COMMENT
COMMENT | PETER HANCOCK
Want a nap?
There’s an app
for that
By PETER HANCOCK,
chief executive of Pride of Britain Hotels
W
hen discussing technology
third party agents and the consumers
technological advances happening themselves. Literally billions a year
fall into the trap of asking around us are centred on things that are being spent on advertising by the
what new devices are being adopted can be controlled with a smartphone. likes of Booking.com of which hotels
within the business, forgetting that Of course, development in one area are mere beneficiaries, or victims
customers bring their own bewildering can often spill over into other areas, depending on your point of view.
array of ‘solutions’ into the property a good example being batteries. The Soon we may see these disruptors
without us having to lift a finger. need to power heavy vehicles using displaced by even better apps and
I suppose an early example was re-chargeable batteries has led to websites that use artificial intelligence
the mobile phone itself, rendering massively greater capacity, meaning to bypass what is currently a pretty
vastly expensive BT systems almost cordless vacuum cleaners and who unfair regime in which commission
redundant. Maybe the TV will be the knows what else around the corner. plays too great a part in the results
next item on the scrapheap, although
So let us consider what hotels
served up to consumers. The march
screen size is probably important could benefit from and see if the of progress is unstoppable and
enough to keep good kit in place for a market listens and comes up with the almost all of it will happen with or
few years yet. So far guests continue goods, accepting we already have without our consent.
to rely on their hosts for hot water many labour-saving devices in the and food, at least. kitchen and the office. How about a who used his old-Etonian confidence
I was astonished to learn that machine that can make beds; or one to great effect, embracing new
some people use a mobile app to that silently re-stocks the bar during technology while sceptical of his
help them sleep, or to be woken at the night; a shower without those employees’ ability to master it fully.
the least disruptive time according to freezing initial seconds or light bulbs Anything that came out of a computer
their personal sleep pattern. This is that never need replacing? Surely such as an accounting spreadsheet,
just one example of a solution being these are the kind of advances we however innocent, sparked the same
found, using software, for a problem need more than tablets on which to response “you know what they say
we never knew existed. Meanwhile place a meal order than can be done about computers don’t you: garbage
the basics can be relied on to perfectly well face-to-face? in, garbage out”. What he encouraged
frequently fail, such as train services
16
My point is that nearly all of the
with hoteliers it is easy to
Surely the most transformative
I once worked for a publisher
us all to do was question “facts”
and the many conduits under our new technology affecting our and use our minds to find better
roads that have to be dug up again business is in hotel search and answers to problems. Sometimes
and again. Oh, and milk cartons that reservations. Yes, it does involve we succeeded, and those answers
are hard to open unless you’ve a pair systems within the property but most tended to come with nothing more
of pliers handy. of what’s required is in the hands of than a biro and a sheet of A4.
www.hotelowner.co.uk
December 2018