Jul
16
Hotels Gone High-Tech
In the “hospitality world”, technology is king. Good technology makes every aspect of your stay more comfortable – whether it is behind the scenes at the front desk, or part of your in-room entertainment system.
Best of all, hotels understand that not every guest wants to be knee deep in high-tech gadgets, so technology is designed to be simple and unobtrusive.
Online room selection tool
Homewood's "Suite Selection" Tool
The Homewood Suites “Suite Selection” online tool is a brilliant way to select your own room, much like you pick a seat on an airplane. With this feature, you can prevent nasty surprises, or stay clear from a room you’ve had a bad experience with in the past.
One other added bonus of the tool is that you can familiarize yourself with the floor plan before you arrive at the property.
In-room entertainment
Input panel for In-room Entertainment Options at Homewood Suites
With this new technology, you can bring your laptop, iPhone or other media player, and hook it up to the TV in your room.
To connect to the TV, you’ll need the appropriate cables, so check with the user guide of your device before you depart and don’t forget to actually load some good movies on your player of choice.
Business travelers will appreciate the ability to connect to the TV to get some work done on a large screen instead of their small laptop display. In addition to this, the laptop input allows you to show your presentation on a larger screen if your Homewood Suites living room suddenly turns into an impromptu meeting room.
Homewood Suites iPhone application and mobile site
Homewood Suites iPhone App
Homewood Suites launched their own iPhone app, which lets you locate a property based on your location, or by city, address or airport. The application also displays current reservations, specials and provides a quick link to your HHonors account. Don’t worry if you don’t carry an iPhone – simply point your mobile browser to homewoodsuites.com for a smartphone optimized version of the site.
The future of hotel technology
The past ten years of hotel technology developments have already been very impressive –but in the next decade, things will most likely really take off. Some hotel chains have invested in electronic check-in kiosks, which allow you to walk in, swipe your credit card and grab your room key, all without having to visit the front desk. Others are researching keyless entry, using your mobile phone to unlock your room.
In-room technology is also going through some major upgrades – hotels are adding network printers, which allow for in-room printing and the speed of Wi-Fi connections has also increased greatly.
Whatever the future brings to your hotel, one thing is certain – this new technology will only help make your stay more comfortable.
Finding and reserving a hotel room on the road used to involve calling a reservation agent – but now so many of us carry some form of mobile device, being able to reserve a room right from a smartphone is the next logical evolution.The days of settling for grainy local news programming as the only way to stay entertained are long behind us. In addition to better pay-per-view entertainment, hotels have also started investing in HD televisions along with easy to access input panels.
CATEGORY: Travel tip
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