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Staypineapple History
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The Naked Experience™ Inspiration
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Linen & Terry Double-Blind Test
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We know to say YES!
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Dash, The Pineapple Pup
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Whimsical Elegance
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The Story of the Cookie
Our Founder's Story
Staypineapple History
from Michelle Barnet
I learned that to practice hospitality with excellence, it meant understanding the fundamentals of human beings and how to anticipate their needs and desires before they did. That was the secret. A successful hotel stay culminates with the guest taking away a personalized wholly positive experience that they can tuck away as a great memory, hopefully to be repeated often as we love our return guests. Memory making is the elemental currency of success in hospitality. This process of idyllic memory creation for each guest is the essence of the Staypineapple brand.
2010 marked the birth of the Pineapple Hospitality journey. It was the genesis of the actual manifestation of the above ideals. Could we build a team that could master this powerful memory making tool consistently for each and every guest? Could we then craft physical surroundings that reflected our core mission and values? The answer over the following months, to years, to now and onward is a resounding YES! Not only did we rise to the task, but our track record on all levels exceeded not only our own, but more importantly, our guests’ expectations. We did it, and we are committed to doing it even better every day.
I always believe there is a better way, a better experience, a better product, and a responsibility to find or create it.
Property design evolved through the years as well as each property writes its own story and requires its own purposeful design to support our brand pillars. We like to describe the hotels as theaters, meticulously and lovingly crafted to showcase the brand and facilitate the powerful guest memory making to which we are committed.
When asked how do you know you’ve succeeded? I answer this way; when I’m out and about and someone asks me for my email address, whether a new friend, a business associate, or a random clerk in a store, and the person lights up when they see “Staypineapple” and launches into a story about themselves or a friend who has stayed with us somewhere sometime, that is success. The stories are so fabulous, and each unique, but the most important product is the light and smile on their face as they explain their familiarity with the brand. I always tear up with pride for my outstanding Staypineapple Village, their daily efforts are truly astounding!
A true sign of our lasting brand power in the marketplace is how we stuck our landing through the last two years of a world crazed by a global pandemic. The Staypineapple team dug in and worked tirelessly toward success and recovery from the beginning, and they did it. Here we are today stronger and better than ever and excited to move into the world of sharing this extraordinary multi faceted disruptive brand with the broader hospitality business community.
The future is so very bright for us. After all, Pineapples need much sunlight to grow. We are committed to the constant care and feeding of our hotels, our team members, our strategic partners, and always our precious guests.
So onward we Growpineapple!
The Naked Experience
The Naked Experience™ Inspiration
She had a light bulb moment and realized that Staypineapple’s already exceptional beds could use individual duvets to create a cloud-like experience
The Naked Experience evolved beyond just the individual duvet experience, and became the baseline for Staypineapple’s in-room wellness positioning; to make sure that everything in the room that touches the skin is luxurious, clean, and inviting, driving the urge to Get Naked.
The Naked Experience
Linen & Terry Double-Blind Test
It was confirmed that The Naked Experience not only had the unique nature of individual duvets, but samples of the linens were identified as one of the luxury options every time.
Hospitality Redefined
We know to say YES!
Staypineapple’s service training empowers each Team Member to provide options and solutions. Educating on the workplace procedures, ensuring every Team Member knows what’s happening around them, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the team all feed into knowing to say YES!
If a guest asks for a helicopter ride over Portland, how impressive would it be if the Staypineapple Everything Person said to the guest: “Absolutely! What time would you like to leave and how many people? Where may I reach you once I have more information for you?”
We know to say YES! gives Team Members a united sense of empowerment and support that says that Everything People are there to help the guests with Everything.
We know to say YES! gives Team Members a united sense of empowerment and support that says that Everything People are there to help the guests with Everything.
Surprise & Delight
Dash, The Pineapple Pup
Much like The Naked Experience, Michelle returned from traveling with the idea of having a stuffed animal on the bed to welcome every arriving guest. Once again, it was questioned why. She explained that when traveling, there are long lines to get through TSA, hours of sitting in the airplane’s uncomfortably small seats, limited food options that all taste horrible, the stressful anxiety that the airline will “misplace” luggage, all culminating with a cab driver that has to circle the block three times before getting to the hotel. Upon arrival, guests are usually exhausted, frustrated, annoyed, and angry. But after all of that, if there is a cute little dog waiting in the room, the stress of the day melts away and the guest cannot help but smile.
Upon arrival, guests are usually exhausted, frustrated, annoyed, and angry. But after all of that, if there is a cute little dog waiting in the room, the stress of the day melts away and the guest cannot help but smile.
And so, the mascot who welcomes each and every guest into the world of Staypineapple, finally had his moniker. To this day, Dash is the personification of life’s journey with the lesson to “live your dash.” And to add to the goodness of Dash, he is available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds being donated to non-profit animal rescue organizations.
Hospitality Redefined
Whimsical Elegance
Staypineapple’s mission is to invest in the most important aspects of the guest experience, and provide luxury where it counts.
A hotel should not be a gray or beige box, absent of any personality.
This balance is portrayed at Hotel Z, where the Whimsey’s prominence is showcased with an exterior design of giant scissors slicing through yellow and teal sun rays, contrasting the facade harmoniously against the energy of the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego. However at An Elegant Hotel, the Whimsey takes a secondary role and the Elegance takes precedence in San Francisco's bustling Union Square, boasting carrera marble floors and golden accents. But to ensure the Elegance doesn’t overpower, sunshine yellow dressers in the guest rooms whimsically cry “don’t take us too seriously!”
At the end of the day, Whimsical Elegance is meant to be fun and playful, with just the right amount of thoughtful intent. It is the art of dancing the line between quirk and grandeur, sass and grace.
Welcome to Whimsical Elegance. Welcome to Staypineapple.
Surprise & Delight
The Story of the Cookie
For years Staypineapple offered complimentary cupcakes and coffee every afternoon in the lobby. Not only was this a yummy treat and unexpected pick-me-up, but an opportunity for hotel guests to gather, meet new people and learn about the city. The intent aligned with the brand’s friend-style service standard, which was created to mimic the feeling of hosting friends at home for afternoon coffee.
This program was and remains insanely popular. Each property sourced cupcakes from the best local bakeries in the city, and people absolutely loved them. But in September of 2019, Michelle saw the popularity of the cupcake craze and felt that cupcakes were no longer unique and quite honestly overplayed. She was concerned that Staypineapple was not "surprising or delighting" its guests by offering cupcakes as a baked good. She challenged the operations team to find something so delicious that it would be memorable, fun, whimsical, and convey the Staypineapple personality at first glance. Sounds easy, but not so much.
Staypineapple takes pride in offering guests surprise and delight moments, including offering a complimentary mid-day treat.
But how could a mom-and-pop bakery that only delivered locally be the answer? Of course, Michelle did not blink. She felt that one look at this cookie and guests would immediately feel happy and insisted that the team find a way to make this a signature item.
Everyone at Staypineapple HQ agreed with Michelle that this cookie was worth the expense and began looking into options to literally ship individual cases to each hotel across the country. Of course, there was concern about costs, but this item spoke so directly to the identity of the Staypineapple brand that it was worth it.
But what would be said about the disappearance of the cupcakes? Easy, blame it on Dash - "he ate all the cupcakes.” Luckily the cookies were so well received that guests never thought twice about the cupcakes again. The signature pineapple-shaped shortbread cookies are now well known and have become a recognizable part of Staypineapple’s identity, with over 500,000 of the cookies consumed annually. And yes, the cookies are still individually shipped by the caseload to ensure consistency and quality across the portfolio.