FOREST, VA.—When a hotel offers something truly unique to first-time and repeat guests, word spreads quickly. When that offering helps keep germs from spreading, word-of-mouth goes viral in a good way. That’s what happened at the boutique Craddock Terry Hotel in Lynchburg, Va., when they started featuring a trio of NanoTouch Materials products in their guestrooms. NanoTouch Materials is the world’s first manufacturer of printed, portable, removable, and self-cleaning NanoSeptic touch point products that constantly kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Executives at Craddock Terry and the development and management firm, Cornerstone Hospitality, added NanoSeptic self-cleaning antimicrobial travel mats on which guests rest personal items like toothbrushes, jewelry, medicines, and more. They also added self-cleaning TV channel guides and coffee maker instruction placards (both frequently touched, but rarely cleaned, hotel room items).
“I’m always looking for hotels that do things just a little differently in their quest to please the guest,” said Craddock Terry guest Kevin Thompson, president of Virginia Beach’s Thompson Consulting. “Not only did I find the Craddock Terry Hotel an exceptionally cool boutique hotel, I also had a higher level of confidence in the cleanliness of my room, since they took the extra step to provide a self-cleaning surface. I was so excited about this new product that I found myself wanting to send some as gifts to my friends and clients who travel.”
Lobby Store Carries Travel Kit
Due to interest and demand from guests like Thompson, the hotel’s lobby store now carries a travel kit for use in other hotels, as well as on nightstands, airplane tray tables, cruise ships, restaurants, and other areas where invisible germs are often present. The kit includes a jumbo travel mat stored in a convenient tube ideal for carrying toothbrushes and other small travel items.
Branded with the Craddock Terry Hotel logo, the travel mats are packaged in “the new clean” crystal-clear tamper-evident envelope, assuring guests that the mat has not been previously used. Craddock Terry management encourages guests to take it for use elsewhere in their travels or at home. Thus, the mat also serves as an ongoing reminder of the hotel’s value-added service, while concurrently extending its brand.
“In our industry, as in most others, perception is reality,” says Kimberly Christner, president and CEO of Cornerstone Hospitality. “If people perceive that public surfaces aren’t clean, then there’s a problem that needs to be solved.
“NanoTouch addresses that problem, while delivering on a hotel’s brand promise,” Christner continues. “The reality is, few people are going to lay personal items on a vanity—even in a high-end hotel. Guests are going to use a towel or something else they perceive as being a clean resting area. NanoTouch provides our properties a proactive way to deliver a feeling of safety and security to our guests.”
Part of Hotel’s Green Story
The Craddock Terry’s hotel director, Todd Swindell, says the use of NanoTouch also sends a green message along with enhancing the hotel’s clean image. He says, “In today’s world of growing eco-consciousness, we’re always looking for ways to reduce the use of water and electricity, as well as limit the use of detergents that might impact the environment. By using the NanoTouch travel mats on the vanity, it’s one less towel we have to wash—increasing the sustainability of our property.”
In addition to the portable products used by Craddock Terry, NanoTouch also has a line of facility touch points including door push pads and handle wraps. And with the increased frequency of hotels providing guests with complimentary use of iPads and Kindles—items that were personal but are now shared—NanoTouch has developed antimicrobial sheaths for these devices that will be available early first quarter 2013.
“NanoTouch is out to make the world a better and healthier place to live, work, and play,” says NanoTouch Materials co-founder, Dennis Hackemeyer. “Beyond the obvious marketing benefits, the NanoTouch slogan is really our mission: ‘Safer Surfaces for a Healthier World.’”
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