Do you agonize over it? Come on, you can admit it. Have you ever said to yourself, “Well, I want him to know I like him, so I better send the kissyface emoji with the heart, instead of the one with just the kissyface, unless that might look like I’m trying too hard?”
Do you find yourself lamenting over the lack of recognizable food emojis, or wondering just who uses all those gosh-darn flags? Have you ever tried to soften a snappy text with the addition of a cute emoji, maybe that crazy Flamenco dancer lady in the red dress? And have you ever tried to find a “hotel” emoji?
If you answered yes to any of those questions (except the hotel one, because I haven’t found it yet), you might be the ideal Aloft hotel guest.
Wait, backtrack—you all know what emojis are, right? They’re the graphic version of what we used to call emoticons back in the early days of digital communications. So instead of typing the old : ) (sooooo old-fashioned), now we just insert the smiley face emoji
So back to the connection between emoji and Aloft Hotels: Last month Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s tech-forward chain took a cue from Domino’s Pizza and launched what they’re calling the first emoji roomservice menu at Aloft Manhattan Downtown–Financial District in New York City.
Here’s how it works: You choose from an emoji roomservice menu, text those emojis to the front desk, and bam—your items are delivered and charged to your room. The menu includes what Aloft calls six “specialty kits.” The Re:Fresh, for example, includes toothpaste, a toothbrush, a razor, shaving cream and deodorant, for $10. Guests—presumably this is marketed to that oh-so-popular hyper-connected millennial—also can choose from packages like “The Munchies,” “The Hangover” or even “Surprise Me,” where for $25 you’ll receive “fun swag & cool stuff.”
Is this going to have a long-term impact on Aloft’s roomservice revenue line? (Following the first Manhattan hotel rollout, the company said it is expanding the program to Europe and Asia). I doubt it. Will it be a fun novelty, equally likely to succeed as it is to fail over the long term, like robot butlers in hotels? My gut here says most likely, but who knows?
And really, how long before someone texts the smiling poo emoji to the front desk, just to see what happens?
What this really is indicative of is a further movement away from actual human contact at hotels. More and more we hear about hoteliers mobilizing to respond to things like towel requests through text, or Wi-Fi complaints over Twitter.
But before I say, “Why can’t you pick up the phone to do this? Hoteliers are still paying a good chunk of change to keep those phone dinosaurs in the room!” I had to do a little research to see if emojis really are a silly little diversion that won’t amount to much, or if they might be something more.
Turns out, some are calling them the fastest-growing new language in human history.
Just last week, U.K.-based retail courier company ParcelHero published a piece (picked up here by Forbes) that cited research from advertising firm Emogi showing that 92% of the online population use emojis.
Use isn’t limited to millennials alone, either, according to the data from Emogi (you can download that full report here)—consumers into their 40s and beyond are just as likely to include an emoji or two in a message (though why my mom thinks she needs to repeat the same emoji 15 times in one message, I’m not entirely sure).
So while I initially might have dismissed Aloft’s emoji menu as a silly gimmick, maybe the brand is just way ahead of the curve? I guess that’ll be for the industry and hotel guests to decide.
Now, that whole pizza emoji thing, where you text the pizza and one magically gets delivered to wherever you are? Now that is something I’m sure will be a huge success. Pizza gods, feel free to send anything my way:
Infographic of the week
Believe it or not, quite a few data analysts have run emojis through the mill to see what sort of trends emerge regarding their usage.
Turns out, a lot. In August, SwiftKey published a map showing each state’s most-used emoji, which followed some earlier notable reports, including SwiftKey’s look at emoji use around the world, and FiveThirtyEight’s look at the 100 most popular emojis overall.
How much longer until consumers can book a room just by texting an emoji? Wait, forget I said that. Don’t want to put any ideas in anyone’s head.
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