EXCLUSIVE: These Hospitality Execs Know Who Belongs at the Table

by · WWD
Rosa van Wissen and Sascha LupkerCourtesy of Inside Membership

BE OUR GUEST: Top-tier restaurants eager to attract the fashion crowd have a new, high-tech tool at their disposal: an app that serves up a selected crop of “culture shifters,” offering them complimentary meals — and eventually discounted hotel stays — in exchange for social media coverage.

The brainchild of Dutch hospitality executives, Inside Membership has already run a beta test in Amsterdam across 81 venues, and it hosted a party Sunday night during Paris Fashion Week to coincide with its launch in the French capital, where 15 venues have already signed up.

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While influencer marketing generally relies heavily on reach, Inside puts more weight on audience quality, credibility, taste and “relevance.”

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“We are trying to focus on the people that shape culture,” said cofounder Rosa van Wissen, who also runs a hospitality-focused creative agency called Nitro.

“We really believe in quality over quantity,” echoed cofounder Sascha Lupker, who joined van Wissen for an exclusive interview. A former model and dancer, Lupker transitioned to VIP and guest relations management, recently working for Silencio.

Consider Inside Membership a slick, Uber-like alternative to traditional PR agencies, streamlining the process of bookings, content creation and measurement of ROI, since it’s all enabled by proprietary technology.

The Inside Membership app.Courtesy of Inside Membership

Meanwhile, van Wissen and Lupker are the gatekeepers for members — many hand-selected, others weeded out from hundreds of applicants — and in charge of quality control for published content.

Part of Inside’s ethos is keeping the identity of its hand-selected influencers and establishments confidential.

Participating restaurants, and soon hotels, pay a subscription fee to Inside, while memberships are free for the selected happy few diners and holidaymakers. Each establishment determines the experiences offered to Inside members and his or her plus-one.

Van Wissen and Lupker hope to expand the service to such fashionable cities as London, New York, Milan and Los Angeles, and are eyeing emerging destinations like Turkey and Morocco, too.

Their fellow cofounders are Timo Bierens, head of operations, and Roy Scheepens, head of technology.