Sol Wave House Hotel, the world's first 'Twitter hotel', was launched earlier this year in Mallorca. Ishbel Macleod, The Drum's reporter and communities coordinator went to check the place out.
As a bit of a Twitter addict, I was hugely excited by the idea of a
Twitter hotel. I was picturing groups of people sitting, ordering drinks via tweets, with enough selfies being taken to make Rihanna feel inadequate.From first glance at the outside of the Sol Wave House hotel in Mallorca, the (twit)pic in my head was confirmed: the Twitter bird flew proudly on columns, with the handle and hashtag for the hotel displayed.
I was in social heaven. The Twitter handle, hashtag (#socialwave) and Facebook page details were posted on various surfaces…even the side of the pool. There was even a QR code to take fans directly to the Facebook page. I’ll leave it up to you to rule if a QR code would work, but there was certainly an impressive display of social: my pet hate is brands that proudly declare ‘follow us on Twitter’ or marketing, but don’t actually provide the handle.After tweeting that I was going to the hotel for the day, Sol Wave retweeted me, and when I sent more tweets later, the Twitter concierge (yes, an actual job) replied to them as well,
But (and you knew a but was coming, didn’t you?), I seemed to be the only one appreciating the #amazeballs of the place. The hotel was, in my eyes, The Twitter Hotel – Google those three words and news about the Sol Wave House comes up top – but that was not what the majority of holidaymakers there seemed to be seeing it as.A lot of eyeballs were not staring at smartphones but at the admittedly awesome wave pools. Okay, maybe I should have guessed that the fact the hotel was called Sol Wave and not Sol Social that the ability to tweet your drink orders from special red cabanas called Bali Bars and get your minibar restocked by tweeting #FillMyFridge were not the house specialty, but I was not expected to be the only one with my phone out!
I asked a group of girls staying at the hotel, who had booked two Bali Bars for themselves, and they replied that no, they did not know that it was ‘the Twitter hotel’, not even the girl who booked the room, and they had not sent a single tweet between them since arrival.However, these girls are in the minority when it comes to using Twitter on holiday: in August Twitter revealed that a whopping
59 per cent of users use Twitter every day while on holiday, while a quarter use the platform to find local restaurant recommendations or tourist information. Apart from the fact that when I was there, I seemed to be the only one tweeting, the hotel has being doing a great business, with the Twitter concierge telling me the success of the use of Twitter at the hotel when I asked for the WiFi password. However, as the hotel closes at the end of October until May, I had missed the rush.
Having only been there for a day, I wasn’t able to experience the full wonder of the Sol Wave House. Those staying at the hotel receive a Twitter message from the hotel asking how their #tweetexperience is going, and there are blue-and-white #TwitterPartySuites that sleep up to four people and a #TwitterPoolParty each Friday. Those who stay in the suites also get a customised mini bar, which is restocked following a #fillmyfridge request to the concierge, and the mirrored walls have ‘talking point’ messages to make selfies a bit different, with one featuring a picture of a moustache.All I have to say is…can we hold the next
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