Inside the world’s first hotel room that determines room rate based on social media addiction

800 520 Hamish Kilburn
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That’s right, a hotel in Gothenburg, Sweden, has launched a new policy where the room rate is determined by how much time guests spend surfing on social media…

With the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 reaching a staggering 3.196 billion, up 13 per cent year-on-year according to Smart Insights, it was only a matter of time before hotels would launch schemes in order to help guests reconnect with the world around their screens. With the aim to take this initiative further, a hotel in Gothenburg, Sweden, has actually launched a hotel room where its rates will be determined by how much the guest spends on social media platforms.

The Check Out Suite in Hotel Bellora is a unique hotel room that rewards visitors for staying away from their screens, allowing families to spend time with each other instead. The room is equipped with The Skärmfri™ (Screen-free) smart lamp, which calculates how much you pay for the room based on how much time you spend on social media.

“The price starts at 0:- (sek), so if guests don’t use your screens at all, their stay will be free of charge.”

When guests connect their screen to the room’s WiFi, the lamp keeps track of how much time they spend on Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter and YouTube. The light start glowing white and when the recommended time for recreational screen time of 30 minutes (according to studies) the lamp turns red.

Light glowing red next to the bed of a hotel

Image credit: The Check Out Suite, Hotel Bellora

“We’re now taking our ‘Screen Help’ concept further in different ways. The Skärmfri™ lamp was one way to help, but now we have taken it even further and converted screen time into a currency that rewards a healthy digital life,” said Lisa Höglund, Head of Communications at Länsförsäkringar, a leading Swedish insurance company that works to improve digital health and social sustainability for individuals and families – in collaboration with Hotel Bellora.

The price starts at 0:- (sek), so if guests don’t use your screens at all, their stay will be free of charge. When using the social platforms and the lamp starts switching from white to red, the price begins to increase. When guests have reached the maximum amount of recreational screentime, they will have reached the full price rate for the room.

Have your say (ironically) on social media. Are hotels within their rights to alter the charge of a room based on how much the guest is playing on their phone, or this one step too far in order to change guests’ behavior with social media? Tweet us your thoughts on @HotelDesigns

Hamish Kilburn / 23.01.2019

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