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 ,
“ GUESTS BRING THEIR OWN CONTENT , GUESTS WANT TO BOOK THEIR OWN EXPERIENCES AND THEY WANT TO INTERACT WHEN THEY WANT TO INTERACT .”
JEREMY ROCK , PRESIDENT , ROCKIT GROUP
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 .”
September 2017 hotelsmag . com 47