Cooperation is the name of the game these days – gollee, even the hotel industry is getting into the act. Kerzner partners with A.C. Milan on its forthcoming SIRO brand (the name stands for SIRO Strength, Inclusive, Reflection, Originality). On the sports side, AMILLA MALDIVES was thrilled to be partnering with Emma Raducanu. She was hired to do tennis masterclasses but then she cancelled – wonder if one of her sponsors, Tiffany, wants its jewels and money back? At least another of the teenage star’s many sponsors, British Airways, won’t ask for anything back as they will be, or would be, giving her free seats.
On the British Airways tack, by the way, it’s high time somebody defended the airline. Girlahead finds their Gold Guest List customer support as good as, if not better than, most five star hotels’ concierges. GGL agent Kevin went beyond any call of duty in trying to penetrate a ridiculously unfathomable US accreditation form that apparently is not needed anyway. Ten hours after the initial dialogue Kevin called back, that evening, to say he thought he had solved the riddle. He must have been telephoning from home.
But partnership is today’s theme. BA already partners with the equally-excellent Qatar Airways – excellence applies to the airline not its ridiculous home-base airport, Doha, which is a shopping mall that, if you look hard, also has departure gates. How the expanded BA-QR partnership will work has yet to be seen,
Some partnerships go on for ages without any apparent visible sign. Who knew that Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has an agreement with Oberoi? What does THE O&MO ALLIANCE mean? Apparently Fans of M.O. and Oberoi One loyalists enjoy personalized recognition and exclusive benefits. Sounds good, even to a sceptic.
Any brand partnering with Global Hotel Alliance GHA also benefits. Over 50% of bookings made through GHA’s Discovery programmes are loyalist of another of GHA’s 40+ brands. This means, say, a German who regularly stays at ADLON KEMPINSKI in Berlin (which does have concierges who rival BA’s Kevin) books, via Kempinski’s own Discovery programme to spend a weekend at CAPELLA SINGAPORE. See that hotel, above, in the dark. Everyone there is recovering from Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix, in the dark, and in the rain…. And see the hotel’s suite 412, here:
