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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.
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.