'Trash can also contributes to styling hotel room'

When furnishing a hotel room, it is the accessories - such as a safe, a minibar, a coffee maker and a hairdryer - that provide the proverbial finishing touches. As is true for the entire hotel industry, these so-called in-room supplies are also subject to continuous innovation. 'For example, it is already possible for guests to open their hotel safe with their smartphone,' says Dolf Mulder, owner of Hotek Hospitality Group from Etten-Leur in Brabant.

Hotek has been developing and supplying keycard systems, security solutions and hotel accessories for the hospitality industry since 1999. "Originally, we mainly specialised in access control. But customers increasingly asked us whether we could also supply certain hotel room accessories such as a hairdryer or a certain type of coffee machine. So our range of in-room supplies has grown enormously in recent years," says Mulder. "The big advantage for hotels is that we always have all hotel room accessories in stock in our 6,000 m² warehouse in Etten-Leur. The convenience of online ordering is also a major plus for hotel chains. For Fletcher Hotels, for instance, we have created a separate web shop where each hotel can order accessories for a certain amount per month. That saves such a hotel chain a lot of consultation and therefore time." 

In a hotel room, a safe to safely store valuables, as well as a minibar, are still staples. But the technology of such in-room supplies is constantly evolving. Mulder gives an example: "Using our cloud solution Your Mobile Key, guests can use their smartphone to open not only their hotel room door, but also their safe. And if a guest takes a coke from the minibar, in not too long time that too will be automatically registered on the smartphone." Speaking of minibars, according to the Brabant entrepreneur, their function is changing quite a bit. "Now that food or drinks can be bought on just about every street corner and hotels themselves increasingly have their own minibar, you see that most minibars in hotels are simply empty. But for guests, it remains an important service, as minibars are now increasingly used to keep drinks, medicines or baby food cool. And since sustainability is becoming increasingly important for hotels, we therefore also supply minibars that are extra energy-efficient in terms of power consumption."

Perhaps not the first item you think of when styling a hotel or bathroom, but no less important: a waste bin. "A big clunky bin is out of date and doesn't look chic either," says Mulder. "Our stylish ones made of leatherette, on the other hand, give the pedal bin a luxurious look. Also consider that most guests stay in a hotel room for a relatively short period of time. In addition, rooms are cleaned frequently and thus the bins are emptied frequently. Therefore, a 10-litre pedal bin is usually fine." 

To temporarily increase hotel capacity, Hotek came up with the idea of adding folding beds and baby cots to its range. "For example, at the European Football Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games in France, we regularly received last-minute orders from hotels, which were able to quickly increase their bed numbers this way," Mulder concludes.