By Simon I’Anson, Vice President Marketing, Swisscom Hospitality Services
It’s been a long day for your guest. She wants to turn off the lights, draw the curtains, lower the blinds and set her room temperature to a comfortable 19.5 degrees. Just before browsing the on-demand film offering, she wants to set her wake up call for 06:00 the next morning, to be awoken to the gentle sounds of the rainforest. She has a choice – either stay in your hotel, where the integrated system approach lets her do this at the touch of a button, or stay somewhere else where it doesn’t!
We see a growing number of innovative hoteliers actively empower their guests by putting all these features (and more) directly into their guest’s hands (via mobile, a tablet or other devices). In doing so, they not only create a strong “wow” effect, but they also allow a time poor guest to really focus on what she needs to do in the hotel in the most efficient way.
The use of Internet enabled devices continues to explode worldwide (4.8 Billion people own a mobile phone whereas only 4.2 Billion own a tooth brush). Technology is now a fundamental need playing an ever greater role in hotels – tying together guest technologies into a seamless, integrated user experience is now a critical part of a guest’s expectations. However delivering this user experience in such a way that any guest can pick it up in a second is the tricky part, as a lot of complexity needs to be managed, as sometimes many applications need to talk to one another, and be converged successfully on the hotel IT network.
Integration and intuitive design are two key concepts in the current technology debate. On the one hand, hoteliers and their guests are expecting solutions that bring TV, Internet, telephony and mobile communication into a comprehensively managed IP network environment. On the other hand it is clearly imperative to present such an integrated environment in an intuitive and branded way so that it blends into your service philosophy appealing to all guest segments, including those skeptical of new technology.
This expectation from guests is already firmly established in our industry: “People are familiar with smartphones and tablet applications and therefore adoption using those devices rather than a television is more likely,” says Bryan Steele of Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the global trade association run by and for hotel IT executives. “Many people already use apps on these devices to control their devices at home.”
This insight has led certain hoteliers to adopt new technologies to allow guests to control everything in the room from one device. Lights and room ambiance, the television, temperature and air conditioning, as well as the window blinds and curtains. All these features can be packaged on top of the ‘native’ functionalities that a contemporary media tablet or mobile device provides, such as surfing the web, communicating with friends through social media and using other Internet-based applications.
Two forerunners in this space are the Eccleston Square Hotel employing a customised iPad to deliver a wide array of hotel services and the new citizenM London Bankside hotel. For their Bankside hotel citizenM commissioned Swisscom to develop a custom designed media tablet with built in hotel functionality to be deployed in every guest room.
Through the tablet the hotel services are brought together in a citizenM branded environment:
- Access to the lighting and room ambiance
- Access to the room controls (temperature, A/C)
- The TV control (replacing the old fashioned remote control)
- Wake-up calls and mood settings
- Free access to a library of videos and music channels
- Free high speed access to Web and social media.
The tablet is designed as a hotel device, serving as a hotel brochure and presenting all hotel services in citizenM’s unmistakable style, while dynamically adapting its content to the guest’s language and service settings. The application went live on time for the hotel’s opening, and ever since guests and the hotel management have been more than positive about this innovation.
As Michael Levie, Founder and Chief Operations Officer of citizenM hotels explains: “We wanted to use technology as an enabler to enhance the guest experience. Providing the guest with a tablet that allows them to steer and manage all aspects of their room and have all internet offers available at their fingertips. It is a surprise to most guests and over delivers on expectations. We have become accustomed to all the technology and devices available in our day-to-day lives, Swisscom as our partner allows us to offer this worry-free to our guests.”
Obviously, there has been complex integration work happening behind the scenes, which remains invisible to the guest and even the hotelier. Suffice it to say that Swisscom has designed, built and managed a converged IT infrastructure for citizenM London Bankside that combines some of our prime guest room applications including IPTV, video on demand, Telephony and Wireless Internet access, and a number of third party applications such as door locks, lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
What is more Swisscom has provided an interface for all these systems to speak to the hotel’s Property Management System. This way, citizenM can establish certain business rules such as: Open the curtains and activate air conditioning with the client’s arrival, reduce heating and turn off the lights upon checkout of the client, and so on. Finally, taking personalisation one step further, citizenM hotels can store guest digital profiles (room temperature, room ambiance, preferred TV and music channels) in their Property Management System and re-load these for repeat visits, be it in London or any another citizenM location. What could be more rewarding for the loyal hotel client than recreating her fully personalised room after a long day of business or travel, before she even steps into it?
Meanwhile, the Web is teeming with enthusiastic guest reviews. From the 100’s of great hotels in London including all the 5 star options the thermometer of what’s hot and what’s not has to be Tripadvisor.
By allowing guests to review their experience of stay Tripadvisor enables people to look and book hotels based on the recent feedback and rating of aggregated Guest Experience.
Recently opened citizenM London Bankside is currently ranked 32nd of 1,085 hotels in London and as a 3-star hotel that is quite some achievement. Rankings fluctuate so to see the current rank of citizenM London Bankside click here.
One recent guest from Haywards Heath posted this comment on Tripadvisor.com: “The room had a tablet which was wonderful to set the mood and control the room. The room also came with a power shower, free wifi and movies. The hotel in general was a real breathe of fresh air.” And for all steadfast technology skeptics, the following review maybe of interest: ”Don’t worry; it’s so easy to use even a fat fingered touchscreenaphobe like me got the hang of it pretty quickly” (Ivor, 27 June 2012).
Another simply stated – The little touches like being able to control the lighting, tv and blinds all via a tablet device was brilliant, I had fun changing the lighting while my other half was in the shower!
Technology can be a real service differentiator. Just do it right, and your guests will love you for it.
Simon l’Anson is Vice President, Marketing for Swisscom Hospitality Services. He has over 12 years of experience working with buyers and C-level decision-makers in the Hospitality industry.
Simon joined Swisscom Hospitality Services in 2003 as a Sales Manager for the UK & Ireland. He then managed the company’s Strategic Accounts for several years before being promoted to Vice President Sales.
He has been leading the company’s geographic expansion to 40+ countries as well as its strategic repositioning as a comprehensive IT services provider to the global hotel industry.
Prior to Swisscom, Simon I’Anson was Sales Director for Hotel Buyer Ltd., and a Category Buyer at J. Sainsbury Plc. Simon I’Anson earned a B.A. Joint Hons degree from the University of London.