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The TV that is front and center in every guestroom is due for a Ôsmart' upgrade, but that's not the becoming for how screens can serve to heighten the guest experience.
In fact, the future of screen technology is everywhere, pervading every point of interaction that a consumer has with your hotel. And the more you work to undo the antiquated notion that TVs are only for bedrooms, you will end up discovering new opportunities right under your nose to enhance the guest experience and drive revenues.

To help our grasp of what this future means for your hotel, I interviewed Fred Crespo, Director of Technology & Business Development at Samsung Electronics. Before we jumped in to any science fiction forecasts, we first discussed how smart televisions have now overtaken regular TV sales and what that means for the evolution of the in-room viewing experience.

Smart TVs are more than just eliminating the top box and any other screen accessories. As a now democratized piece of technology, they can drastically improve a room's functionality through the integration and automation of such things as lighting, the drapes, climate controls, alarms, room billing, streaming services and even the do not disturb sign. Many of these will also help you eliminate paper and realize substantial energy consumption savings. One of the latest drives with smart TVs is to reduce forced obsolescence so you no longer must replace your sets every three years Ð a task accomplished with internal firmware that is adaptable to future content needs as well as the ever-increasing bandwidth requirements. Lastly, automation and integration are working to drive down the cost of delivery of, for instance, in-room movie rentals so that they are more closely aligned with the consumer benchmark, thus leading to fewer perceptions of price gouging, heightened consumption and, ultimately, increased consumer satisfaction.

Moving away from the centerpiece screen but still staying with the guestroom, there are many other opportunities to enhance the guest experience through the clever deployment of electronic replacements. Imagine a small digital picture frame on the nightstand that syncs with an individual's social media so that an image or slideshow of this person's family can be on display to make the room feel that much more like home. Next, try to visualize yourself brushing your teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, only your Instagram feed was cycling through on the top row while the bottom row showed the weather and the news. There are now several ways to subtly layer these types of information over portrait mirrors without being intrusive, and they also present yet another vector by which to display some hotel messaging or showcase a few features that guests may enjoy.

Exiting the guestroom, there are numerous instances where digital signage can now be deployed in such a way that they are both bespoke to every individual guest and sync with in-room activities or preferences. You need only think of every touch point from the time visitors arrive at a hotel to the time they leave.

Electronic signage can act as a sense of place enhancement via impressive art displays, to answer questions about check-in prior to talking directly with a clerk at the front desk or even to guide people from the elevator corridor to their specific rooms Ð this last one being particularly useful for buildings with massive floor plans. In essence, what we are seeing is a complete convergence of in-room screens with on-property signage, especially when you next throw into the mix outdoor patchwork screens that are extremely durable and cold to the touch. At the most recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (CES 2017), LG unveiled their ÔWallpaper TVs' which deliver reasonable resolution for large diameter screens that are only a few millimeters thick and are capable of being plastered onto glass surfaces or exterior cement.

This is but scratching the surface in terms of how you might go about upgrading your hotel with new devices that enhance the guest experience through augmented technological engagement Ð a trait that is in demand for the ever-budget-conscious millennials. What's great about our industry in particular is that we have the CapEx budget for incremental installations of this nature Ð albeit spread over several years Ð so it would be wise to at least be receptive to what an arrangement of integrated screens and devices can do to continually improve your property over the long-term. Think of these multinational conglomerates like Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony or Philips less so as low cost vendors and more so as premium tech partners, ensuring that you collectively arrive at the best solution to meet your hotel's unique needs.

