There’s no place like home, the old adage declares, and hotel guests now expect their sleeping rooms to have everything they enjoy—or would like to enjoy—back on their personal turf.
New and renovating hotels are responding to these expectations with much more than comfy beds. Included are well-equipped workspaces with ergonomic chairs and good task lighting, connectivity that matches what’s available in public spaces, small fridges for order-up and brought-in snacks, and even in-room fitness equipment.
Lobbies are looking more like living rooms than sterile check-in and walk-through spaces these days. Guests gather in welcoming common areas to meet and socialize, check online messages and call up dining and entertainment ideas on their computers.
But at the top of the wish and must-have lists for most hotels under construction or renovation now are an array of technology features. Guest demand for rapid, troublefree online connectivity anywhere and everywhere has hoteliers pouring millions for tech into their projects. Tech amenities also are enabling sustainable practices and compliance with ADA requirements.
Tech for Hotels
New tech and eco-friendly amenities are at the top of a multimillion-dollar renovation project for Hilton Concord in San Francisco’s East Bay area. Features scheduled to be completed by the end of this year exceed what is now required by Hilton, according to Matt Hohenstreet, director of sales and marketing for the property.
“Our owner, Interstate Hotels and Resorts, wants to use this property to be a Beta project—to determine what ROI comes out of all the changes,” Hohenstreet says. Some of the tech additions to the property, which opened in 1983, include: wireless remote printing throughout the hotel and upgraded Internet speed and bandwidth from 15 to 20 megabits throughout the property. The conference center will have 250 megabits of bandwidth.
“Only a handful of hotels have this bandwidth capability,” he continues, “and it will be one of our main selling features for all kinds of meetings, especially those for tech companies. Business travelers’ main complaint now is that connectivity in hotels is slow or sporadic. With people carrying two to three mobile devices each, hotels have to step up their technological capabilities.”
Hilton Concord moved to paperless check-in earlier this year. Travelers who want printed paper receipts can get files e-mailed to their mobile electronic devices, Hohenstreet added.
Technology is also underpinning the renovating hotel’s new sustainability features, such as low-flush toilets, LED lighting throughout the building and an electric vehicle charging station in the parking lot.
Though this California hotel’s tech renovations may be ahead of the industry pack, meetings industry technology expert Corbin Ball says hotels everywhere need to offer basic Internet access (minimum 500 kb/second download) fast enough for e-mail access and limited video streaming for free.
And hotels that want to continue making Internet fees a profit center should cease the charging.
“Planners are saying ‘do not nickel-and-dime us with add-on charges for basic Internet access. If Motel 6 can provide free Wi-Fi, so should meetings hotels and venues,’” he contends.
Ball says venues need to make logging onto the Wi-Fi network easier as well.
“Opening the browser and clicking ‘OK’ is all that should be required.” Free basic Wi-Fi internet access is expected for meeting rooms, guest rooms and the lobby these days, he added.
But some hoteliers are installing tech features at a more measured pace.
Greg Parsons, senior vice president of Benchmark Hospitality, says his company’s new and renovation projects do include many of the latest things in tech, but adoption has to be balanced with guest service.
“There’s certainly this mentality of ‘I want it now’ technology features—many guests want to open their doors, turn on their TVs and check in with their smartphone,” Parsons says, “but we know a significant part of the population doesn’t have these devices, so we must be conscious of all our travelers’ expectations.”
Parsons said that in Benchmark’s new-build projects like Hotel 718 in Brooklyn, tech is actually beyond most expectations.
“We have boosted bandwidth in meeting spaces beyond what planners think they need today,” he says, “because with one to three electronic devices in the hands of each attendee, connectivity is paramount.”
Today, technologies can assist hotels with ADA compliance issues and high service expectations, particularly from the Baby Boomer generation, says John Salmen, president of Universal Designers and Consultants in Maryland, a company that specializes in ADA compliance issues.
“The disabled customer is more demanding than ever,” Salmen says, “and we are seeing that accessibility issues can be handled by technology. For instance, you can offer handheld check-in rather than an inaccessible place in the lobby. Also, hotels can make it possible for guests to request and get things delivered to them where they are with touch terminals for food ordering and check-in tasks. But you had better make them with multiple modes of access for use by those who are blind and deaf to be compliant.”
