When it comes to in-room technology, amenities like cable TV, on-demand movies and iPod docks are practically ancient relics.
Today’s guests expect just one thing from their hotel room — speedy and reliable WiFi so they can watch their favorite TV shows and movies, order food delivery and update their friends on social media – from their smartphone, laptop or both.
On top of the streaming devices, integrated mobile apps and keyless entry that have become en vogue, you can now throw robots and artificial intelligence into the mix.
At the Westin Buffalo in New York, Chip and Alexa help with guest requests. Chip, a robotic butler, can hand-deliver small items to a guest’s room while Alexa, Amazon’s virtual personal assistant called up through an Echo device, can give guests suggestions on what to do around town.
“It’s an easy, fun way for guests to request services, get recommendations without the hassle of picking up a telephone,” says General Manager Tom Long, who notes that the virtual interactions integrate with the hotel’s existing software programs and human staffers (yes, they still have those).
Hilton Hotels recently unveiled “Five Feet to Fitness” guest rooms equipped with workout machines (including an intimidating-looking cardio bike) and a digital “fitness kiosk” loaded with more than 200 workout videos. RLHC is rolling out Apple TVs in its Hotel RL guest rooms and allowing guests to check themselves in via iPads in the lobbies.
Part of the experience
Hyatt Hotels has evolved its World of Hyatt app beyond bookings and property information to enable guests to stream their own content to the guest room TV. Guests can text with the staff, as well as request items to their room and use keyless entry, all through the app.
“We really view personal devices as part of the travel experience. It is your stay companion,” says Jeff Bzdawka, Hyatt’s senior vice president of global hotel technology, stressing the importance of an integrated hotel app. “That device travels with you as you are coming to our property, as you are on our property, and as you are experiencing the city. It’s really our opportunity to stay connected to the guest.”
For Graduate Hotels, a boutique brand with nine locations near colleges and universities, technology is meant to add to the relaxed vibe that each hotel sets. To that end the hotel chain has put Bluetooth shower speakers in the bathrooms, a nod to the care-free days of college and singing in the shower. The hotels set up older tech like vintage arcade games, record players and even Guitar Hero in guest rooms and lobbies – which actually get the most comments from guests, says Julie Saunders, chief marketing officer of Graduate Hotels. The “cool tech things” like the Bluetooth speaker enhance the guest experience, “but it’s also on-brand for us to pay homage to those fun, vintage, and retro tech moments from the last few decades,” she says.
Of course, there can be pitfalls to fancy technology. For starters, not all guests understand how it all works, which means the staff has to show them. “It’s not necessarily intuitive for everyone” to figure out how the speakers work, Saunders says, “so we’re figuring out how to be able to message that correctly.” Graduate also trains staff on how to troubleshoot when a guest calls down and says the speakers aren’t working.
Keeping it simple
At the just-opened Dream Hollywood in Los Angeles, the hotel was careful not to “overload” the guest rooms. Guests can use their personal devices to stream content to the TV while iPads have replaced the in-room compendiums and allow guests to submit requests. The hotel also employs a room service tray sensor that detects a tray that’s been left in the hallway.
“We didn’t overload the rooms with technology, but we put things in there that are functional and going to be used,” says Ayo Akinsete, the hotel’s general manager.
Aside from user issues, the tech itself is prone to failure, especially if it’s just hit the market. Akinsete says his hotel won’t try anything out unless it’s been proven to work. And with good reason: A previous hotel he worked for installed expensive, high-tech guest room phones that never worked properly and ultimately needed to be replaced — at a cost of about a thousand dollars for each phone.
“With people paying such high room rates, we are not always going to be the first adopters,” he says of Dream Hollywood. “I want to see this work somewhere else before I put it in my hotel.”
Even technology that functions well can be costly to install and maintain. Hyatt’s Bzdawka stresses the importance of listening not just to guests but to the hotel’s owners and operators. Solutions are never rolled out, he says, without testing and careful decision-making.
“We ensure the hotels and the operators are ready to embrace the technology, utilize the tech and get the intended results and value,” he says.
So many choices
With all these new high-tech offerings and pros and cons for each, how should hotels go about choosing which ones to use? Jeremy Rock, president of RockIT Group, a hospitality technology consultancy, says it depends on a hotel’s appetite, and budget, for introducing new tech to its guests. He does caution hotels against keeping up with the Jones’ when it comes to deploying new tech — unless their brand is about being an early adopter or disruptor.
“The biggest distractor is when you offer technology and it doesn’t work or you need to troubleshoot it,” he says. “That has far more of a negative impact” than not having any cool technology at all.
However, Rock does believe the future of hospitality technology is mobile, and it will be controlled by the guest. “Guests bring their own content, guests want to book their own experiences and they want to interact when they want to interact,” he says.
Hyatt is counting on that with the new offerings on its mobile app. This way, Bzdawka explains, Hyatt is not forcing guests to use the hotel’s technology or learn a new one, but rather letting them use the technology they are already accustomed to using. Other high-falutin’ technology like AI is being explored, he says, but only to boost efficiency, not replace the human element.
“We’re not a technology company,” he says. “We are a hospitality company, and we need to make sure that we focus on that.”
Contributed by Juliana Shallcross