And in terms of what's on the horizon for 2017, Fred wrapped up our chat by emphasizing that this year will see evolutionary steps but not revolutionary ones. While virtual reality Ð the current talk of the town Ð is still a decade away from universal applicability, smart TVs are now a mature product, meaning that everyone is focused on operational efficiency, mobile integration and user interface enhancements. Thus, don't expect anything game-changing in the immediate future, so use this Ôlull' to strategize about how the current slate of adaptive screen technologies can work for you.
One of the world's most published writers in hospitality, Larry Mogelonsky is the owner of Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited and the founder of LMA Communications Inc., an award-winning marketing agency based in Toronto. His experience encompasses hotel properties around the world, both branded and independent, and ranging from luxury and boutique to select-service. Larry also sits on several boards for companies focused on hotel technology. His work includes four books, ÒAre You an Ostrich or a Llama?Ó (2012), ÒLlamas RuleÓ (2013), ÒHotel LlamaÓ (2015) and ÒThe Llama is InnÓ (2017). You can reach Larry at larry@hotelmogel.com to discuss hotel business challenges, to inquire about his consulting services or to book speaking engagements. This article may not be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

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Guestroom TVs are only the beginning for electronic displays

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The TV that is front and center in every guestroom is due for a Ôsmart' upgrade, but that's not the becoming for how screens can serve to heighten the guest experience. In fact, the future of screen technology is everywhere, pervading every point of interaction that a consumer has with your hotel.

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No more than 15 years ago we were watching sci-fi films that boggled the mind and tested the limits of our imagination. Facial recognition technology, fingerprint biometrics, intelligent phones and computers that talked to people, functional artificial intelligence; all of this seemed worlds away when Tom Cruise and Will Smith were in their action movie prime.

How things have changed.

The technology dreamed up for those blockbuster productions is the same as what we see entering our reality today. Seemingly, it's taken no more time than the transition from child to adult. To the average person, it still feels unimaginable that innovation like artificial intelligence (AI) is on our doorstep.

Apple's 'Siri', the intelligent computer program that also happens to be a personal assistant, has already been around for five years. She's now being joined, and in some cases surpassed, by developments like chatbots and actual robots.

This technology is applicable to almost every industry thanks to customer interaction - a prime area for smart tech to be implemented. The travel industry is a massive target for newer, smarter, more automated, personalised, and predictive processes. In fact, as progress continues, tourism could be a world leader for cutting-edge technology and advanced AI.

Let's take a look at how this technology is infiltrating the hotel industry....

The computerised hospitality world

Messenger applications

The popularity of apps has been on the rise for a while now and will only continue as developers introduce slicker platforms. Apps have already been appropriated by many companies to provide intelligent real-time customer service without the need to place a human in position.

Facebook has 'M', Amazon has 'Alexa', Apple has created 'Viv' in addition to Siri, and Google has announced its 'Assistant' service. There are some specific to travel too, like 'Lola' and 'Pana'.

All of these apps are designed to deliver an instant concierge-style chat service to help customers plan and manage their everyday needs. They're smart enough to handle even some complex requests and they're constantly being refined to deal with more scenarios.

Parts of the travel industry are embracing them with open arms. Edwardian Hotels London employs the aptly-named virtual host Edward who can take amenities requests, give directory and review information, facilitate complaints and connect guests to an immediate call-back if they need human assistance. He's designed to respond within a few seconds.

Dutch airline KLM is using a Facebook messenger chat service to send passengers booking confirmations, notifications, and boarding pasess. This process is easily transferable to hoteliers who can maintain an ongoing dialogue with guests from the booking to check-out stages, and everything in between.

Chatbots as a service

Kayak CEO Steve Hafner believes voice and physical interaction are the only way forward, saying we'll see an increase in travellers being helped by spoken word and chatbots:

"There's a whole generation who are more familiar with text messaging and voice via Siri looking for a different interaction with an online travel agency. We've got a Facebook Messenger chatbot for example. We have voice interaction with Alexa, where you can actually talk to Kayak and say, 'Hey Kayak, what's the status of my flight to Denver later today? Where can I go this weekend for $300?'"

Chatbots are meant to engage customers in a 'live' scenario without the need to trade communication back and forth via email or phone. Facebook aims to use this technology to enhance its personal assistant 'M', who will be able to purchase items, have gifts delivered, and make various bookings and appointments.

Yahoo's Enrique Munoz Torres urges all companies to embrace this new opportunity: "Users are increasingly more comfortable with conversational interfaces, and they expect that systems will be able to handle complex requests."