Lobby Lures
Good Internet access is one must-have component of new and refurbished lobbies, along with colorful seating, enticing coffee and cocktail bars, and sometimes 24-hour food outlets. This is a trend that began primarily with youth-favored and design-conscious brands like W Hotel, Hotel Indigo and Aloft Hotel. And the trickle-down is that lobby spaces in all hotel sectors are losing their blandness. They now have amenities that lure guests from their rooms into common areas for socializing and impromptu meetings.
“Our lobby space is definitely younger now,” says George Aquino, general manager of the JW Marriott Grand Rapids. “It’s critical now that you don’t just have furniture in the lobby. You need to think about your F&B outlets there, and the fact that more face meetings are happening outside dedicated meeting spaces—and this includes the lobby.”
On weekends, there’s a new vibe in his hotel’s lobby, Aquino says, with live DJ music and a host of parties that get marketed through social media sites. “We have about 6,000 followers on Facebook, and this brings in gatherings like Asian night or Salsa parties where we have several hundred people dancing.”
Electronic lobby check-in kiosks are another development changing lobby functions.
“Many hotels are using a new type of reception area that has self-check-in portals,” says Amanda DeBlauw of DeBlauw Purchasing in New Hampshire, aninterior design and procurement company specializing in sustainable projects. “Rather than having to wait in a line and have an actual associate check guests in, this resembles a self-check-in at an airport.”
Yet some guests want the human interaction that comes with traditional check-in procedures at a front desk, says another designer.
Carrie Hillenbrandt, CMP, director of sales and marketing for BBL Hospitality, an Albany, N.Y.-based company that owns and develops hotels, says her company’s select service hotel sector of brands like Courtyard by Marriott and Holiday Inn Express are wiring up meeting and guest rooms, yet check-in kiosks aren’t in most lobbies.
“People may tolerate or like to use them in the airport, but not in their hotel,” she says. “When they’ve been looking all day at their screens, they want some human interaction when they check in to their hotel. It’s nice, after all, for someone to say ‘hello’ to you and hand you the room keys. You are supposed to be a guest.”
Guest Room Upgrades
Modern hotel guest rooms are meant to welcome, relax and also provide good functional workspaces for guests, say hoteliers, and increasingly, fitness equipment as well.
“When we did our recent renovation of Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado, we brought in HDTV, boosted bandwidth, provided adequate lighting to the bed, a large, comfortable workspace, and good task chair,” says Benchmark’s Parsons. “Guest rooms must have quick Internet connectivity, just as public spaces must have now.”
Sheraton Fitness is a $120 million initiative that’s now included in over 400 properties worldwide. In addition to redesigning its gyms and offering healthier eating choices, Sheraton provides in-room video-on-demand workouts and delivers a free workout kit on request that includes exercise cards, a mat, foam roller, massage stick and resistance band.
Ritz-Carlton now delivers treadmills, bikes, yoga mats and other workout equipment to guests who request it. One of the reasons for the advent of more in-room workout options: Women travelers prefer their privacy.
Food consumed in guest rooms and public spaces such as lobbies is rapidly becoming more local and healthier—acknowledging what some call the hyperlocal and locavore trend. Chefs are keeping honey bees and herb gardens on their hotel rooftops, and 24-hour lobby markets offer fresh-squeezed juices and grab-and-go sandwiches and other fare made of ingredients from farmers and other nearby vendors.
Hotel Indigo recently sponsored an event with celebrity chef Curtis Stone called “Locals Know Best–Dish on the Dish” in which the public was invited to nominate favorite dishes from local eateries in various cities where the brand’s hotels are located.
Playing to Planners
Hoteliers are also installing new amenities to please their meeting planner partners.
Included in a massive $275 million redesign and renovation of Hyatt Regency New Orleans, which offers 80,000 square feet of function space and two 25,000-square-foot ballrooms, is five new Meeting Planner Suites. Each has an oversized work area with the ability to print, fax and copy, a direct phone line to in-room dining and pre-stocked refrigerators to ensure planners feel right at home with their favorite eats in reach. The suites also include Geneva docking stations; surround sound systems, and sound and sleep machines. Tech items include a 32 GB iPod touch, iPad2, an iMac computer with a wireless printer and a charge hub station for e-devices.
