ones, one in Barcelona and one in Madrid.

• Meliá International also made the step to the music focus and has collaborated with Ibiza Rocks to open their Sol House MIXED BY IBIZA ROCKS hotels in Ibiza and Mallorca. Also its brand ME by Meliá integrated music as an indispensable motive to offer a complete experience to its guests.

What types of music hotels exist?

The success we have seen already (the chains mentioned above are not the only ones) proves that creating a hotel with a music theme is a great idea, and the possibilities of its conceptualization don’t just stop there. There are numerous ways to shape it and to create an unforgettable experience. Some centralize the music completely, for others it’s no more than one of its indispensable pillars of offering a great experience to their guests. Here follow some examples.

Hotel Amadeus in Sevilla, Hotel Aria in Budapest and HF Fénix Music Hotel in Lisbon are hotels that integrated especially classical music in a privileged atmosphere. For the ones looking for some more excitement, you can find concepts all built around pop-rock music where the instruments play the main character everywhere in the hotel. In BackStage Hotel in Amsterdam for example, the walls, doors, furniture and decoration are all designed with a touch of authentic rock.

Hotel Amadeus, Sevilla      

Similarly, nhow Berlin (from NH Hotels) gains its success by its outstanding range of attributes that have reached quite some flatter on social media. The elevators for example, are already a an experience itself. They are themed and you can choose the one you take according to the music style you prefer. Even tiny acoustic performances have taken place. Furthermore you can find a recording studio and high quality music instruments in the rooms, among other things.

 Hotel nhow Berlín, Berlín

We can find a completely different approach in Ushuaïa Beach Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza, luxury lifestyle hotels where music animation includes massive concerts and events.

In turn, the hotels Sol House MIXED BY IBIZA ROCKS in Ibiza and Mallorca strive for offering a complete music experience during the entire stay through daily DJ sessions and a “mixology” animation team that takes care of the programming and makes sure all guests are updated about the performances that take place. Also ME Mallorca offers daily DJ performances and monthly music events, and it collaborates with Nikki Beach to create playlists of the newest music tracks and apply the latest music styles.

                      Ushuaïa Beach Hotel, Ibiza                                 Sol House MIXED BY IBIZA ROCKS, Ibiza

What do the hotels do to create such amazing experience?

Although the hotels apply the theme in distinct ways, we see consistency in the attributes they use to differentiate from one another:

• Decoration and interior design with ¨WOW effect¨: Themed decoration through exposing instruments, magazine covers and photos from artists in the shared zones as well as themed decoration in the rooms is applied. They make use of highlighting through the use of bright colours, unconventional artworks and lively illumination for creating a real ¨WOW effect¨.

• Exclusive services: These hotels offer unique services especially for the music lovers, including the possibility to rent music instruments or to take music classes to learn playing, from guitars to DJ courses.

• A widely ranged animation program: An important way of differentiating your music hotel is offering a complete entertainment program with professional live bands and artists, shows and themed parties during the whole stay, for those that don´t want to get bored during their holiday.

• Collaboration with brands: Notable is the amount of hotels that work together with recognized music brands, as well as brands dedicated to leisure such as beach clubs, bars, music restaurants or discos.

One of the latest projects of the hotel factory has been focused on the conceptualization of a music hotel and we remarked that it is a great opportunity for hotels to apply a music theme as an added value for the client and to comply successfully to its needs, as an alternative for competing only in price with the other hotels in the destination.

We also observed that, besides creating a satisfying stay by adjusting to the needs of a quite specific target group, the added value is being reflected in the tariffs of the hotel. In general they are set higher than the hotels without having applied a music concept in the same category and destination. Likewise, the tariffs of music experience hotels are minimally equal to other types of hotels in a higher category or situated in a more advantaged location.

Looking at the success that has had the new music hotels already, we can conclude that this trend has developed in a key differentiation strategy and results to be a clear competitive advantage that justifies an increase of tariff per stay.