W Hotel Doha Social Media Diamond Standard

Can a $30 lunch be the most enjoyable experience in eating and service and meeting people in 10 years of international business travel?? Absolutely, when it is the Express Lunch, from The Spice Market at the W Hotel Doha Qatar.

I am in Qatar with Matthew who is running a number businesses in the Middle East. Matthew had told about how good the value of the Express Lunch was at the W Hotel's Spice Market and also how well they "did" social media. So on Wednesday he took me to the W for lunch and it turned out to be one of the best experiences I have EVER had - the service, the meal and the "experience" of what Social Media Marketing could be.

Let me share the experience....

Lunch at W Hotel Doha

We arrived at 12.30 to what appeared to be a empty restaurant. As we had not booked we were shown to a meal setting at the bar... it was hard to believe there were no tables available but by 1.30 there wasn't a spare seat available.

Immediately we were seated and a SERVER [W's special name for waiters] by the name of EARTH explained to us the ordering choices and how lunch worked. I had been warned by a number of colleagues that I should order my customary glass of red as it was cheaper than Diet Cola at the W. EARTH expertly explained my choices and I was served a delightful Merlot from Chile for 40 QR [ about $Aus12 ] Diet Cola is by the way 30 QR.


The Express Lunch is 85 QR [$Aus 23] included an entree, a main and a desert. Ordering was fun and interactive and a Chocolate Cake was suggested as my desert. I challenged EARTH as to how good it was and he said "If you don't like it Sir, I will pay from my own money your meal." We exchanged a laugh.

Matthew asked how long before our meal would be served and EARTH said: "About 8 minutes before your Entree Sir"

Chocolate Cake Desert

Matt then tweeted about us being at the W and that he was with @WayneMansfield the Australian Social Media Expert. [mmm he is family and prone to exaggeration] He then asked me to observe how long it would take for the Hotel to acknowledge the Tweet - maybe 2 or 3 minutes!! Wow was my thought!

I took a photo of the bar where we were sitting with the trusty iPhone and posted it to twitter using Twitpick and started to enjoy my Atlantic Salmon... the best I can ever remember having eaten I might say. I tweeted "At the @WDoha great service great food great people how do they do that!"

Nadeche Kunz W Hotel

"Hello Mr Mansfield... thank you so much for your kind words..." a delightful young lady who I later found was Nadeche Kunz, the W Social Media Manager.

I was stunned... so I asked her "How did you know it was me??" And she replied: "From the photo you tweeted on Twitter I worked out where you were sitting.."

At this time the significance of my KLOUT SCORE of 71 [mmm I am a legend in my own lunch box] and number of followers [108k] wasn't known to Nadeche, because I asked if the program recognised everyone who tweeted about the W. She told me it was her job to monitor ALL social media comments and she had every manager from the hotel on BlackBerry Message to act instantly to good and bad feed back...

Nadeche called up my tweet on her trusty blackberry and checked my stats... 108k followers and she reacted "wow you are important...". I have been working hard to build my following and I was pleased to have 1,500! Nadeche then arranged for the floor manager to meet Matthew and me.

Conclusion: The W is committed to outstanding service, food and people, regardless of their influence. Remember I am commenting on the experience BEFORE it was realised that I was doing market research about the hotel and their social media strategy... the true "mystery shopper".

Earth and my 2nd Merlot

While Nadeche and I were chatting EARTH returned and said "Sir wasn't I right about the Chocolate cake?" to which I had to agree. "I can't pay for your meal sir but I can surely pay for your second glass of wine..." and without waiting for my permission proceeded to pour the second glass.

Rating: 10/10 and I don't believe I can say that about any previous experience at a major international hotel.

Hotel W Please Note: Nadeche needs the best equipment to do her social Media Job... iPhone and a Flip would be great!! BlackBerry is great for bbm's but not the best for Social Media. [There Nadeche I did keep my promise..]