In June, Booking.com launched a chatbot to connect hotels and travellers in two-way communication, which can be used from any device, including iOS and Android. The conversation is more natural, having been freed from templates or automated script. However, specific templates are provided to translate frequently asked questions into 42 different languages.

Robots...yes, actual robots

Here comes the fun part. Yes, real robots already exist in the travel industry.

Marriott has Mario welcoming guests, Hilton has Connie the concierge, and InterContinental has Dash transporting items between guests and staff.

On Mario, Ghent Marriott General Manager Roger Langhout says: "As soon as we saw Mario interacting with our guests we saw a smile. Nobody has seen it before."

Mario spends his time at the front desk and can help guests check-in, give speeches, inspect rooms, discuss the menu, and give presentations. Most intriguing is the effect Mario has on audience attentiveness when he is delivering speeches.

"We've found that content retention by participants is increased when Mario makes the presentation," says Langhout.

Another interesting example comes from Japan ( where else?!). The Henn-na Hotel has over 100 rooms and features multilingual robots (one human woman, one dinosaur) at the front desk, a robot-arm locker service, a robot porter to transport your luggage, and facial recognition software so you don't have to worry about carrying a key.

Inside the room, air-conditioning analyses your body temperature and adjusts accordingly, while you can control the other in-room facilities from a tablet device. If anything else is required you can ask the robot concierge named Tuly, who will impart a range of knowledge.

In the future, there are plans for drones to deliver room service too.

The best part? Rooms start from $80 a night making the experience available for budget travellers. Those robots clearly don't demand any wages!

How could smart technology impact the travel industry?

Obviously, any influx of mass change will have mixed reviews. Tour guides in particular may be worried about their jobs becoming automated. For instance, it's easy to imagine a robot at the front of a bus giving a history lecture - and probably without the need for a microphone.

But what about travellers? Will they still want to stay at your hotel if a human isn't there to greet them? Apparently, the answer is yes. Travelzoo conducted research and almost two-thirds of the survey respondents said they'd be comfortable being looked after by machines on their trips.

Even though AI is still in its infancy in the hotel sector, it's potential is broad. With that in mind, let's look at the six major effects we think it could have...

Chatbots and conversational messaging will add yet another dimension to a customer's path-to-purchase. Imagine a traveller making a booking via their TV during an ad break, or on their hands-free mobile while driving. From a customer's perspective it could seem like an easier method for booking a trip, especially at the last-minute.

Gone will be the days of email back and forth and multiple phone calls. With a chatbot the hotel or customer need only make a conversation request and any requirements, such as booking additional services, can be finalised in an instant.

Virtual assistants will be able to fulfil any rudimentary requests from guests including food and beverage orders, amenity needs, basic complaints, and tour/directory information.

This will free up other staff to concentrate on optimising the guest experience even further and perhaps provide more luxurious features. Saving man hours will either mean increased profit or unbind money to spend on guest experience, leading to increased bookings and revenue. In seasonal lows, it may reduce the need to cut staff entirely.

If an AI is taking a traveller through the whole customer journey it will gather a raft of valuable data in the one place that can be used to incorporate more personalised services based on the preferences the guests have shown - which in turn increases the rate of return business and direct bookings.

Messenger apps and chatbots will remove many pain points because the connection between online and offline services will become seamless. However, if it's something hotels want to take advantage of it's even more important that they have an optimised and mobile responsive website, as well as an integrated booking engine that can move with the guest throughout their complete customer journey.

The speed and innovation of technology, such as robots and AI, present hotels with a fantastic opportunity to become cutting-edge accommodation providers, giving guests an enhanced experience driven by forward-thinking service. Question is, are you ready for the robot revolution?
About the author
David Chestler, EVP, Global Enterprise Sales & Business Development at SiteMinder, helped to help establish the company's operations for the Americas. David's passion for hotel technology has allowed him to forge a rich career with nearly 25 years in the industry. Prior to SiteMinder, he held senior positions at BirchStreet Systems, Pegasus Solutions, Utell International, RateGain and Visual Data Corp - to name a few - and most recently worked at Sceptre Hospitality Resources, a U.S. eCommerce firm.

