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A Night in the Hotel of the Future
Roland Piquepaille writes "Michael S. Lasky was lucky enough to test the amenities of the "Room of the Future", Room 267 of the Hilton Garden Inn in El Segundo, California. Among other things, the room provides a wall-mounted, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV Panasonic plasma television, a biometric room safe, free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV, or a Panasonic massage chair. Needless to say, Lasky didn't have enough time to test everything during his one-night stay, but was quite pleased. Check this column for a summary and a picture of the "Room of the Future.""
... There was still a slot for the coin-op vibrating bed.
Some things never change
--
The 42 inch plasma screen on the wall cannot be turned off or the volume adjusted, and it constantly plays patriotic music to sooth you....
42" Plasma television - Good for watching porn
Biometric room safe -- so that the prostitute you bring in doesn't steal your stuff while you're sleeping
Free broadband -- surf all the porn you want on the big screen, or lookup local call girl services
Massage chair -- need I say more?
Have a good laugh like I did.
Newsfollow.com
In other news, Fred G. Sanford was lucky enough to test the amenities of the "Junkyard of the Future", Room 1 of the Sanford Arms in El Segundo, California.
Amenities included a bottle of Ripple, automatic heart monitoring equipment, and the neighbors goat.
I found this to be most interesting:
a compressor-less mini-refrigerator that is completely silent
I want more and more quiet appliances, including computers. Everything is so freakin' noisy now! I wish more industrial design took this into account. Yay future!
I hate to say it, but I'm a little tired of things that pawn themselves off as "of the future," when they're just showcases for the most expensive, newest stuff that's already floating around.
Maybe it's because the real "hotels of the future" won't be any more exciting than they are now. If they're motels, they'll be cheap - if they're five star hotels, they'll simply emulate what's in the best houses, plus a feature or two (whooo, biometric safe).
What's so futuristic about a room that uses technology available for the household for at least 10 years (broadband not withstanding). OK the tv is plasma, but it's still just a big tv. Anybody could offer a room like this if they could get away with charging the extra amount it would cost to pay for it.
Now when you can get a room like this at Motel6 for $39.95 at night, then wake me up.
Just sounds like a a room filled with crap from Sharper Image. Hardly the future.
Sleep is for the Weak
â¦until the Gideonâ(TM)s Bible is provided in pdf and pdb formats.
Well, this is true for tourists like you and me, but I'm quite sure that business travelers don't spend their entire nights outside... They probably want to relax in their room after spending ours in endless meetings, and an addition of a massage chair and a 42" plasma TV probably is a nice bonus.
Be an elitist - read Slashdot at +4.
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Hear hear. I've been on both sides of the coin -- travelling as a tourist, I spend as little time as possible in the hotel room. But, having done the consultant thing, including a stretch of 100% travel (get up Monday morning, kiss wife goodbye, come back Friday night, kiss wife hello, enjoy weekend, lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam), a comfortable hotel room with pleasant amenities makes a huge amount of difference. It's especially welcomed when you're stuck in your hotel room doing business in the evening and you can take a decent quick shower to refresh yourself, or finish off a 16 hour day by raiding the mini-bar and watching television.
More importantly, such amenities will put one in a better frame of mind and result in a more relaxing time, giving added benefit to the client (a happy consultant is a more productive consultant) and the spouse when you get home. For professional and personal reasons in such a scenario, this could only be a leg up in the business traveller's world.
Why is this room "of the future"? The amenities are all items from this day and age and in working order aren't they? Usually when I hear product "of the future" I think of a concept product that is shown emulating it, but not really function.
Is it because in the future it will be commonplace?
Among the niceties of this high-tech hotel room are:
- a wall-mounted, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV Panasonic plasma television connected to a Technics receiver with surround-sound Bose speakers;
- a biometric room safe that uses a thumbprint as the lock and key;
- free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV;
- a Panja touch-panel remote control that manages lighting levels and room climate; opens and closes the drapes; controls the TV, radio, and DVD player; and even repositions the head and foot of the king-size bed;
- a Panasonic massage chair,
- a heated toilet seat/bidet,
- a computerized five-nozzle shower,
- and a defogging bathroom mirror.
Or are they implying that the commonplace habits of being on the road will be
- Still watch alot of TV, but demand better quality of delivery
- Be Paranoid
- Be a geek
- Be a lazy geek
- Be a lazy geek with tension problems
- Be a lazy geek with tension problems and a cold ass
- Be a REAL geek
- Now you're spending way too much time in the bathroom. it's my turn.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
One of the most popular features is very simple - two hooks on the inside of the bathroom door.
Hilton is doing this because they made an expensive mistake. They tried a smart card system in New York, using the same card to unlock rooms, pay for meals, and make phone calls. People hated it. So now they use their rather boring location in El Segundo (next to LAX) to debug.
Hotels have a terrible problem with guest-visible technology - all their users are new. They don't want to hand a manual to each guest, or get calls for tech support. So it has to be subtle. This is good; too many products come with far too many controls for things the system should be managing itself. It's a nice design exercise to design technology for hotels.