InterContinental Launches Audio-Book Service

InterContinental Hotels has collaborated with Amazon's digital story service Audible to create an audio-book library for its guests.

The library, dubbed Stories of the InterContinental Life, was curated by Brendan Francis Newnam, executive producer of literary podcast The Paris Review. The collection pairs works of literature with iconic travel destinations – for example, Brick Lane by Monica Ali for London, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote for New York, and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah for Paris.

Guests sign up to InterContinental's Novel Nights package, which gives them access to the library and allows them to download any one of the audio books for free using an Audible download card. The package also includes late checkout to allow guests to read later into the morning. If guests wish to listen to more than one book, they pay for it as normal.

Newnam will also host a podcast for guests that explores the stories of local people – including artists, chefs, musicians and designers – based in the hotel brand's various cities.

This new collaboration demonstrates how hotel chains are offering guests services that stretch beyond basic room service and tap into a deeper, more experience-led consumer need. For more on this shift, see Luxury Travel Developments: ILTM Cannes 2017 and Rebooting Room Service: Food, Fashion & Beyond.