Hotels Play to Childhood Fantasies to Sell Rooms

USA Today: Hotels are turning to children's fantasy icons — such as Barbie, Shrek and Snow White — to sell rooms, possibly at higher prices, to attract families.

Disney, Gaylord and the Dorchester Collection are among hotel operators trying to capitalize on pop culture to fill rooms on weekends when business travelers are gone, on spring or summer breaks, or at locations that attract vacationing families.

Hotel operator Gaylord announced the latest deal last week. It's working with DreamWorks Animation to bring Shrek, Kung Fu Panda's Po and Madagascar characters into its hotels. Under the arrangement, Shrek could show up at a child's birthday party. And the Madagascar penguins could go down the ice slide in the Gaylord hotels' popular wintertice show.

"If you look at all these reality shows on TV, this stuff is fantasy. People (like to) put themselves mentally and emotionally in different places," Gaylord CEO Colin Reed says. "This is what we can offer folks." The idea could be a hit in the age of Facebook and Twitter, when people can brag about their encounters to their social network. "People want something unique," says Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks' CEO.

Other hotels seeking to capitalize on fulfilling fantasy:

- Disney is converting 512 rooms at a Walt Disney World hotel into princess-themed "Royal Rooms." The rooms are expected to open early next year.

- In Paris, the swanky Hotel Plaza Athénée will convert some rooms into Barbie- and Hot Wheels-themed rooms for the month of August. Other hotels, including the Palms Resort in Las Vegas, have created Barbie-inspired hotel suites.

It's not just at kids. London's chic Berkeley Hotel offers a vintage designer fashion trunk that conjures Carrie Bradshaw's closet in Sex and the City. It's filled with Dior and Chanel jewelry that women who pay extra to use the trunk can wear on the town.