Hampton Inn Clock-Radio

Hampton Inn have 1,800 hotels in US, Mexico, Latin America and Europe.

Hilton's Hampton Inn hotels launched their 'Make it Hampton' research project in 2004 aimed at creating a more standout customer experience for their core mid-market business travellers. As a result they came up with many small improvements to the overall experience. They found that some of the key anxieties were:

• Getting shower water all over the bathroom floor.
  
• Not being able to set the alarm clock confidently, and hence not getting a good night's sleep knowing they'd be woken up. In turn this led to more requests for labour-intensive wake-up calls.

In response they sorted out a leak-proof shower curtain with a curved rod, and went in search for an easier to use clock-radio. But they didn't find one, so instead had to invent their own (in partnership with Hotel Technologies). Not only did they create the foolproof alarm, but they also added buttons for different genres of music and news, which are preset to the relevant local stations. The alarm is a 'single day alarm' you can't be woken by the alarm from the previous guest.

In total Make it Hampton resulted in 120 upgrades, including a free hot breakfast (with a to-go option), and free high-speed Internet in every room.

The latest version of the radios have now been rolled out across other Hilton brands. Operationally, the clocks arrive with the time and date set by the manufacturer. Local staff just have to adjust for time zone. Daylight savings time is changed with a simple switch on the back.

These innovations put them in a good position as the recession hit, and corporate started abandoning full-service hotels for mid-level brands. Hampton are now the leader in mid-level hotels (Entrepreneur.com, Jan 2011).

Sources:
http://www.travellady.com/Issues/August05/1800AlarmClock.htm
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/55648817/Innovative-Clock-Radios-for-the-Hotel-Industry
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217712