What’s the Opposite of a Wake-Up Call? The Benjamin Introduces an End-of-Day Service

Work-down call.

Work-down call.

The hotel room telephone has a buggy whip quality to it. When was the last time you used it to check a flight, find out movie times or talk to someone outside the hotel?

But with a nod to National Sleep Awareness Week, March 3 to 10, one hotel has come up with a reason for guests to pick up the phone for something other than ordering room service or answering a wake-up call.

The Benjamin calls it the work-down call. Starting this week, road warriors can request a work-down call designed to remind them that it’s time to power down and get ready to sleep.  It’s the flip-side of a wake-up call.

The hotel suggests guests request the call for one hour before they plan to call it quits for the night, freeing up time to dial down and get in the mood for snooze.

That means turning off all electronics (ghost lights from TVs, laptops, even clock radios are stimulating) and switching to low-tech entertainments like reading a book (one with paper pages) or writing – not typing — in a journal. The hotel will also send up sleep inducers like a white noise machine or a dopamine-enriched bedtime snack of milk and PBJ on banana bread.

Sleep Awareness Week, incidentally, comes every year before the return of daylight savings time, or the dreaded spring-forward hour loss.  But the work-down call is here to stay.

The Benjamin, 125 East 50th Street at Lexington Avenue; 212-715-2500.

 

 

1 reply
  1. Sandy
    Sandy says:

    Neat idea. And you’re right about the sleep-disturbing digital buzz from the gadgetry in a hotel room, including those TV ghost lights.

    Reply

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