Getting Personal

Next generation entertainment systems provide tailored hotel marketing and customer-specific features.

By Rebecca Oliva, Technology Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 11/1/2003

Hoteliers are enhancing their guestroom entertainment

services with personalized features for their guests

and direct marketing for themselves. Already, a growing

number of properties are installing all-in-one, mega

television systems that provide everything from Internet

access to on-demand movies and the roomservice button.

While their primary purpose is for guest entertainment,

these elaborate systems also have added value as customer

relationship management (CRM) tools. Hotels can use them

to communicate with their guests and provide made-to-order

programming for a more personalized stay.

“This technology is helping hotels differentiate themselves from

other properties,” says Michael Squires, president of Softscribe

Inc., a hotel technology consultancy based in Atlanta. “That’s

what every guest wants—to be taken care of and recognized.”

The benefits, however, are not just for the guests.

Aside from the personal attention these new entertainment systems

bestow upon guests, some vendors have turned their focus to the property,

allowing hotels to customize television-based content as often as

they like—opening

up a whole new marketing avenue. “This is a marketing opportunity

that just hasn’t been there before,” Squires says. “I

think the branding potential is really very big.”

Making A Statement

In one of the hardest markets to get noticed, the new

Mandarin Oriental New York has succeeded. The 251-room

hotel, located in the AOL Time Warner Center, spared no expense to implement

a state-of-the-art entertainment system in its guestrooms. “What we are striving

to create is an ambience that is digitally delivered with surround

sound to provide the utmost quality to guests,” says Rudy Tauscher,

general manager,

Mandarin Oriental New York.

Each room features a customized digital entertainment

system with DVD/audio equipment, surround sound, a 29-in. (74-cm)

LCD screen in the main room and a 15-in. (38 cm) LCD screen in the

bathroom. David Heckaman, director of IT, says the hotel chose LCD

displays because they have three times more the pixel count than plasma

screens, making the picture clearer and sharper. “The investment will set us apart from our competition,” he

says. In addition to excellent pictures, LCDs last about

60,000 hours.

Custom-designed by Samsung, the technology was

made to accommodate hardware guests may bring such as video and digital

cameras or video-game devices. Guests are able to plug-and-play their

equipment easily without any reconfiguring. Each television is equipped

with General Dynamic’s

Intrigue® multimedia system, an interactive information and entertainment

system that delivers digital video-on-demand with DVD functionality

and high-speed Internet access through the television. It also offers

electronic concierge services, Web radio, music-on-demand and live or

on-demand fitness classes. With two HDTVs in each room, Tauscher says

the hotel invested in a large selection of high-definition entertainment,

including BMW Films, BBC, art-house films, Chinese and other Asian cinema,

as well as Hollywood movies and American television programs. All of

the content is stored on the hotel’s hard drive, which allows

the hotel to keep more programming in-house.

Each Experience Is Unique

Part of the reason Mandarin chose to implement such an

advanced system is because of the opportunities it

offers for personalization. By using its converged telephone network and

General Dynamic’s

system, the hotel has almost unlimited options to provide a completely

customized experience for guests. The convergence offers an integration

avenue for the hotel’s property management system, telephone

system and General Dynamic’s entertainment system. This integration

enables the hotel to “talk” to guests via the television

and telephone. For example, a returning guest could walk in his room

and find the mood music set to his pre-determined selection, the television

set with his channel preferences (in his native language) and the

Web radio displaying his hometown radio stations. “Usually you

have your phone system and your television system and they may pass

a little information back and forth but with this system, because

of the IT world, the convergence of phone and the network, they are

able to pass a whole lot more,” Heckaman says. “You can

set the preferences in your room and the system will

keep them on file.”

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group currently is working on offering a Web

portal to its priority club members where they can upload personal preferences

such as music, movies and television channels. Heckaman says in the

near future guests will be able to upload photos that can be displayed

on the LCD screens in guestrooms.

For now though, Mandarin Oriental New York is

making the most of its existing technology. “We are trying hard not to force technology

down guests’ throats,” Heckaman says. “We are using

it just to enhance their stay.” The hotel has taken full advantage

of the high-quality sound and picture with special features.

Guests can hear their voicemail messages over the sound system and display

their guest messages, in-bound faxes and e-mails on the

LCD screens.

Brand-Name Entertainment

Hilton Hotels Corp. recently deployed a new system from

LodgeNet Entertainment Corp., called SigNETure TV. The system combines

an entertainment and information center with a hotel marketing engine

to help direct the flow of discretionary guest dollars to activities

and services offered by Hilton.

Hilton’s brand management group worked closely with LodgeNet

to develop a system with a Hilton-branded appearance, according to Tim

Harvey, Hilton’s chief information officer. An interface with

Hilton’s proprietary common technology platform, OnQ, enables

each brand to deliver a television experience closely aligned with their

objectives. “The result is a branded, customized television experience

that will drive guest satisfaction and loyalty,” Harvey says.

The SigNETure TV system greets guests with a screen

that reinforces the Hilton experience. Each property can customize

its system to offer special F&B promotions, advertising campaigns or brand news. However,

the marketing power of Hilton’s television network offers the

flexibility to provide multiple, branded “touch points” throughout

the interactive television experience. For example, guests

can view a Hilton HHonors announcement on the Welcome Channel; see an

HHonors promotional message on the Hilton-branded Main Menu; or access

the HHonors Web site from submenus.

“The interactive television network we have introduced gives

hotels an unprecedented opportunity to market directly to guests within

the context of our brands,” says Dennis Koci, Hilton’s senior

vice president, operations support. “We anticipate that the customized

television interface and marketing links created for

each of our brands will play a key role in enabling us to achieve two

of our most important marketing objectives: promoting our brands and

hotel services, and giving guests the ability to instantly update their

CRM and HHonors profiles.”

Perhaps more significant than the SigNETure TV

platform extending the brand, is the large possibility for in-room

advertising. Homewood Suites by Hilton, an upscale extended-stay brand,

implemented the system in seven properties this year. Calvin Stovall,

vice president of brand marketing for Homewood Suites by Hilton, says

the system “is a

marketing department’s dream. At some point every guest is going

to turn on their television,” he says. “This is an opportunity

for us to convey the personality of our brand.”

Once the Welcome channel comes on the screen with

information about a promotion, guests have the option to click through

the television screen and go directly to Homewood’s Web site to book. “More

than anything, the functionality of guests being able to click through

to our Web site will change the way we do business,” Stovall says.

Since Homewood Suites offers limited food and

beverage service, Stovall says he also intends to use the system for

brand promotions. Special partnerships with other travel providers

as well as brand recognition will be “put in front of the consumer.”