Hotel Cafe Royal hopes that the launch of its A Suite Journey will ‘surprise and delight’ guests as it vows to bring an ‘unheard of’ service to the UK’s luxury market.
The Regent Street hotel has welcomed a ‘positive response’ to the bespoke programme, after unveiling the offer late last year following a demand for complimentary transportation among guests.
The first of its kind in London, A Suite Journey invites guests booking the Junior Suite and above to reserve a personal chauffeur – as well as a range of exclusive amenities – for the duration of their stay.
The VIP package was introduced in December as part of Hotel Cafe Royal’s commitment to stand out amongst its competitors in the capital and to offer its loyal guests something entirely ‘unheard of and unique.’
“The question was always, how are we different?” Guillaume Marly, managing director at Hotel Cafe Royal, told TTG Luxury. “We have an amazing hotel in a great location, but how do we create a different interest from our clients’ perspective?”
After surveying guests on what they felt London’s luxury hotels currently lacked, it became clear the journey to the hotel was just as important as the stay itself.
Clients shared a preference for guaranteed transport to and from the airport, as well an assigned guide to enhance their visit to the city, and to Marly, the solution was obvious: a free-of-charge chauffeur service.
Guests staying in a Junior Suite or Grand Junior Suite at Hotel Cafe Royal are now able to choose between a Mercedes S or V Class, while guests booking a Deluxe Suite or any suite category above are offered the choice of a Rolls-Royce or Range Rover.
The chauffeur service will be operated by a fleet of 25 Hotel Cafe Royal-trained drivers and available for up to 10 hours at any time. Guests will also be able to travel unlimited mileage within this window, allowing for greater opportunity to explore the city or its surrounding countryside.
“It’s an amazing perk, because previously guests would be booking a car and it would be very expensive, because you’d be charged based on the journey,” Marly said. The service also caters to guests’ appreciation for convenience, especially after travelling long distances.
“Real luxury is not wasting time. The more we do for them, the more they love it. The real luxury for them is being able to come down from their suite and have everything available, there and then,” Marly explained.
Guests are able to directly communicate with the same chauffeur for the duration of their stay, allowing them to get to know their driver on a personal level. This consistency also helps the chauffeur to anticipate the client’s needs better and to customise the vehicle to their liking, Marly said.
“It is essentially driven by our desire to make the guest happy,” he added. “How much more can we do to cement their loyalty and help them understand this is their home away from home?”
As for what has been the most popular choice of car for guests staying in the deluxe suite – the Rolls-Royce or the Range Rover – the competition isn’t even close.
“Since we started this, around 80% of the guests have chosen a Rolls-Royce,” Marly revealed. He also added that, regardless of their affluence, most clients wouldn’t normally ride in the extravagant saloon car day-to-day. The opportunity to experience one, even for just a few hours, is therefore particularly coveted: “Even the wealthy guests we have don’t usually do these things themselves. But there is nothing more special than being driven by a chauffeur in London in a Rolls-Royce!”
