The challenge
Virgin set its sights on disrupting the mid-market business hotel. But with the market crowded and commoditised, Virgin Hotels needed to do more than launch a stylish new property; it had to redefine what a hotel stay could feel like.
Creating a hotel experience that breaks the mould
Virgin set its sights on disrupting the mid-market business hotel. But with the market crowded and commoditised, Virgin Hotels needed to do more than launch a stylish new property; it had to redefine what a hotel stay could feel like.
Working together with Engine, Virgin Hotels developed a distinctive guest-centred experience that would fix what we all hate about short stay hotels and reimagine this in an unmistakably Virgin way.
For Virgin Hotels being unmistakenly Virgin meant three things:
- Travel shouldn’t be lonely. It’s an opportunity to connect with people.
- Travel should feel personal: Make you feel at home with every stay.
- Travel should be uplifting: Leave guests feeling nourished and energised.
Our challenge was to translate this into a meaningful experience for guests across every moment of their stay.
Getting underneath the behaviours of guests
The first step was to understand the guests Virgin Hotels wanted to attract - what frustrated them, what they valued and what would keep them coming back.
Engine worked with Virgin Hotels to explore guest behaviours and identify the moments that didn’t work well to reimagine how they might make a huge difference.
Breakthrough insight:
Mid-market business hotels had been designed around an outdated idea of travel. They stuck to conventions like bulky desks and office chairs taking up room when most guests were more likely to work from the bed. They excluded simple joys like being able to bring your dog for the weekend.
By reimagining the basics, we saw an opportunity to turn forgotten details into moments that delight.
Designing the journey and experience the Virgin way
As well as fixing what other hotels miss, Virgin needed to operationalise the improvements in a ‘Virgin’ way.
We defined what the three core attributes would mean in practice across all the touchpoints and used them to guide the design of an end-to-end guest journey for different guest types.
Working closely with the leadership team, we mapped the full guest experience, drawing out the common set of products, services and features needed to deliver consistently across digital, physical and human channels.
Whether a guest was staying for one night on business, or returning regularly, the experience had to feel recognisably Virgin from beginning to end.
Breakthrough insight:
To bridge the gap between brand positioning and service design, we focused on how Virgin Hotels should feel to guests and used that to shape every part of the guest experience. That emotional blueprint tied the journey together, no matter the channel or guest type.
Hospitality meets technology
Integrating technology into the experience was essential, but only if it enhanced the experience, never getting in the way.
Together, we defined how technology could be used that felt intuitive and on-brand.
The result was ‘Lucy’ - a cheeky, digital, personal assistant that let guests book their favourite room at the tap of a button, control lighting, temperature and entertainment, order room service and concierge support, view and manage a running tab and connect with other guests.
Lucy was able to build a personal profile for every guest, remembering preferences to inform more personalised marketing between stays.
Breakthrough insight:
We wanted to remove the constant feeling of being in a transaction with the hotel.
Nothing reinforced this more than having to constantly sign for every service. Lucy gave guests full visibility of their bill whilst removing the friction to deliver a seamless experience in keeping with the ambition and Virgin brand.
Embedding the experience
The guest experience was implemented and delivered for the first time in Chicago. It has since been rolled out across nine cities across the US, earning industry recognition and customer loyalty along the way, and we are proud to have played a small part in that success.
“In classic Virgin style, their hotel experience takes the assumed ordinary details and makes them something extraordinary and unexpected”
‘A peak at the first ever Virgin Hotels Property in Chicago’ Forbes Magazine
