The Greatest Asset is Not Your Room

While coffee machines, Dyson hair-dryers, Egyptian linen with obscenely high thread-counts, and all the creature comforts provided by hotels these days are great, some of the other tech that 'features' in properties can for guests, be a bit confusing. Instead of making life easier, certain 'features' could actually complicate things.

Tech Should Be a Help - Not a Hindrance

'Environmentally Friendly' Air Conditioning Systems?

I have experienced certain air conditioning systems in some properties where a movement sensor in the room would shut your AC unit off if it sensed no movement. For someone who sleeps pretty deeply like myself, this annoying system made getting a good night's sleep painful to say the least.

Kiosk Check-in?

I have also been to some properties who tout their Kiosk Check-In as a unique selling point, only to require guests at the end of the process to go through an elaborate process of handing your passport and / or other documents over to hotel staff anyway, so that they could take copies of your passport and have you sign off on them as those countries need copies of actual travel documents for verification.

Robots for Housekeeping?

Gimmick. You can't ask for extra bottles of water or tell the robots specifically what you want or don't want it to do.

Chatbot Communication Solution?

Don't even get me started on 'Chatbots'. Chatbots are one step down from impossible phone voice or dial-pad menu options only to go around in circles and end up with a totally detached call-center operator in Calcutta.

To put it succinctly, not every new technology that becomes available should be immediately relevant to and / or implemented by hoteliers.

Put Your Money Where the Human Is

Technology should seamlessly integrate into a hotel's existing environment to create a harmonious guest experience.

"If I'm only after efficiency, I'll pick an Airbnb with easy check-in, so I don't have to meet the host, but can let myself in, drop my things and explore. If I want something special, I'd look for staff interactions that make me feel like I'm on a holiday or that it feels like people care for my business trip to be successful." said Deniz Tekerek, CEO and Co-Founder of Portier Technologies

With instant data provided by Portier hoteliers know what type of promotion to push to whom, and when. This doesn't remove the human element, it simply equips that member of staff with better information on the on-site guests.

"With Portier at our disposal, we've been able to significantly increase our engagement with guests. Travelers visiting cities like Paris spend very little time at the hotel, but engagement with them is crucial yet challenging. With Portier, our W Insider (concierge) travels across Paris in the palms of our guests' hands! This enables us to not only promote our brand but to ensure that the very personal touch extends beyond the limitations of our property." said Christian Hoehn, the General Manager at W Paris-Opera.

To sum up the above notion, when hoteliers are too focused on their room and brand assets, they end up losing out on engagement with the modern traveller. In contrast, hotels like say, The W Paris - Opera https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/parwh-w-paris-opera) take real advantage of technology and use it to get closer to guests.

Portier devices get a daily average usage of 49 minutes per unit per day, which is more than Facebook's global daily average (35 minutes), as per THESE STATS.

Hotel Technologies should work to help you to create a better experience for your guests and not the other way around.