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NEW TECHNOLOGY CAN BE EXCITING , BUT HOTELS SHOULD CAREFULLY EXAMINE ITS IMPACT ON THE GUEST EXPERIENCE .
Contributed by JULIANA SHALLCROSS
Nowadays , it ’ s commonplace to find a tablet on the hotel room nightstand that allows guests to control room lights , adjust the temperature , open or close the blinds , and even order room service . But a few hotels are becoming early adopters of much more advanced technology . At Marriott International ’ s Aloft Hotels , guests can text requests to the front desk using |
emojis . Hilton Worldwide ’ s concierge butler , Connie , powered by IBM ’ s Watson cognitive technology platform , offers guests suggestions for activities . Several hotel brands are doing away with plastic keycards and enabling guests to use their smartphones to open the room door .
Yet is all this actually enhancing the guest experience ? If it takes a guest a few minutes to learn how the tablet controls the lamp on the nightstand , is that better than simply flipping a switch ? If mobile check-in requires guests to log into a special app each time they return to their rooms , is that better than using a physical key ?
Bjorn Hanson , a clinical professor at NYU ’ s Tisch Center for
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Hospitality and Tourism , says new technology can elicit positive reactions from guests , so long as it actually works . “ My research indicates that if a technology is an amenity — available and optional , not mandatory — most guests respond favorably ,” he says . “ If the technology is mandatory , or not totally user-friendly , the response can be overwhelmingly negative .”
Eric Marlo , global brand manager at Marriott International ’ s Aloft Hotels , says the brand will only consider a new technology if it enhances the guest experience in some way . Aloft vets a lot of the proposed technology in its Concept Room , based in Stamford , Conn . “ We do numerous amounts of testing on any one project
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prior to rolling it out to hotels to make sure that it performs up to our standards ,” Marlo says .
TEXTING FRONT DESK Arrive Hotels ’ first property , in Palm Springs , California , opened last spring with no telephones in the rooms . Guests simply text the hotel for whatever they need . Despite this move , Arrive founder Ezra Callahan is cautious to “ deploy technology just for the sake of technology .”
He notes that Arrive ’ s target demographic — the hyper-modern traveler , often a millennial — “ texting is almost their primary form of communication .” He believes text messaging lowers the barrier for guests to ask for something and actually helps them get more out of the
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hotel stay . “ You can do something on your own time , at your own pace , without having to make lame chitchat ,” he says . On the operational side , eliminating in-room phones saves infrastructure and maintenance costs .
As for keyless entry , Arrive is hoping to roll this out at its next two properties , set to open within a year and half . However , rather than using its current key card system , Arrive is considering installing keypad locks on the doors , with guests receiving the keypad codes via text at check-in .
“ We just don ’ t think using your smartphone is more convenient than an actual key . A physical key is going to beat the phone every time , even if just by a couple of seconds ,”
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