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One Night In the Hotel Room of the Future
Mickeycaskill writes: Hub by Premier Inn in London is pitching itself as the hotel room of the future, using technology to make staying in a city easier and simpler. Automated kiosks, digital temperature controls, augmented reality walls and even the ability to control things using an Apple Watch or smartphone are just some of the innovations used. A custom app is used to order room service, control the television and has a number of other features. TechWeekEurope spent a night in the hotel to see if technology could make a hotel stay any better.
There will be more ads.
That's a horrible idea. Why not a web app?
I don't want to have to install some crappy app just to order room service.
They could at least use the augmented reality to make the tiny little room look bigger....
Hub by Premier Inn in London is pitching itself as the stolen identity store of the future, using technology to make losing your savings in a city easier and simpler. Security holes, security holes, ad-supported security holes and even the ability to bring your own security holes are just some of the innovations used. A custom app is used to waste some of your money on purpose, waste the rest of it by mistake, and can even waste a significant portion of it for no perceived benefit.
The future is....digital temperature controls?
"Augmented reality wall" - um, so, it looks like a panel that displays local information, it's hardly Minority Report style interactivity. Just marketing bullshit, tons of hotels, in Asia at least, have these features without advertising them as 'futuristic'. Most botique hotels in Hong Kong have all the digital room control functions on panels similarly designed, even, and have for years. I don't get how this is anything regarding 'future tech'.
Augmented reality involves mixing real life elements with virtual, to provide context and natural information throughput. A map on a wall, however interactive, is nothing related. If they had gone into further detail I would know more... for example if it was a window out on the city and the user could point at various places and receive information, that would be AR. I'm sure the reason they didn't go into detail is that further information would reiterate the lack of reality augmentation. Stop using buzzwords outside their definitions. Stop it!
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Automated kiosks, digital temperature controls, augmented reality walls and even the ability to control things using an Apple Watch or smartphone are just some of the innovations used.
Cool story. Now, do basic ventilation, heating, mold prevention and soundproofing work properly?
More and more hotels play games to see how often they can keep the HVAC turned off.
The hotel I'm in now (a "Comfort Suite") is fine by basic hotel standards -- clean, friendly staff, fridge, etc etc.
But they've added the Amana IR door/motion senses to their HVAC system and when the sensor doesn't detect motion it turns off the HVAC, so you come back to your west-facing room (which housekeeping has helpfully opened the drapes) and it's hot and stuffy because the IR package sets back the temperature by 5 degrees. Even no motion for like 20 minutes sets it back 2 degrees, so you wake up to stuffy room.
Too bad for them I found the installation manual for the IR sensor on the web and the in-wall unit easily allows you to reprogram the setbacks (no security). Sorry, hotel, but I set them all to zero setback so the AC stays at my temperature.
My understanding is that this is common in a lot of European and Asian hotels, where you have to put your room key in a slot to make the lights and HVAC work. Ugh.
...you stand at the doorway aghast at the sight of a strangely familiar (now mature) call girl and three children with an uncanny resemblance to yourself.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
I want a parking space that's actually wider than the car I'm trying to park, and WiFi that doesn't cost me more for 24 hours than a months worth at home.
Other than that I'll settle for a pile of straw and a bucket of reasonably clean water.
...And a digital copy of the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer...
I stay in lots of hotels all over the world. The one thing they have in common is that there's always one or two baffling features or annoying ones or unwanted ones. Add a whole lot of unnecessary digital crap and the experience will be even more disorientating and uncomfortable.
It's not "of the future" if you have it now.
There must a way to say someone has applied some of more recent innovations into something without claiming it is "of the future". Nobody knows what the future will look like, and most of predictions turn out to be wrong (Where are all the auto adjustable clothes and flying cars?).
Most things that used to be touted as "of the future" look old-fashioned nowadays, especially because they had a lot of drawbacks. They were resource consuming, inconvenient, uncomfortable, ugly, or, simply, stupid.
With all that in consideration, claiming that something is "of the future" sounds too passé nowadays.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
Yes I'm sure the same people who will gladly charge you $15 for a bottle of water from the minibar, $25 per NIGHT for Wifi, and god knows how much for a telephone call will refrain from designing a "custom app" that doesn't spam you or track you or gather all your data for sale to the highest bidder. NO THANKS.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Your ultra luxury hotels might have this vision of the "future", but good luck getting your average mid-level franchise owner to spend even a penny on any of this.
Most of these intelligent systems are designed to cut costs and promote additional layers of monetization. Extra services can now be added on for "premium room member" and be charged additional costs for getting their preferences set.
Lastly - So TechWeekEurope is a person?
If those things appeal to you, you don't/haven't traveled much.
I want:
- to get to my room
- sleep in a clean bed with minimal thoughts about the copious amounts of jizz on everything that's not regularly soaked in causting cleansing chemistry
- a bathroom with decent light & a shower with decent water pressure that sprays me somewhere above the sternum
- a reasonable compromise between price and location.
Is there tech that can deliver these things? Already the web basically has 1 and 4 covered, I don't think the others are 'reachable' by a smartwatch or whatever magic tech bullet they're deploying today.
-Styopa
Everything in that hotel room is horribly out of date. Holy cow my company was installing that stuff 5 years ago.
Remember kids, the "future" is already obsolete by the time journalists find it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Having just stayed in a very new looking Premier Inn in London last week I was not at all impressed. The check-in kiosk failed to provide any keys so we had to wait for the one guy with a laptop. The room had no phone but they did helpfully provide an external number for the reception which, for an international destination like London, meant that they expected guests to both to have a mobile with them and be willing to pay exorbitant roaming fees just to call reception. As for remote control by Apple watch they solved that in a way which is platform independent: the room was so small you could stand in the middle of it and touch all the controls without having to move. It was very clear that the aim of any "improvements" was to make things cheaper and not to improve guests' experience.
It's not the devices. It's not the interfaces. It's soundproofing the darn room, hallways, and elevators. Most especially this means designing hotel doors that will close/lock without banging. And maybe setting up a late-night, noise-detecting flamethrower for all those people who desperately need to have conversations at top volume between their room and the elevator. I'd like to see more of that, and forget about gadgets in my room.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Is this some alternate timeline of the future where we still care about television? I haven't turned on my TV at home for years, let alone on a hotel room. Now if the hotel would provide proxies to different countries so that guests could watch their favorite streaming service with the correct catalog, *that* would be the future.
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
It''s disturbing that I people might want to live Charlie Brooker's "Black Mirror":
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/on-demand/49114-002
From the moment you check in, it's clear that hub is a little bit different. Lengthy queues at reception are replaced by kiosks (pictured above) that allow you to check in using your smartphone, with key cards for your room set up in seconds right in front of you.
The last time I stayed in a hotel (in Stockholm) I checked in online from the airport and my phone was the room key.
How much automation and technology is there in the bathroom? It would be nice if you could set the shower temperature with the room controls. As for the toilet, for a room of the future one of the hi-tech Japanese ones would not be out of place.
Frequent hotel guest, I can say that my two top priorities are a toilet that will actually flush what I put in it and a shower where my ass doesn't touch the walls or curtain. I don't know who designs hotel rooms but in my experience, neither of those two items gets enough attention. I can deal with the vanity that is meant for a 7 year old but the other two things are just annoying. And forget high tech if I am going to a destination hotel like a resort. Just make it comfortable and quiet. I have no trouble using the phone for room service or asking for a plunger for the shitty toilet.
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Step 3 - Profit!
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