See-And Touch-The Future

My article was named “See-and Touch-The Future” and was all about personalizing the experience for each guest. Right now, and even more in the future, people work from many office spaces. Not just in their office in the building but at home, in the car, from a hotel room or even from a restaurant on a business lunch. They need and want to be able to streamline all of these spaces together. And that is where my article came in. It discussed how the traveler needs to be as comfortable in the room as they are at home. They need to be able to use their personal computers, iPods, PDAs, etc as easily in a hotel room as they would in their own homes. Microsoft is developing technologies that easily allow this to happen in things such as Microsoft Home. The article goes on to say that personalizing any experience with the guest will increase loyalty to your company. Ideas they talked about were that each guest would have their room personalized to their likes and wants. If they like the room warmer the thermostat would be turned up, if they would like their family photos to be displayed on the TV while it is not in use the hotel would have their playing before the guest got in the room. The industry is truly trying to create the feeling of home even more now-a-days. Each hotel wants their guests to feel as comfortable as possible and truly feel at home.

I really believe this is a good idea. Personalizing an experience to a guest is one of the first things I learned here in HRIM. If you call someone by their name or remember they always order the omelet with sausage and cheese, you will receive a higher tip and most likely your customer’s loyalty. The goal is to have the guest feel as if the whole staff is there to take care of them. And with this personalization technology as to setting the room temperature, even changing the walls & décor per each person’s likes, will truly allow each guest to feel as if the hotel is there for them. Also in the article they discussed how the technology of face recognition, retinal scans, and fingerprint scanners are beginning to be used more often for secure access. I believe this is a great idea. The guests will feel much safer and much more comfortable in the hotel. With the violence that is a part of our world more security is definitely needed. With all of the technologies that are talked about I really don’t see what could be wrong with installing them besides the price issue. No guest is going to want to have their room designed for them; they will not be against extra security as long as it doesn’t affect their stay. The issue of price is something that definitely needs to be considered. If all of their technologies are added would the rooms with the specifications be more expensive? And if yes do the properties have to offer two sets of rooms? Technology is a difficult decision and, I believe, hard to implement when on the hotel side. You as a manager would have to observe your clientele and see if they would be willing to pay the extra money for the room with the technology. I believe most would. I know that if I was traveling often for business and I was offered a room catered to me and with my family’s photos displayed, I would gladly pay a slightly higher rate.