High-tech hotels: The new age of hospitality?

Welcome to 2015. While it’s not quite what the Back To The Future movies imagined it to be (yet), hotels are more than ever using new and available technology to give guests a better stay. We’re talking about controlling the lighting to suit your mood, streaming your personal content onto the big screen from the comfort of your hotel bed, having your needs and wants customised at the touch of an app and opening your room door with only your phone. You could even have your very own R2-D2 of sorts — a robot butler that opens the elevators, helps you navigate around the hotel and even sends you the extra towels you need.

It’s not science fiction — these are already available. Take German switches and systems manufacturer Jung, which has been customising lighting and electronic system solutions for hotels. Recently in Bali, the company presented its KNX technology — used in luxury hotels such as W Retreat Bali and Alila Villa Soori. It is an intelligent and universal control system for lights, temperature, blinds and shutters. At the Alila Villa Soori spa for example, the lights can be adjusted to your optimal comfort. Over at W Retreat Bali, Jung has designed switches that state “read”, “mood” and “sleep” for easy access to creating the different lighting moods for your room. There are also switches that allow you to plug devices ranging from Apple TV to thumb drives or your tablets to stream your own content onto the big screen and watch your favourite movies.

For design-conscious hotel guests who love boutique and designer hotels, Jung launched the Le Corbusier range in April, which consists of a set of switches that keep to the renowned French architect’s colour system (in vibrant shades such as red and blue).

“We have the exclusive rights to use these colours for switches ... The response has been very good,” said Jorg Thormann, export area manager, A JUNG GmbH and Co KG. “The Le Corbusier name opens a lot of doors. We see that it’s great for colourful hotels or those with special wallpapers and we’re in talks with some hotels to use it.”

Other systems developed by Jung for hotels include Smart Remote 2, which allows you to control your room’s systems via an app even before you enter it. That technology is already in use in luxury residences, and Jung Asia’s general manager Clement Koh feels this could be the next leap for luxury hotels to allow guests to better distinguish themselves, given that mobility is now essential to many travellers.

It is something Terence Ronson, managing director of Pertlink, an IT consulting firm for the hospitality industry who was here for Singapore Tourism Board’s TravelRave last November, agrees with. He posited that mobility is the biggest hospitality trend and what is set to be a game-changer are wearables, such as Google Glass or the iPhone watch.

“I am very bullish that wearables will find a home in hotels,” he said. “Wearables of one sort or another have been used in hotels for decades, starting with a beeper or pager, then walkie-talkies and now, mobile phones/tablets. What needs to be overcome is the right form factor for the device — such as the popular watch variety and for the apps to be developed.”

The Starwood hotel group, which manages brands such as W, Le Meridien, Westin and Aloft, has already developed an app for Google Glass, where you can use voice search on the app to look for any hotel within the group. What’s more impressive is that the app will send you notifications and any relevant infomation 48 hours before your stay.

Another initiative the group rolled out in November last year was its keyless check-in at selected W and Aloft hotels. It lets you unlock your hotel room door with your smartphone through Bluetooth technology. The app also allows you to customise demands such as stocking your rooms with your preferred pillow or reserving an in-room massage upon arrival. Fellow luxury hotel brand, the Ritz Carlton, also launched an app last year that offers exclusive local content, concierge tips, real time service requests and even photo enhancements. The Travel Poster feature on the app allows guests to use special filters and effects to create vintage-looking travel posters which they can share on social media.

Another innovation to be excited about is the cyber hotel associate, affectionately known as A.L.O.. The Botlr (robot butler) was first introduced in Aloft Cupertino in the United States and will be seen in nearly 100 Aloft hotels this year, including Aloft Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. It moves at the pace of a brisk walk, and can hustle up toothbrushes, smartphone chargers, snacks and even the morning paper to your room in about two to three minutes. It can work tirelessly around the clock, and yes, Botlr even accepts tips — by tweeting #meetbotlr.

Ronson feels all these advancements are great, as both hotel employees and guests benefit from increased efficency and better levels of service; he neverthless felt the hospitality industry should not get too carried away.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the hotel business is a traditional business and delivering service for the most part has to be done with real people,” he said.

“The tech is an aide, a tool to achieve this — and not necessarily a replacement.”