Mr. Millar

Technology

The Future Techno Guest: Technology is the Most Demanded Amenity in the Guest Room

By Ian Millar, Deputy Director of INTEHL, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne

Technology has reached an evangelical level; a recent documentary by the BBC has shown that some people today react to technology the same way some people react to religion. Seeing photos of apple products or the Google logo activated parts of their brain that is only stimulated by attending church and praying. And people addiction to technology is only growing and very fast.

I have heard some people say that the younger generation or gen “y” is technology savvy. I would have to disagree, they are technology dependant. Try to take away a 20 year old person mobile phone and internet access. You can’t do it, they would effectively stop “breathing”, online = oxygen.

So the future will bring us technology dependant guests who view this as a religion. Just look at the apple example. When we were young we would go camping, round the fire. Now people still go camping, but do this outside the apple store waiting to get the latest apple technology.

So how can a hotel prepare for this ? What will the typical hotel guest look like in the future, how can exceed their expectations, and this is a very difficult answer to give. But before I tackle that I would also like to mention in the nicest possible way, that as an industry we are not good with technology. We have always been a reactive and not a proactive industry when it comes to technology. We take a lot of examples from other industries (the airline industry maybe being the best example) and react years later. And this mindset needs to change before we can ever get technology right for our guests.

To quote Jeremy ward Senior VP IT Kempinski: “The role of the IT Manager is changing from being a reactive "Mr. Fix-IT" to a business enabler and that hotels rely on IT for almost all of its operations and that 100% of its revenue will be processed over the IT systems. Therefore investment needs to be made into the IT resources not just the software and hardware”.

And if we look at the recent successful hotels, citizenM would have to be a great example, and that hotel concept is based a lot on technology, its Glasgow property is ranked N° 1 on tripadvisor (25th may 2011), its Amsterdam property won trendiest hotel in the world, again from tripadvisor 2 years in a row, and this from a concept that has no reception, you will not get a bowl of fruit or a chocolate on the pillow, but you can check out in 30 seconds. Look at the “W” concept from starwood, and although this article is not to promote any hotel, the best hotel I have personally ever stayed in, the arch in London, great hotel, great room, superb technology, but also great staff, and here lies the balancing point between technology and people, can technology ever replace humans, no!!, well maybe.

What kind of check in experience would a business traveler rather have after a trans Atlantic flight? A long tiresome check in with a poorly motivated and untrained member of staff, or a check in kiosk?

Linked with the fact that we cannot ignore the effect of general world technology and how that will impact our business, we know now that high internet charges to replace lost telephone revenues is not a sustainable model, traditional pay TV is one of the things on my “technology tombstone”, and just our general approach to technology. We still place lots of paper and envelopes in a guest room, but still maybe do not have internet, is it just me or when was the last time you wrote a letter in a hotel room, send e mail yes.

So where does all of this take us to the future techno guest, what and how do hoteliers need to be aware of to provide that “guest experience” they are always trying to create, because today technology is a major part of that experience.

I believe things will be very different in the coming years. Just how guests’ book rooms will be a starting point, it will all go online, I have recently seen a 3D booking engine where you can see the hotel rendered in 3D and actually see which individual room is available, and book that room, very similar to how we reserve our seats in planes. Without being too controversial, I believe that the reception desk / traditional check in will be different and the mobile phone will be the main way a guest interacts with the hotel. For those of you who like your statistics, research to guidance has shown there will be more apps available on android than apple store by the end of the year, at 425’000.

• Premier Inn hotels in the UK got £1m bookings from mobile app in three months.
• Google are activating 300’000 phones a day.
• 4 million phones a month are activated in India alone.

So once the room is ready the guest will receive his/her room number and go straight to the room. The phone will as is already being done become the door key, so no more plastic key cards. So now the guest is in the room, all the room technology will be linked to the CRM, so the room will set itself to the guest’s specifications. Before continuing research by J.D Power and associates, in June 2010, listed what as the top demanded in room amenity in all segments except mid scale limited service and trust me on this it is not bottles of shampoo. Wireless internet, it does not state if free or payable.

And this is probably the hot topic regarding guest facing technology. Should internet be free? Free sounds nice, personally I believe in the tiered bandwidth model, so you pay for what you use. Again this depends on the hotels market segment, but we need to remember that more and more we are using internet for other things, just that browsing. YouTube and Google TV will hit us soon, we already have Netflix, BBCi player, apple TV, and these services are putting enormous pressure on hotel networks. Even if we look at YouTube, 2 billion videos watched a day, with 35 hours of video uploaded to them each minute. But more videos are watched on facebook than on YouTube.

So with this pressure on the network, it still needs to work, free and it works fine, free and it does not because the hotel does not invest that is bad. Internet will probably end up free in all hotels. The use of the guest mobile or a tablet provided by the hotel will be used to control the room, lighting will be personalised for each guest, by colour choice, flat screen probably 3D enabled without glasses needed. For this ever important mobile phone, power mats incorporated in the desk, charging the phone using magnetic induction, so no more cables. I believe we will also get to the stage in the future where we will be able to control the room by voice, example “close curtains and put on ESPN”.

Skype, youtube and google movies will of course be integrated direct in the tv, so true net TV will be born. To maybe go one stage further, holograms will then make a presence. They have already been tried in some UK airports, but will get to the stage of our virtual concierge in the room as a hologram. Personally for me the best a hotel can give, is a fast check in, a great bed, and a rain shower. Talking of the bed, we will end up with a bed that at night rocks us to sleep, how nice that would be.

As of May 2011, Professor Ian Millar is the deputy director of INTEHL, the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at EHL. In addition to his BA Honours degree in International Hospitality Management from the University of Brighton, UK, he is a certified computer technician (Comptia A+). Professor Millar is also a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional – the first European to receive this qualification for hospitality professionals, which is awarded by HFTP (Hospitality Financial and Technical Professionals), a reputed international association which serves over 4,800 members across the world. Mr. Millar can be contacted at +41 21 785 11 74 or Ian.millar@ehl.ch Extended Bio...

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