WHILE on holiday in Barcelona with her mother last month, Laura Caddick had seen Torre Agbar lots of folks tooling around on red-and-white cycles. But the bikes that she saw everywhere - part of the city’s bicycle-sharing program - were for use by local residents only. Torre Agbar
luckily , Ms. Caddick’s hotel, ME Barcelona, had many cycles for guests. ‘We rode down to the beach, then to the port and up to the Ramblas, stopping for drinks and lunch along the way,’ said Ms. Caddick, a sportswear merchandiser from Liverpool, Britain. She and her mother each paid 20 euros, or $26.40 at $1.32 to the euro, to rent the bikes for 4 hours and felt they saw more of Barcelona than they might had they taken the Metro from their hotel. ‘We felt we were experiencing the city from a more local point of view.’
In recent years, from Paris to Rome, new urban cycling lanes and public bike-sharing programs have been becoming more popular. And while some travelers arenot able to link into all of the cycling opportunities - in Paris, as an example, the check-out meters for the Vlib’, a public bicycle-rental program, will not accept most American cards ( they lack acrucial microchip ) - there are several hotels that offer guests use of bikes for a little fee or no charge in any way.
‘It’s become a new way for hotels to show their greenness,’ said Jonathan Barsky, vice president for research at Market Metrix, which gauges customer satisfaction in hospitality companies.
The bikes, which are generally upright models, have proved to be favored, especially among holidaying guests, though business travelers have been observed to cycle to an appointment, according to many hostels
The Hotel Gates in Berlin, which introduced twelve red bikes last May, making them available to guests without charge, has just ordered four more bikes for the summer season
‘Sometimes the guests ask for a bike, and they’re all gone,’ expounded Kirsten Kurbjuhn, the general executive, adding that more than sixty % of the guests who fill out the hotel’s customer-feedback questionnaire say the bikes are’a highly valuable service,’ and twenty % say they are one of the reasons they chose the hotel.
Astrid Boh, a management consultant from Frankfurt who scheduled a room at the Hotel Gates for a business trip at the end of March, did not know about the bikes before her arrival. But after hearing about them at the reception desk, she was glad she had taken a taxi from the airport instead of renting a car.Torre Agbar.
‘Parking is a challenge in Berlin,’ said Ms. Boh, who pedaled to a business meeting, shops and even out to dinner at night. ‘I liked having the ability to get somewhere fast and get some exercise at the same time.’
Some hotels prepare with nearby bicycle shops to have bikes on hand for guests. A day’s use of a bike is included in the Green, Greener, Berlin package at the Mvenpick Hotel Berlin, which leases the bikes from a local company. The package also includes bath salts, possibly for soothing sore muscles after an arduous outing.
But increasingly hostels are making an investment in their own fleets - and picking models that strengthen the identity of the hotel.
In August, Le Meurice, a Parisian hotel that occupies an 1835 palace across from the Tuileries, displayed five retro-style bikes in the blue-green shade of the oxidized copper roofs of the city, with matching helmets and front baskets emblazoned with the hotel’s gold trademark. American and Brit guests in their 30s tend to be the most enthusiastic customers, according to the hotel ; Le Meurice’s sister hotel, the square Athne, chose zippy red bikes with panniers.
At the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken in the Swiss Alps, guests can check out Scott trail bicycles - the same model that the Liverpool football Club, which utilised the hotel as its training base for the last two summers, rode to get from and to football practice, pedaling in their red-and-black training shorts and jerseys while fans lined their trail.
Staff members at the ME Barcelona, part of the Sol Meli hotel chain, visited many bike shops before settling on the silvery fold-up bikes that were introduced in September at the hotel, housed in a modernist tower clad in anodized aluminum.
‘We always like to be on the fringe of technology,’ related Pete Zudyk, VP for brand innovation and communication for Sol Meli.
naturally, some hostels have provided bikes for a number of years. The Hotel Hassler in Rome has had them for twenty years, according to Vivian Barsanti, the media and marketing coordinator.
In bike-happy Copenhagen, that has special tiny traffic lights for bike riders and obviously marked cycling lanes, bikes have for some time been a standard hotel offering.
.