Product placement has hit the hotel biz in a big way as brands, including Sony and Restoration Hardware, cut deals to get their,stuff into high-end rooms. The move allows guests to try out things
like SonyPlayStation3, and also buy them, perhaps at a discount. "Quite often we share the same customer [demographics] as the hotel, so we're able to co-market and do things together that are more
valuable than just selling product," says Claire Eeles, general manager of Restoration Hardware's trade unit.
At the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Restoration Hardware will design
and provide furniture as part of a $300 million renovation, while messaging in-room and on the hotel TV network tells guests the products can be bought at an exclusive discount.
Sony will be the electronics provider for the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.,and a pair of Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos in Florida where lodgers can check out its PS3, HDTVs and music from the Sony BMG catalog. "Borgata becomes an extension of the company we're joining with, and that's why we're excited about it," says Larry Mullin, Borgata's president and COO.
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