Niche travel

You’ve heard of the CEO, the CFO and the CTO (chief executive, technical and finance officers, in case you haven’t).

Now we have the CCO. It stands for chief comfort officer and it’s the only acronym you’ll want to see if you’re checking into a hotel.

At the moment that will only happen if you’re staying in an Affinia Hotel, a group with properties across New York and Washington.

Affinia’s CCO has responsibility for the TLC Crew which, in this case, stands for tender loving comfort. These are staff trained up by a body language expert on how to look for “comfort clues” when interacting with guests.

According to CCO Chrissy Denihan, a big part of the initiative is Comfort Hour, a variation on happy hour where guests are invited to try out an array of items, from Wii and Kinect to Cloud pillows with more than 10 million micro air beads.

See anything you like and they’ll deliver it to your room while you have a drink, a nibble and a chat with fellow comfort seekers.

The hotel tries out all sorts of bells and whistles and those which get the best feedback are rolled out across the chain.

Equally, just book in and realise you’ve forgotten anything from a guitar to a golf putter and the TLC crew will have one sent up.

The hotel also offers a range of Experience Kits with everything you need for a self-guided walking tour to a picnic or a yoga session.

As Denihan, who is the granddaughter of the hotel chain’s founder explains: “A hotel isn’t just a place to rest your head; it’s how you feel when you’re here.”

How comforting is that.

[ affinia.com ]