H OT E L S
A lot of times, these devices are being funded through ad dollars, so I was constantly being fed messages that I didn’t care to look at,” he says.
Butt adds that since telecommunication costs have reduced dramatically over the past decades, most people would be happy to buy a SIM card for their own device and are “not too keen on having to carry a third-party device for a single purpose only”.
Similarly, Rosenberger of the JW Marriott Hong Kong, which doesn’t use Handy smartphones, says he doesn’t see the point. “The way tech develops, I believe people don’t need it anymore. T ey carry their own phone. Technology is all in here and it’s easy for me because I know how to use it. You have wifi here and a lot of free wifi throughout Hong Kong. I think there’s really no need to provide it,” he says.
However, Chong of Orchard Hotel Singapore says Handy phones “provide great convenience” and have been “a welcome addition” to his hotel. “It seems to be a bit of an expectation in Singapore these days, when you’re at a certain calibre. Portable wifis these days are spotty at best,” he says.
Hi Inc spokesperson Ellin Choy says Handy smartphones have “proven to improve customer satisfaction as they increase partner hotels’ review ratings on TripAdvisor by an average of 0.3 points”.
DIGITAL MENUS
At the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, diners in the hotel’s steakhouse can choose their wines using a tablet device installed with wine selection software Wine Guru by Vinu. Diners search using criteria like “year range”, “price range” and “rating” to find the wine that best suits them. “You’ve probably seen people pull out their phones to research wines. It frustrates restaurants because it takes a long time for guests to fi nd wines by just hunting and pecking, searching around looking for information.
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
With Vinu, it’s a closed-loop resource with all the information a guest needs to effectively make that informed decision,” says Paul Saper, CEO of Sponsiv Digital, the creator of Vinu.
However, Saper stresses that a human touch remains important, and that Vinu and a sommelier can have a symbiotic relationship. “It’s important for the guest to have that relationship and trust from a sommelier. We’re not eliminating that; we’re enhancing the sommelier’s presentation with a visual canvas with which to present the wines,” he says.
“Sommeliers use it as a tool and then for [ordinary] servers, they oftentimes use it as a crutch because it has information about the wines that they simply don’t have direct recollection of – it’s hard to remember tasting notes for 150 wines.” The Sherwood’s von Hake says implementing digital menus has been one of his hotel’s most successful technological innovations. “You have a short-term investment that creates flexibility in menus: you have more information available on the device – guests can read about the ingredients and get information if they have dietary issues,” he says.
FROM LEFT PAGE: Handy smartphone; screengrabs of Vinu’s Wine Guru app
Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels’ Chan says digital menus are also good for the elderly, as they provide a bright menu in dimly lit locations, while the downside is that they are “a little bit bulky and not everyone is tech savvy enough to be comfortable using them”. Alexander Wassermann, general manager of the Intercontinental Grand Stanford, says that for his hotel’s signature restaurants – Italian restaurant Theo Mistral by Theo Randall and Chinese restaurant Hoi King Heen – electronic menus might not be appropriate. “I think the concept would not fit [our restaurants].
At Theo’s place, it’s organic, it’s farm to table – it’s about digital detoxing; we’d rather people put their phones away.” BT
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