Today David is strategically focused on SiteMinder's partner development, global account development and new revenue opportunities. He is active with HSMAI, HEDNA, Skål and, in 2014, was announced one the first co-chairs of HTNG's newly-established Software Resource Team. He holds a B.S. in communication, marketing and sociology from Florida International University.

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How robots are storming the travel industry

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Even though AI is still in its infancy in the hotel sector, it's potential to give guests an enhanced experience driven by forward-thinking service is broad. Let's look at the six major effects smart technology could have on the travel industry.

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The global hotel industry has evolved continuously of late and there's a lot more change to come, according to a new report outlining the key shifts we can expect over the next two years.

Phocuswright and h2c's Independent Lodging Market Report, co-sponsored by SiteMinder, offers a number of revealing insights as it predicts what the industry will look like in 2017.

One of the headline figures from the report demonstrates the increasing strength of the American hotel market when compared to its European counterpart. The US market is expected to grow at more than six times rate of the European market between 2013 and 2017, with the US showing a 6.8% compound annual growth rate and Europe just 1.1%.

Despite the slower growth overall, the report notes a number of positive trends in Europe. Chain hotels are the big winners, growing three times quicker than independents in the four-year time period. This will see the independents' share of the total lodging market fall from 58% in 2013 to 56% in 2017.

Again, the picture stateside is somewhat different, with the percentage split between independents and chain hotels remaining steady at 28:72.

Of course, the primary catalyst for the evolution of the market has been, and remains, the changing nature of travellers.

What role will mobile bookings play in 2017?

The rise of online bookings has increased consumer power enormously and changed booking habits almost entirely.

In fact, research conducted by Nielsen for Google showed that customers spend an average of 53 days booking their trip, during which they view 28 different sites over 76 sessions, while more than half of travellers use social media for travel tips.

In Europe, 39% of bookings will be made online by 2017, a rise of 5% from current figures and 8% from 2013. Online penetration is even bigger across the pond and will be close to becoming the booking choice of the majority in two years, with 44% booking online in the USA by 2017, a rise of 2%.

In almost every sphere of business, from news to music, mobile is rapidly becoming king - and the hotel industry is no different.

The Phocuswright and SiteMinder statistics show that while only 8% of bookings are currently made on mobile devices, by 2018, that figure will stand at 35%, meaning mobile-friendly websites are critical for hotels wanting to drive up their revenues.

Although hotels are generally becoming more savvy with their own websites in an attempt to drive more of that online business their own way, the rise of online travel agents (OTAs) will continue over the coming years. OTAs will enjoy a majority share of the US market by 2017 (52%).

Despite this, the range of choice, and increasingly travel-savvy nature of guests, means hotels must find the most effective mix of direct and indirect channels to meet expectation.

The changing nature of travellers has led to a boom in international tourism, which brings both challenges and potential rewards for hotels. Figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) Tourism 2020 Vision report suggest that international arrivals will reach almost 1.6 billion by 2020.

While this opens up ever larger markets for hotels, it also means they are competing in an ever-increasing marketplace and must adapt accordingly. Over the next few years, knowing your market will become ever more critical.

How will the global hotel industry rely on OTAs?

As global bookings from OTAs continue to rise, those businesses who identify themselves as dealing with largely international travellers will increasingly rely on intermediaries like OTAs and wholesalers, while their domestic-trade-based colleagues should still look to bricks and mortar sites and personal relationships.

Phocuswright and h2c's Independent Lodging Market Report, co-sponsored by SiteMinder, also picks up some trends specific to certain European countries that, to some extent, buck the wider trends our industry is seeing.

Perhaps the most striking is the difference in the future use of OTAs among some of Europe's travel powerhouses by 2017:

Germany

4% fall in use of OTAs

3% rise in direct website bookings

France

2% fall in use of OTAs

2% rise in direct website bookings

Europe

2% drop in use of OTAs

3% rise in direct website bookings

Meanwhile, the UK bucks this trend significantly, showing a 4% rise in the OTA segment and a 3% drop in direct bookings. The ratios for Spain and the USA are relatively static.

The hotel industry may have been through more changes than most in the past decade or two, but the projections show it must continue to adapt in order to succeed.

As the industry grows, so too do online bookings, with mobile bookings set to be the next major growth area.

But hotels must also maintain traditional strengths such as brand value and customer service. It will also become increasingly important to know your business and your customers and tailor offerings to travellers, whether they be from the domestic market or further afield.

Key predictions for 2017:

The US market will grow more than six times faster than the European market, showing 6.8% compound annual growth rate compared to just 1.1%

European chain hotels will grow three times faster than independents between 2013 and 2017

In Europe, 39% of bookings will be made online by 2017, a rise of 5% from current figures. In the USA, the figure is 44%, a rise of 2%

OTAs will enjoy a majority share of the US booking market by 2017 (52%)

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Fast-forward to 2017: What will the global hotel industry look like? - SiteMinder

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The global hotel industry has evolved continuously of late and there's a lot more change to come, according to a new report outlining the key shifts we can expect over the next two years. Phocuswright and h2c's Independent Lodging Market Report, co-sponsored by SiteMinder, offers a number of revealing insights as it predicts what the industry will look like in 2017.

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Design trends: How hotels will look in 2017

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I think that Design and Technology will be the main areas for improving hospitality in 2017. When will the corporate offices decide to stop looking outwards for the "Next Big Thing" and look inwards? This is the one and only direction in which the corporate offices have not looked. Ever.

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Pokémon GO, the recent sensation among teenagers and adults alike, is a free-to-play location based augmented reality (AR) mobile game. The game primarily uses the GPS and camera of the user's phone, which augments the user's reality and surroundings into the game.
It virtually places the (user) in the present location (GPS) on map; all the while mirroring the google maps with roads and locales on the user's phone. The character in the game moves whenever the gamer/user moves (tracking the phone's GPS) in the real world.

Different Pokemon species reside in different areas of the world, for eg: water-type Pokemons are generally found near bodies of water in the real world, which generates an authentic touch and a more interactive feeling in real time among users.

When a player encounters a Pokemon, they may view it either in augmented reality (AR) mode or with a live rendered, generic background (using the phone's camera). AR mode uses the camera and gyroscope on the player's mobile device to display an image of a Pokemon as though it were right there in the real world. Players can take screen shots of the Pokemon they encounter either with or without the AR mode activated. The ultimate goal of the game is to complete all the entries in the Pokedex, a rather comprehensive Pokemon encyclopedia, by capturing and evolving to obtain all the original 151 Pokemons, mentioned in the series.

A gym is a battling arena where users train their Pokemon during battles. For the moment these are the only spaces to train the Pokemon. However, a user can only access the gym when he/she reaches level 5 or above in the game.

Pokémon GO is different from many other mobile games, since it involves physical activity by the user. To get to the Pokemon, Pokestop or a Gym the user needs to actually travel. An interesting feature is that is mandatory that the gamer travels a distance (2.5 or 10 kms) in the real world to be able to use the game's bonuses such as Eggs for powerup's, etc.

The game was initally released in Australia, New Zealand and U.S.A. in first week of July 2016. To date, 33 more countries have been added to where the game can be played.

Businesses have benefited from the nearby presence of Poke-stops (or their being the Poke-stops themselves). On July 15, Yelp added a filter that only shows businesses which have a Poke-Stop nearby. National parks across the United States saw an influx of visitors due to the game, with "hundreds or thousands" of people visiting the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. on the weekend following Pokemon Go's release in the country. Small museums with Poke-Stops placed at exhibits also reported increased attendance, such as the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Boca Raton, Florida.

So how can hoteliers monetize the Pokémon GO craze?

Drive traffic

Pokemon Go successfully drives two of the 4P's of Marketing principle, i.e. : Place and Promotion.

