Technological advancements have brought almost everything within our reach. This applies to the hotel and travel industry as well. The rise of technology has led to various innovation and one term appearing out of many innovations is “Smart Hotels”. It is this idea of Smart hotels that have been explored and explained in this post.
Smart hotels are pretty much set to be the future of hotels. We already have some examples of hotels which are fit to be brought under the category of smart hotels.
Let’s get into a quick journey to the world of smart hotels of the future now!
Let’s begin with defining the smart hotels first.
What are Smart Hotels?
Smart hotels can be said to be the future of hotels. It is the type of hotels that make every effort to give maximum control to the customers.
Service is paramount in the hospitality industry and smart hotels keep customer convenience as a top priority.
It is the use of smart technological hospitality innovation that makes this possible for the smart hotels to be able to be tagged as Smart.
An explainer image by Google is a perfect start to understanding how Smart Hotels work. The below image will give a better idea on the definition and working of smart hotels.
Have a look!
As the image above explains, a customer goes through the steps something like below:
- Customer books a hotel room online
- Packs up and goes to that hotel
- Logs in on the Smart Hotel app and chooses the room he had booked
- No hassles of collecting keys or filling papers
- Customer opens the door using the smart key from the smartphone itself
- Sets the lights (and other features) to his mood using the app
- Customer sends food order and other instructions on the app and lays back comfortably.
Smart Hotels have limitless opportunities in future to ensure the guest experience is taken to the next level.
The features in a future Smart Hotel would cover a lot of the below:
- Virtual butler
- Robot as room service boys
- Virtual reality travel experience from room
- Virtual Concierge
- App-based services on and off hotel premises
and many more such features to ensure customers have a hassle-free and pleasant stay.
Smart hotels work and rely on a few crucial things like the interaction of Galileo board, bay trail server and app on the smartphone.
Examples of Smart Hotels
Smart hotels are the hotels which focus on the new hospitality technology trends and insights to create smart hotel room technology for their customers.
There are various hotels around the globe which have already achieved the reputation of being Smart hotels.
We present here examples of 4 smart hotels, the features of which are detailed in a blog post by hotelier academy.
1. Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, USA- The resort users technology to recreate the experience of Las Vegas within the resort. The thing about a smart hospitality amenity and you will find that right on your fingertips. The apps created by the resort give customers all the information they require regarding concerts, events etc. The most amazing part if that all the 2000+ rooms are equipped with a voice assistant (Alexa by Amazon) to control the ambience of the room, order food, housekeeping and more.
2. Yotel Hotel Singapore – This hotel satisfies the appetite for a sci-fi experience. From smart check in to smart beds and more. But the most surprising and amazing feature of service at this hotel is the use of robotics in the hotel. You can find robots serving room service and taking orders. It is these robots that helped the hotel win the technology excellent award in 2019. Amazing isn’t it?
3. W-Sentosa Cove in Singapore – Regarded as a Smart Hotel because of its architectural excellence and lighting. The really smart thing is to give control to the customers. Customers have control of the ambience they want to create or the music they want to experience. That’s something smart, isn’t it? You get the ambience that you want.
4. Eccleston Hotel Square, London – Now this hotel is smart for a different reason. It mixes the best of both worlds for the tourists. You get to experience the boutique architecture of the 19th century. But, for the rooms, the hotel is equipped with the best technology using apps and smart controls. Plus, the chatbots for booking is another addition to the list of technologies used by the hotel to create an unforgettable experience. So, for an experience from 19th to the 21st century, visit this Smart Hotel property.
Smart Hotel Rooms of the future Explored
In an interview with hospitality.org, Dr James Canton from the Institute for Global Futures explained what he and his leading think tank feels about the hotels of the future. Let’s see what he believes the Smart Hotel rooms of the future looks like in terms of the amenities they would have.
- Sensors attuned to guests
- Digitised room keys using facial recognition
- Touch screen surfaces everywhere
- Wireless temperature controls that are able to automatically adjust
- RoboButlers in hotel
- Morphing hotels that change based on consumer votes
and more. Isn’t this interesting?
So, the rooms of today would cease to exist in future with technology supporting the creation of smart rooms in smart hotels.
In one of its blog posts EHL, which is a leading hospitality school, explains how Smart hotel rooms will change the experience of the travellers. The future hotel rooms are certain to have facilities like automated concierge, sustainable rooms, smart in-room controls and app-based in-room entertainment.
According to the below image published on researchgate, this is how the smart hotel room of the future would look like in terms of amenities. Technology is eager to amaze us in the future with what it can do to enhance the experience of travelling and lodging.
Conclusion
We can safely mention that the future of the hospitality industry is bright for sure.
Hope you found our quick exploration of the Smart hotels interesting. We tried to define the smart hotel while giving a few examples of hotels of today that are close to the tag of smart hotels.
This article also covered some of the amenities that smart hotel rooms of the future would have.
With technological advancements sweeping industries across the world with fresh and creative innovation, the hotel industry is set to see new highs in customer service. Exciting times ahead for sure for the hospitality industry!
