It really doesn’t get easier than candlelit slow yoga with your group. Unless, of course, you could book it in a few clicks through your hotel’s website.
Noble House Hotels & Resorts, the luxury boutique hotel brand based in Seattle, has partnered with a new and growing Austin tech company, Way, that serves destinations and their communities. Way’s program puts local artists, small businesses and the regional experiences they provide on the property’s website, so hotel guests can book directly with the small business. As guest demand for an authentic, engaging experience in the surrounding community and culture increases, technology plug-ins are making it easier for meeting professionals to meet the needs of attendees without additional research and contracts.
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Founded in the spring of 2020, the tech company serves independent and brand hotels from North America to Europe. The Edgewater Hotel was the first property in Seattle to debut Way’s program on their website, and a few other Noble House resorts have since joined on.
Noble House properties River Terrace Inn, Hotel Terra Jackson Hole and Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa have launched Way’s program on their websites, and Jekyll Island Club Resort goes live this week with theirs. Kona Kai Resort & Spa, San Diego Mission Bay Resort, L’Auberge Del Mar and Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa plan to launch the program shortly after.
While other hospitality companies also use Way’s program, such as Bunkhouse hotels and The Boca Raton, Noble House’s program launch at roughly half of their properties is the largest scale implementation of the program and most involved partnership yet.
Noble House takes celebrating their two dozen properties’ communities seriously, to the point that the brand has become known for being more than a get-away. A stay at Noble House now entails travel experiences that support the property’s community of small businesses, according to Noble House Hotels & Resorts CMO Scott Colee.
Leading by Local Experiences
Each hotel is responsible for identifying local partners it deems ‘friends of the hotel.’ “Essentially, these are local businesses who host regular events in the community—the CVB, parks, nonprofits in our neighborhoods, wineries, theaters, etc.,” Colee said in a statement. He remarked that the locals are the heart of each of their destinations. This approach is reflected in both its new partnership and the increased accessibility of connections and revenue that partnership creates for small businesses next-door.
The properties’ “Featured Experiences” pages have a sleek aesthetic and intuitive, user-friendly functions. Hotel guests and any visitor to the website will find an organized and attractively laid-out collection of local events and services. The design of the site and its filter options make finding the right type of outing for you and your group an easy process. Guests can search by date, type—wellness, culinary, family, art, active, etc.—and “vibe,” such as chill or intense. And before even clicking on an enticing experience, each experience host has a bio visible to the visitor, increasing exposure for that entrepreneur or creator.
Bring Your Business Travelers into Town
Way’s program lists the capacity for each experience, and Noble House properties currently offer multiple immersive group-geared experiences ideal for event and travel planners with business and incentive travel in mind.
“The added benefit and edge that this program will give us for group business is part of what piqued our interest,” Colee went on. The Edgewater offers a “cocktail and mocktail lab,” a fun night for a small group. Business groups can also sign up for the Teton Village Scavenger Hunt—what could turn out to be a rewarding team bonding activity—through Teton Mountain Lodge’s “Local Experiences” page.
Way also makes it easy for a small business owner in the community to become a host, accessible through each participating property’s experiences page. The self-proclaimed brand-building tech company is effective—its program is designed in such a way as to build its own brand and brand loyalty, while also building its partners’ through its own integrated, synthesizing product. And this system drives revenue back to locals and their businesses.
Edgewater and properties like it, through the digital avenue erected by Way’s software, work to foster compelling experiences that enchant the cities’ guests and better their communities.
