Any guest can also be a gamer

After a busy working day, relax in your hotel room with your favourite computer game. Just like you are used to from home, but without having to bring your own gaming equipment. Thanks to the mobile gaming case from Rotterdam-based company GeeGee Gaming, any hotel can offer its guests that extra service. "By renting out this innovative product to their gaming guests, hotels can clearly distinguish themselves," says entrepreneurial duo Sergio Meyer and Farlyson Dortalina.

As lovers of what all things gaming, Sergio and Farlyson started organising gaming events and workshops for sports clubs, playgrounds and community teams, among others, in 2019. "To easily set up and dismantle at these on-site events at our clients' premises, we developed our own mobile gaming case; a special, custom-made case for a game console," the Rotterdam-based entrepreneurs say. "At some point, we were increasingly asked by customers whether the gaming case was also for sale. Especially for the consumer market, we then also developed the GeeGee Edge; a case in which a Playstation 5 or another console with a full gaming setup can be built. The idea to also offer this product to hotels arose during the corona crisis when people were still allowed to visit a hotel, but once in the hotel room were glued to the screen. At that time, gaming suddenly became totally booming."

To gauge the interest to their mobile gaming case within the hotel industry, GeeGee Gaming had a survey conducted by the Hotelschool Maastricht last year. "In this, between 30 and 35 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would find such an offer interesting. And of that group, 67 per cent in turn indicated that they would prefer such a gaming opportunity in the private setting of their own hotel room, rather than in a common area." The entrepreneurial duo is not surprised by the results of the survey. "Worldwide, there are some 3.3 billion gamers, so every hotel guest can also be a gamer. So that offers unprecedented opportunities to capitalise on that. The big advantage of our gaming case here is that it is a ready-made product that can be used stand alone. So no adjustments need be made to the TV and current equipment in the hotel room. For hotel guests, the advantage is that they no longer have to bring their own gaming gear, which also saves a few extra kilos of luggage."

According to Sergio and Farlyson, renting out a mobile gaming case for a day(part) can be an interesting USP for many a hotel. "The presence of such a gaming case in the private setting of a hotel room can be decisive for many hotel guests whether or not to choose a particular hotel. In addition, our GeeGee Edge meets the requirements of the most demanding gamer. A while ago, for instance, we were approached by the manager of a professional footballer who was in hospital for a week. Thanks to our gaming case, he was able to game from the hospital bed with the same quality he was used to from home."

Thanks to the GeeGee Edge, you can game on jet hotel room just like you are used to from home.

Even at the last Independent Hotel Show in Amsterdam, the young Rotterdam-based company's gaming case showed a lot of interest. The Arcade Hotel Amsterdam even decided to order several copies of the GeeGee Edge. If it's up to the entrepreneurial duo, it won't stop there. "Although few hotels are responding to this at the moment, the gaming market is obviously huge." Even at internationally renowned retail chains such as Selfridges in London and KaDeWe in Berlin, the mobile game case from Rotterdam did not go unnoticed. "There, our GeeGee Edge is even already in shops. Here in the Netherlands it is available online, including on our webshop," said the entrepreneurs, who also already organised a complete gaming tournament with their cases at The Social Hub in Amsterdam and Berlin. "In both cities, this was the ideal way for a new batch of long-stay guests to get to know each other better in a low-threshold way. So gaming clearly also has a social function."