On Sunday you can walk into any DoubleTree hotel for a free cookie, even if you’re not staying there as a guest. They have both the original warm chocolate chip as well as an allergy-free cookie. Sunday is national Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Who knew?
DoubleTree is a conversion brand. They take hotels that have nothing in common and put the DoubleTree brand on it. You get consistent toiletries, Hilton Honors points and they tie it all together with cookies at check-in.
Limited brand standards are ideal for hotel owners that don’t want to spend a lot to bring their properties into conformance when reflagging. Some estimates are that conversion costs can be 50% lower. And while hotel brands generally require owners to pay for ongoing renovations they can save millions by becoming a DoubleTree that doesn’t have to look like other DoubleTrees.
Instead, you need an oven and cookie dough. More than 30 million of these cookies are baked annually. They’ve even been baked on the space station.
Hilton published the cookie recipe in April 2020 so people could make them at home, since no one was staying at hotels back then. Here’s the recipe:
Here’s George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in Up In The Air discussing the role of the check-in cookie.
The cookie was a really brilliant innovation back in 1986. Everything else about a hotel can be different, but you know you’re getting a cookie at check-in and that makes it a brand. Oh, DoubleTree, they’re the ones who give me a cookie!
Doubletree did not start out as a Conversion brand. It was a chain of more consistent hotels (which already had the cookie) which was acquired by Hilton.
It was after Hilton acquired Doubletree that they had to figure out what to do with the brand and where to position it that they started to make it a conversion brand and place it a half star below domestic Hiltons.
What’s the probability they run out of cookies for non-guests?
Sounds like the type of gimmick that customers might like while going to or checking into a hotel
Where’s the political angle? I mean this has turned into a political blog, hasn’t it? Did you forget to write that it’s the current president at fault that they’re giving away free cookies? Because even a good thing can be made to be bad for selfish political gain?
@Jake “Where’s the political angle?”
Socialist/Marxist cookie sharing to promote the Harris open-borders agenda.
That’s Nice.
Yum, I’d go for a free cookie if I’m around one tomorrow 🙂 Come to think of it I’ve stayed at a few double trees in the last couple years and don’t think I’ve actually gotten a warm one since I usually check in at night which does has a benefit in this regard – one time it was late enough they gave me 3 of them