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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.
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'.
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?
Stop using buzzwords outside their definitions. Stop it!
Do you have a problem with them using the IoT to crowd-source cloud data for their augmented reality interfaces? You are clearly a misogynist that wants to keep women out of STEM. At least they aren't 3D printing drones, because if the singularity happens tomorrow, that would really be disaster. (I'll stop now)
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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