When good sleep is made to measure

Interview with Daniele Mereu, Hotel Operations Manager at Gruppo UNA

After two years of difficulty and uncertainty due to the global pandemic, 2022 marked a change of pace and a recovery in demand for tourism and hospitality, as well as the return of Northern European and American tourists to Italian destinations. These trends were confirmed for the summer season, when Italy was among the most sought-after destinations, with foreign tourists showing a preference for Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily, and domestic tourism by Italians holding up very well. As far as hospitality properties in particular are concerned, tourists are still very interested in safe, reliable solutions. “Today more than ever,” says Daniele Mereu, Head of Hotel Operations, UNA Group, “it is necessary to keep attention and investment focused on safety and communication. UNA Group has been preparing since the start of the pandemic to respond to travellers’ new needs, offering an increasingly complete and varied range. One example is the short- and long-stay solutions of the Luxury Apartments & Villa UNA Esperienze in Milan, in the centre of Florence and on the Viareggio seafront, opened in summer 2021. As well as enriching the range of hotels and resorts located in 22 destinations across Italy, these options meet the needs of a very high-profile clientele, offering a new and exclusive concept of hospitality characterised by comfort and privacy. Without doubt, the concept of personal space has undergone a radical change, which we believe is permanent”.

Hospitality increasingly means experience: that is, creating unique moments that guests will remember and therefore want to experience again in the future. But it is a “new” task for the hotel world, which must present itself to the market by following the trends that guests prefer. “We are firmly convinced – adds Daniele Mereu – that experience has become an essential element of the hospitality offering, expressed in the demand for a service increasingly tailored to the guest. UNA Group believes that, alongside an innovative and up-to-date product offering, there must always be a unique, exclusive and attentive service, expressly tailored to the needs of each individual guest; this inseparable combination of product and service is where true luxury lies today. It was precisely to meet these needs that our UNA Esperienze brand was created, which includes an exclusive selection of 17 high-end hotels, resorts and villas in Italy dedicated to the most demanding Italian and international guests, looking for accommodation where they can experience emotions and the Italian lifestyle. But the perfect prototype of this approach is our flagship hotel Milano Verticale UNA Esperienze in the Porta Nuova district, a 4-star superior property opened in May 2021, at a time of great uncertainty for the hotel industry. The hotel goes beyond the traditional concept of a ‘hotel’ and sets out to be at the same time an urban hotel, a gourmet destination, the place to go for a drink, a business venue and an innovative hub for events. Here, as in all the properties of UNA Group’s most precious collection, the promise is of a personalised, quality stay where the guest is placed at the centre of everything, to offer a superior experience”.

So today in the world of hospitality a strong watchword has become personalisation. Thinking in particular of a key element of the hospitality experience such as the bed system, this therefore stands out as an element that gives a real competitive advantage. “At UNA Group we firmly believe in personalisation,” concludes the Head of Hotel Operations. “That is why, for the bed system, we created ‘Made For UNA’, a Dorelan concept developed for UNA Group: a combination of mattress and topper specifically designed for guests of UNA Esperienze, UNAHOTELS and UNAWAY hotels. This allows us to create and strengthen the recognisability of our standards in a core item such as the bed, which all our guests and customers can recognise as a distinctive element of quality. The competitive advantage is that we can guarantee the replicability of the bed system throughout Italy in each of our properties, ensuring excellent sleep quality. Beyond this, it must certainly be said that the ‘Made For UNA’ bed system is for us a multi-year investment, considering that our goal is to have it in all our hotel rooms, which currently number over 5,300. Finally, its uniqueness lies in the fact that it was developed specifically for UNA Group, which was possible by relying on a solid Italian company like Dorelan, which has spent years studying how to make sleep a competitive advantage for the hotel industry”.