Room For Growth

Hoteliers are vying to give customers the choice of control for various services in guestrooms. And they are banking on technology to do this

- Pradeep S

Imagine a world where the room knows you and you know your room - that is what Hilton's CEO, Christopher Nassetta said while participating at the Skift Global Forum 2017 this October. At the event he revealed that the hotel chain is currently testing a ‘smart room’ that will be connected to a computer system. The company is expected to roll out this personalised service offering sometime next year.

Now this might sound very futuristic, but honestly, it banks of sifting through a lot of information that the hotel chain anyway gathers by way of its Hilton Honors loyalty program. Registered guests often share information about their room, meal, linen, and even lighting, bedding and entertainment preferences prior to check-in. The hotel’s data analytics team can use it to automatically enhance the guest’s stay experience, which in turn will result in improving customer loyalty.

World over, hotels are augmenting the service offerings in guest rooms in a bid to make these spaces technologically relevant and smart, and attract the next generation of travellers. This is the age group that is largely accustomed to hightech personalised features, since most of them live in smart and connected homes. Hence, hotels are wooing them with personalised elements like mood lighting, temperature control, entertainment choices, F&B preferences in the mini-bar, etc.

Hilton is amongst one of the many hotel chains globally that offers keyless entry to all of its Hilton Honors customers, where the guest’s smartphone is used as the key. Marriott International is the other organisation that offers keyless entry via mobile devices.

And if you thought that keyless entry was the extent that hotels are going to ensure that their guests have a convenient stay, well, think again. In-room automation is going places, literally, with the entry of digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri!