Following a nationwide search, seven lucky children were chosen to become junior hotel inspectors to take over Premier Inn London Bank.

Issue
From where to go and where to stay, grown-ups are always making the decisions when it comes to family holidays. But shouldn’t the kids have their say, too? Just like the grown-ups, the breakfast menu is super important, as is the bed for a good night’s sleep and the TV for Sunday-morning cartoons. 

Insight
When you give children a platform to voice their opinions, they often have an endless list of questions to ask – and they are actually brutally honest. Kids aren’t afraid to say what they think! Seeing and hearing these opinions from kids offer up a completely different and refreshing perspective. What they see through their eyes is often completely different to how grown-ups see things. This is incredibly interesting to delve into.

Idea
In partnership with our PR agency, Golin, we crowned seven lucky youngsters as junior hotel inspectors, from 2,000 applicants aged between five and nine years old. Having visited the London Bank (Tower) hotel when it was under construction, they were then invited back once the hotel was completed to give it their seal of approval. Having been awarded the status of number-one TripAdvisor family hotel in the UK, it was the ideal location for the little ones to scrutinise.

Offering their opinions to help improve Premier Inn’s family offerings, they were armed with their very own ‘inspector kits’, including lab coats and magnifying glasses. Every aspect of the hotel was checked for its child-friendliness levels, from the welcome at reception and the breakfast menu, to the most important test – bed bounciness.

Impact
The competition announcement plus the video and imagery combined secured 49 pieces of news coverage with a reach of around 22.5-million people, nationally. The video and imagery brought the story to life, maximising social use with video views reaching nearly 200,000 on Facebook. What’s more, the link to our London Waterloo site helped promote the TripAdvisor family award.

Beatrice Vears, Head of Brand said, “Even the youngest of Premier Inn’s customers deserve a great night’s sleep, and these kids are not afraid to say what they think! Following their inspection, we’ve taken all of their feedback into consideration and will be using it to offer an even better service to families”.