This may be the dumbest marketing/PR gimmick I’ve seen in a while. Via Barbara de Lollis, the Telegraph reports:
A hotel chain is employing human bed warmers to help guests get a good night’s sleep.
The walking electric blankets are dressed in special all-in-one sleeper suits and are sent to warm the beds of guests staying at the Holiday Inn before they get under the covers.
[...]
Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall said the idea was ”like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed”. The five minute free bed warming sessions are being tried out in London and Manchester at the end of January.
This is so dumb it hurts. If you’re not looking for, umm, a casual encounter… why on earth would you want a stranger hanging out in your bed??
I guess the labor cost of hiring people to warm beds is lower than actually buying electric blankets and hot water bottles?
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
January 21st, 2010 at 7:37 am
Goodness that’s creepy.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:42 pm
A really bad idea.
Wrapping the staff up as in the photo may seem to some to render them “hygienic,” but if bed bugs are present in any of those beds — as they are in some rooms of the best hotels, they may hitchhike from room to room with these well-bundled human bed warmers.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Someone has been watching the Matrix too many times at Holiday Inn… What a job to be a coppertop bedwarmer.. hmmm.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Wait — hey could work for tips… or maybe they could be “independent contractors”…
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Oh. My. This is just so wrong on so many levels. I can’t believe this isn’t a hoax!
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I think this is a great idea! What a good solution to the unemployment situation.
Come on, how many rooms? Times 2? Of course it is part-time work. . .
January 25th, 2010 at 9:53 am
i saw this on the news and i found it very odd and, to my idea, pretty ridiculous but surely they know how to grab attention. a great campaign.
only one question: could you personally chose your “uman bed warmers”??