CONCIERGE iCANDY
From tablet check-ins to swipe-
screen checkouts, hotels are integrating technology at every step. At several properties, such as Stockholm’s Clarion Hotel, guests use their smartphones to open rooms. Before arrival, they receive a text with a link to online check-in and an electronic room key. Meanwhile, virtual
concierge
services are spreading, with apps providing guests instant access to services inside and outside the hotel. Peninsula Hotels’ tablets and touch- screen wall panels offer a wide range of services pre-set from 11 languages. At the InterContinental Miami, guests in the lobby can call up the drink menu and flag down a server using a touch screen on the coffee tables. The Park Hyatt Tokyo and Park Hyatt Seoul give guests free access to more than 2,300 newspapers on their smartphones or tablets.
But as well as enhancing guests’ experiences, hoteliers are increasingly utilising this technology to
improve profit margins.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
It may seem obvious that the hospitality business is keen on the loyal family market, and indeed many hotels offer enticements from gourmet baby food at one end of the spectrum to teen discos at the other. But some types of niche hotels currently attempting to woo families may seem surprising. Take New York’s sophisticated Mark,
uptown bolt-hole The which
is enticing yummy mummies with its customised Maclaren strollers, goodie bags from Zittle’s toy emporium, and family
suites with connecting doors.
Or the stylish retreat St. Regis Aspen Resort, which has turned its heated
May Fair Hotel, for example, claims a significant spike in sales since guests received in-suite iPads to access room service and book spa trips. Hoteliers are also using discreet IP cameras with embedded analytics to measure traffic and evaluate performance in bars, restaurants and spas. Some even improve their inventory management and
room London’s preparation speed by
attaching RFID tags to linens, so that when laundry carts pass sensors, the number of items inside is displayed.
outdoor pool into kid-friendly zone, with foam shapes and beach balls, and has even refashioned cooking on outdoor fire
pits into a child-friendly
providing pre-dinner trays of raw cookie dough.
Four Seasons Safari Lodge—
the company’s first property in sub- Saharan Africa—is offering the even unlikelier sounding kid-friendly luxury safari. The hotel offers all sorts of activities, even enlisting the Maasai tribe to run the Kids Club, where they can make beaded jewellery, search for rock iguanas or prepare an infrared camera to spot night visitors. Then
there is the European
boutique-meets-family-wonderland. Set apart from the other pristine areas of the chic Borgo Egnazia in Puglia— where Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel married—are indoor and outdoor pools, a children’s club and cinema
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Now perhaps the ultimate
technology for both guest satisfaction and cost management has arrived. The Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California is to use robots to deliver towels, water bottles, toothbrushes and other items to rooms. The robots will use Wi-Fi, sonar, lasers and cameras to navigate corridors. Steve Cousins, the hotel’s CEO, says: “It’s very novel and I think it’s
the future.” Let’s hope they can press the lift buttons. - BF
activity,
and kids-only restaurant and cookery school. Another grown-up hotel, Scotland’s Gleneagles, has a solution for golfers and outdoors types with kids in tow. The Zone is an unsupervised lounge filled with bean bags and leather sofas, Sony PlayStations, table football, pool table, a sound system and WiFi. For parents of more independent kids, London’s St James’s Hotel & Club has a
dedicated concierge to introduce
younger guests to some of the capital’s attractions. - BF
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