Christina Jelski
A coloring book. An adorably tiny bathrobe with matching slippers. A stuffed teddy bear with a hotel's logo embroidered on its paw.
For decades these types of offerings have represented the status quo when it comes to kid-friendly hotel amenities. But a new London-based consultancy, known as Wanderland, is hoping to shake up the hospitality space with some innovative ideas for hoteliers still stuck in the coloring book era.
The brainchild of co-founders Saar Shai and Alicia Zur-Szpiro, Wanderland bills itself as the "world's first sommelier and atelier for all things kids, teens and hotels." It's a specialized focus, made all the more unique by the fact that Wanderland's team is made up of self-proclaimed industry outsiders.
"We don't come from hospitality," said Shai. "We come from what we call 'kids industries,' so toys, game design, book publishing, media and entertainment and also education technology."
These fresh sets of eyes feel like they've spotted a significant blind spot, particularly when it comes to urban properties.
"With city hotels especially, we believe there's a certain myopia," Shai said. "They don't really bring themselves to think creatively about what they can do for kids."
So, what does thinking creatively look like?
This November, Wanderland's first Kids Hospitality Report aims to answer that question, offering hotels insights gleaned from best practices across various kids industries.
One of Wanderland's ideas involves the integration of a physical, nondigital loyalty program for kids.
"Loyalty programs are such a marketing driver in this industry, and the fact that it doesn't exist for kids is quite staggering," said Shai.
Shai said he envisions a system involving collectible tokens, which kids can trade for items for themselves or their parents during their first visit or save and use at another hotel location on the next visit. The inspiration, he added, is based on the popular board game Monopoly.
"One of the main reasons Monopoly is so successful is that you give kids the equivalent of currency," said Shai. "So for a hotel group to give kids their first wallet and then give them these tokens is a huge opportunity."
For older kids and the notoriously tricky teen demographic, Shai said he isn't afraid to tap into technology.
He cited Wanderland's development of an app called Surround that offers location-based audio experiences, which Shai said is designed to combine teens' love of audio content like music and podcasts with a travel twist. Surround isn't intended to be "didactic," like more conventional audio-tour experiences, however.
"Kids, and especially teens, really pick up on the fact that you're trying to educate them, and that you think you know them," said Shai. "What we're doing is scaling back on that assumption of knowing them."
Video games are also part of the arsenal, though Shai suggests creating a more social gaming set-up that encourages the entire family to get in on the action. For hotels, it's the difference between setting up a console in a guestroom with one or two controllers versus taking a few extra minutes to set up enough controllers for everybody.
Shai said Wanderland was aware that a vacation provides a unique opportunity to log off. "But we also recognize that when you ignore screens completely, you can alienate the child. Maybe we can't completely get them off the screen, but at least we can make that screen time quality time for the entire family."