TECHNOLOGY
A TO-DO
LIST
ON YOUR SLEEVE
SMARTWATCHES , ACTIVITY TRACKERS AND EVEN JACKETS ARE PROMISING TOOLS , BUT THE LOGISTICS AREN ’ T QUITE THERE YET .
Contributed BY JULIANA SHALLCROSS
Imagine this : A housekeeper enters her first room to clean for the day . She wears a smartwatch that gives her a checklist of what to clean . While she ’ s at work , the smartwatch dings with an alert , letting her know that the guests in the next room on her shift have checked out .
When she ’ s finished , she taps her smartwatch and marks the room as cleaned . Then she views the status of the next room : Thanks to an electronic Do Not Disturb sign , she can tell if a guest wants privacy or housekeeping service .
Each time she finishes a room , she checks it off on her smartwatch . In one room , she sees that a light won ’ t turn on . Using the smartwatch , she phones maintenance to have them check it out .
All the while , the smartwatch keeps tabs on how many steps it ’ s taken her to clean a single room . That data is stored in the cloud , and at the end of the month the housekeeping director reviews the activity statistics and decides to add a supply cabinet on each floor to make it easier and faster for housekeepers to access .
WEARABLE ’ S POTENTIAL Wearable technology is full of efficiency potential for hotel employees , not just in housekeeping but room service , F & B , maintenance , the bell team and the front desk . Mehmet Erdem , an associate professor at UNLV Hospitality College and president of the International Hospitality Information Technology Association , says wearables are even more attractive than tablets , which are currently performing many of the above duties . Using a wearable such as a smartwatch instead
January / February 2018 hotelsmag . com 47