Fever App Review: Will This Be Your New Go-To For a Boring Weekend?
How many times have you googled the phrase “good *insert cuisine here* restaurants near me”? I’ve been guilty of doing so on many vacations when looking for last-minute dinner plans. No longer are the days we consult a renowned journalism outlet or guidebook like Zagat or Lonely Planet to guide us for our sight-seeing and restaurant needs. Now, with an infinite number of apps like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Reviews or TheFork, traveling and restaurant experiences have been democratized. TripAdvisor gets 456 million active users a month, according to The Guardian. Restaurants are no longer at the mercy of just the well-known food critic, but instead are on their best behavior for anyone with a smartphone that could potentially besmirch their online rating. Now, apps are not only reviewing experiences, but creating them as well. One of these apps is Fever.
Created in 2014, the Spanish app Fever now reaches 12 million viewers per week. The site curates and creates events in 21 different cities worldwide including London, Paris, New York and London. They are co-headquartered in London and Madrid. I Skyped with Fever representative, Santiago Santamaría Soler, who is based in Madrid. He explained the Fever app and website is broken down into three sectors: the marketplace (their curated experiences from independent companies), SEO (Secret Media Network), and their exclusive events (created by Fever). Some of their curated events partner with major companies like AccorHotels to sell concert tickets. Fever receives a percentage of revenue from these partnered sales.
Fever Website, Image Credit: Leila Roker
Santiago Satamaría Soler shared that their most successful experiences are actually the Fever Original Events. Specifically, their Candlelight events, which are live music performances lit by Candlelight, which sells 2,000 tickets a day worldwide.
Santamaría Soler noted that their Candlelight events are so successful because they “have found a marketplace with millennials. By making the selling point the venue and the culture, it makes something as “posh” as classical music more accessible to younger audiences.” They also have gained a lot of traction for their themed event “Mad Hatter: Gin and Tea Party”, which is an Alice & Wonderland themed event. It started in New York, but is now offered in London and Paris as well.
I tried one of the Fever App’s partnered events to see how seamless this collaboration is for the customer. I chose Le Cheese Geek, a cheese and wine tasting venue in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement. I purchased my ticket through the Fever website, and followed their confirmation email’s instructions which informed me that I had to download the app to redeem my ticket, and follow the instructions. To redeem them, I needed to consult Le Cheese Geek’s website for their availability, and then contact them by email for my preferred date. It was a bit of a convoluted system, but luckily, Le Cheese Geek’s customer service was very quick and accommodating.
Table Setting, Image Credit: Leila Roker
The location was a very minimal white studio space on the ground floor of the small street, Rue Sainte-Marthe. I walked right in and was greeted by their Cheesemonger, Yoan. In the space’s center sat a long, wooden table that included six place settings, accompanied with small informational brochures and workbooks to note the cheeses.
Cheeses being cut, Image Credit: Leila Roker
Yoan gave us a background on his five years in the cheese industry, as well as some basic vocabulary for us to note how to describe the flavor and feel of the cheese. The session tested the attendees’ senses. One cheese we tasted with a nose pincher to get an understanding for the feel. Another cheese was tested blindfolded for us to focus our attention on the taste. We tasted six cheeses in total including: Lingot de Cocagne Tarn, Herve, Comte and more. Each cheese was paired with a wine that either balanced, or brought out the cheese’s flavor. After our two and a half hour cheese tour around the different regions of France, we were invited to ask any lingering questions, or sample any leftover cheese.
Bread Basket, Image Credit: Leila Roker
Le Cheese Geek is a great experience, but cheese lovers will definitely want to come with an empty stomach. Although they come in sample sizes, Le Cheese Geek also provides sliced baguettes and seasonal bread, which makes it a hefty meal, to say the least.
Although I had no problem with the Fever App, considering the price was the same as Le Cheese Geek’s website, there is no real incentive to book through the third party app. It was a more convoluted process than booking directly with the company. However, if you plan on using the Fever App consistently, each booking earns users Fever Loyalty Points, which can be used as a coupon later.
To learn more about Le Cheese Geek visit lecheesegeek.com. Sessions are available in English or French. Le Cheese Geek's sessions vary according to language.
