Skift Take
It was only a matter of time before the big brands started rolling this smart-room technology. But what will be even more interesting is seeing which brand's approach works better in a hospitality setting, and is more appealing not only to guests but to hotel owners, too.
When Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta took to the stage at the Skift Global Forum in September, one of the most headline-grabbing statements he made had to do with what he described as Hilton's "Connected Room."
"Imagine a world where the room knows you, and you know your room," Nassetta said. "Imagine a world where you walk in, the TV says, 'How are you doing, John? Nice to see you,' and all of your stuff is preloaded and not only preloaded, but the only thing you ever need to touch to control in the room is in the palm of your hand," he said, referring to a guest's smartphone.
Hilton is currently beta testing this concept in a handful of hotels, and the company intends to expand this feature to more hotels worldwide in 2018.
But Hilton isn't the only hotel company that wants to deliver smart, hyper-personalized hotel rooms. In fact, not far from Hilton's Innovation Lab in McLean, Virginia, another major hotel company has similarly grand designs of using the Internet of Things (IoT) to transform the hotel guest experience. And last week, Skift got a firsthand sneak peek of this new guest room experience.
At Marriott's own Innovation Lab, housed in the lower levels of its main headquarters office in Bethesda, Maryland, Marriott senior vice president of global design strategies Karim Khalifa and his team have also been working on their own version of a connected room.
"With this room type, we're experimenting with technology that not only anticipates your needs, but also personalizes the experience for you," Khalifa said.
Called the IoT Guestroom Lab, the Marriott facility consists of two different model guest rooms. One is meant to showcase what this technology might look like for a completely newbuild hotel, with all the bells and whistles of what's currently possible with IoT technology. The other shows both owners and consumers what that experience could be like in already existing hotel rooms, with minimal construction or infrastructure changes.
Marriott just began showing the rooms to owners and consumer focus groups last week, and after some feedback, Khalifa and his team will then begin to decide if and how to initiate a formal pilot in different Marriott hotels.
Both Marriott and Hilton share, more or less, the same vision of delivering a hospitality experience that's more personalized and smarter about anticipating guests' needs during their stay. But how they respectively plan to achieve this goal involves two different
