Lift music that grates on the nerves

Sadly, it seems the professional trio that provides relaxing background music at dinner or dance music over afternoon tea is almost a thing of the past. There are only a few places left where you can enjoy the performance of a trio of musicians like these, usually elderly men, who it seems are almost always Hungarian.

We’ve heard that these musicians can still be found at some grand old hotels, like the Waldhaus Sils in Switzerland. They are genuine virtuosos with one key advantage over the DJs and playlists that disrupt the peace and quiet in 73.5% of hotels: they aren’t annoying. Because even if you don’t like all the songs in their repertoire, at least you are seeing some true professionals at work – a pleasure that is hard to find nowadays.

What’s the complete opposite of professionally performed hotel music? A playlist compiled without any real thought whatsoever. It is usually put together by the most junior member of staff, who may also be in charge of the hotel’s social media presence. Whether it’s for a lack of time or motivation, they often leave the task to some streaming platform. The algorithm then plays what could be called a form of background noise (if we’re being kind), from dusk ‘til dawn. It’s like lift music that grates on the nerves.

In reality, hotels should be places where human beings take care of other human beings; not where employees take care of customers. This would result in music that is genuinely a good fit for the environment – in other words, music made and selected by humans. And to all the fans of artificial intelligence out there: of course, AI is already capable of composing music. But try programming an algorithm that plays music as erratically and ingeniously as, say, Jimi Hendrix. We wish you luck!

Which brings us to Bikini. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Hungarian jazz trio – not because we don’t appreciate their music, but because Hungarian jazz trios weren’t exactly part of the hippy music scene in the 60s. Unlike Jimi Hendrix, for example. So, here at Bikini, we have put together a playlist that perfectly reflects our people and our hotel. Admittedly, we used Spotify to do it. But we did it with the exact same love and attention to detail that the Hungarian violinist at Waldhaus Sils gives his instrument. Because, to us, professionalism is everything – especially when it comes to music.