find a potential partner, (prior to their
purchase by Marriott) to work with
their technology innovation team to
install ten rooms at the Aloft Santa
Clara in California and Aloft Seaport
Village in Boston respectively. This
installation, using Siri, was innovative,
fun and exciting. These rooms are still
installed today with this technology
enabling the hotels to charge a
premium for their use. We have now
successfully integrated with Amazon
Alexa and will shortly be launching
our own DigiVoice – the world’s first
commercial hospitality based voice
activated room controls.
DIGIVALET HAS COME TO BE
KNOWN FOR ITS CONTINUAL
INNOVATION – WHAT
HAVE BEEN SOME RECENT
INNOVATIONS THAT ARE
EXCITING THE INDUSTRY?
Firstly, I would like to emphasize
that DigiValet was the first company
in the world to bring an iPad based
guest room solution to market. As a
matter of fact, we did this in 2008
with an iPod Touch two years before
the iPad was launched. Having then
successfully launched the world’s first
full-featured iPad based guest room
solution in 2010, we gained immediate
credibility and superior market share,
becoming the most reviewed guest
room solution on TripAdvisor.
Following on our success and
ongoing enhancements since
the launch of our first
iteration, we continued
with yet another first,
that of being the
first company in
the world to
successfully
launch
voice-
activated
guest room
controls in a hotel.
We were hand-picked by
Starwood, after a global search to
Mood lighting, themed wake up
and drapes slowly opening to a set
wake up are other innovations that
we are proud of. This leads me into
personalization – at the luxury and
ultra-luxury level where more than
80% are returning guests, hotels
today put tremendous effort into
remembering their guest preferences
– our technology makes this seamless
for a hotel, whether it be their desired
room temperature, pillow preference,
TV channels or dining requests.
In addition to the above, additional
excitement to come over the next
few months will be conversational
UI, augmented reality and facial
recognition. Integrated door
locks whereby the
guest room
“wakes up” upon the initial entry by
the guest to their room as opposed to
via the hotels PMS which is currently
the norm across our industry.
Very simply at this level of luxury,
different guests want different things
and most, if not all current systems
available in hotels are “cookie-cutter”
– DigiValet enables complete guest
differentiation.
We will also be bringing to market
some exciting lobby technology taking
us out of the guest room for the first
time and utilizing our superior in-room
iPad technology, slightly modified, for
the lobby.
WHAT KIND OF HOTELS ARE
GOOD CANDIDATES FOR
DIGIVALET?
Any hotel that is looking to
differentiate themselves through
technology is an ideal candidate.
DigiValet has something for everyone
in this regard which is yet another
factor that makes us so unique.
Whether the hotel is a retrofit or
new build, large casino property or
small luxury boutique hotel, our
comprehensive, feature-rich platform
can be customized to suit the specific
requirements of the hotel.
WHAT DOES DIGIVALET DO
DIFFERENTLY THAT SETS IT
APART FROM THE REST?
Firstly, we have over one
hundred in-house
engineers
working on our
technology and
hotel customer’s
needs. This results
in our ability to work
faster and innovate
quicker thus delivering
on our customer’s
specific needs in a time
frame no one else can
meet. (The Starwood voice
rooms are a classic example
of this).
ILHA 29