At the Dream Hotel in Hollywood, California, the energy in the lobby is electric, thanks to a dazzling gallery of NFT artworks adorning the walls. As one of the first places in the world to exhibit an NFT art gallery done in collaboration with New York’s Crypt Gallery, The Dream takes the model of the static hotel art program and turns it on its head.
Contributed by Julianna Shallcross
More than half of the hotel lobby is taken up by LED frames of varying sizes, each offering a treasure trove of digital art that continually churns. Every artwork has a QR code to take viewers to the NFT market. There they can purchase artwork, store it in their digital wallet, and view it on their own devices. For those who don’t know about inappropriate tokens, the Dream Gallery also educates visitors on how NFTs work.
Dream Hollywood general manager Vaughn Davis believes NFTs are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to attracting new generations of consumers and new ways of doing business.
“This is a whole new transition environment,” said Davis of using NFTS to shift the world of hospitality from Web 2 to Web 3. “NFT is more than just a buzzword. The whole landscape has changed.”
But unlike social media, where hotels can easily cultivate a following through clean visuals, the NFT community is not easily impressed. Hotels cannot drop NFTs and expect to make waves. Nor should they release NFTs that are just works of art. It needs usefulness and experience behind it.
Tommy Farr, CEO of digital consultancy Metaverse Hospitality, said: Rather, Farr suggested diving deeper into understanding the NFT community through his Twitter space and his research on Web3 utilities and cryptocurrencies before looking at business opportunities.
“Right now, I think research and teaching are still huge, so there is no need to release an NFT project next week,” Farr added. “We have plenty of time, but you have to get it right.”
When the hotel decided to drop the NFT, Davis suggested building a permanent one rather than a one-time NFT, such as giving buyers of the NFT artwork a room package at the hotel. “It shouldn’t be a one-time thing,” Davis said. “It defeats the purpose of keeping something on the blockchain instead of actually using the underlying technology to create something unique.”
In addition to selling NFTs in the lobby, Dream has created a social club where membership requires the purchase of limited-edition Perry Cooper-designed NFTs. That NFT grants real-world benefits at the hotel, such as Metaverse perks such as house car use, Gunnar Peterson Gym access, and room discounts. This NFT has utility in the form of hotel services, but like any other NFT, it can also be resold.
“Members loved the hotel as it was and now have a cool piece of art created by Perry Cooper and worth it,” Davis explained. “So if they decide to sell this art, they will make a profit on their membership.”
But NFTs should go beyond art, says Simone Puorto, chief executive of tech-focused consulting firm Travel Singularity. In fact, parts of the hotel experience can be turned into NFTs – stay packages, room and lobby furniture, or group dinners in hotel restaurants. These transactions remain on the blockchain, which is decentralized, immutable, and impossible to forge.
“It’s not just about art or JPEGs. It’s about creating smart contracts every time we do something,” Puorto said. “NFTs are just the shiny part because you know, that’s what we’re looking at and there’s a lot of money involved. But that’s just the part and the most interesting part Not even.”
Citizenm Hotels has launched a virtual hotel on Sandbox, the Metaverse gaming platform. It will be built through the sale of 2,000 NFT. NFTS owners can even vote for the next location of a genuine Citizenm hotel.
Dominican Republic luxury resort Casa de Campo recently partnered with new booking platform Pinktada to use Room Night Tokens (RNT) for stays where guests receive NFTs after the stay is completed. . These tokens act like tickets to a specific room in a hotel. They can be used by guests, exchanged within the Pinktada platform, and even resold. A token is not a cryptocurrency per se, but behaves like one. A given NFT is a digital highlight and memory of a guest’s stay.
Jason Kycek, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Casa de Campo, sees Pinktada as the Web3 equivalent of online travel agencies in the Dot-Com era, but it’s helping hotels enter this complex digital space. Thing.
“These guys have been in the market since the beginning to this new technology that builds its platform on blockchain technology. “And they’re not just utilizing that technology, but putting an NFT piece into it.”
Farr believes NFTs also apply to hotel loyalty programs or act as room keys. Still, as the Crypto global recession recently pointed out, there is much to grasp in the application of NFTs and blockchain technology in the hospitality space. But change continues to happen faster than what came before. “We are still very early,” said Farr. “There are pivots every month, every week, every year.”