The augmented reality dynamics of the game is such that it induces gamers to move and find places where they could capture their potential Pokemon, reach Poke-stops (to get the game's bonus such as coins, eggs, etc.), find a Gym (to battle Pokemons). These places can be facilities such as restaurants, amusement parks, bars, hotels, concerts, events, fairs and symposiums. Find out if there is a Pokestop near your location, and get to work promoting your proximity.

Build an ecosystem supporting Pokémon GO

The hospitality industry could go a step further to reach out to this largely millennial target market by declaring their facilities as "Pokemon friendly". The game requires high speed Wi-Fi and is a heavy drain on the gaming device (phone) battery. A hotel that hosted phone charging stations and Wi-Fi would be an attraction for gamers. The game would bring traffic to your property, where gamers could use those services and also pay to partake of your food and beverage services and other amenities. This is somewhat similar to a casino's concept where the players are provided with food and wine while they play at the tables.

Strategic alliances with Nintendo

In the present model, players'/facility owners can pay up and select "LURE" to attract the Pokemons to a specific location. Each LURE is active for 30 mins and costs about 0.60$. This area could be your hotel. An American pizzeria reported a spike of staggering 75% to their sales during a weekend after using $10 to buy LURE modules.

Going further, it is projected that Nintendo will also open its doors for purchase of Poke Stops and Gym's, which would be a boon for facility owners. McDonalds Japan has tied up with Nintendo to host Poke-Stops and Gyms at their 10,000 restaurants. After this news, McDonald Japan's share price saw an increase of 9.8%.

Target new segments, encourage social sharing

PokemonGo brings potential new market segments to hotels such as millennials, children, teenagers.

Gamers are starting to use TripAdvisor to acknowledge the ease of finding a Pokemon at a property. A traveler rated the hotel Villa Royale in Paris highly on TripAdvisor e talking about the hotel's great facilities and surroundings along with the Pokemons found in the hotel. The hotel general manager replied back acknowledging this and further goes on to mention that travelers could find greater number of Pokemons during breakfast in the breakfast room (increased footfalls during the breakfast period).

TripAdvisor has gone a step further and lists different properties by search filter of type of Pokemon likely being found there, (which is usually in-sync with the property's surroundings of its flora and fauna).

Mantra is an Australian hotel chain, with over 20,000 keys to its portfolio. It has been one of the first hotel chains to monetize the PokemonGo craze by launching the world's first Pokemon Go friendly hotels. It works on the LURE module and is also a PokeStop. Gamers could PokeStop by Mantra 2 Bond Street in Sydney from 3 pm every Friday during July to receive a free bowl of fries with any drink purchase, and Melbournian Pokemon Go catchers could also cash in on happy hour drinks at Mantra on Little Bourke from 3 pm every Friday during July. The hotel chain markets itself by showing potential areas in its hotel rooms or restaurants where in a gamer could run into a Pokemon. This has been tweeted and posted on social media by many excited travelers and hoteliers.

Country Inn & Suites, Portland Airport has made itself a GYM on the app, meaning Pokemon Go players can capture the digital creatures throughout the hotel, fight GYM leaders and then run the GYM site. The hotel is offering a 10 percent discount when gamers book a room there.

Conclusion

PokemonGo is clearly a crowd puller, however, hoteliers will have to decide whether the kind of crowd it pulls is (or is not) an apt target audience. If it is, you may have to consider consider putting in entry barriers such as a cover charge or a minimal spend to access areas in the hotel you want to turn into a PokeStop or a Gym.

Industry experts claim, that an average hotel would spend about 1/6th of their overall revenue on Marketing activities. With the help of PokemonGo hoteliers could increase their profits 3.5% annually, by saving around 33% on their annual marketing spend.

Hotels market their properties and facilities in various forms such as billboards, printed materials, advertisements (print, videos and voice), events and fairs, online marketing (Ads, SEO, SEM, Inbound marketing, etc.). Organizing events and fairs, sending out invites and following up on the invitees is an arduous task which requires a considerable spend of manpower and money. Of the channels used for marketing, online marketing and events account for almost 60-65% of the marketing spend.

Take an example of a 200 room city hotel having two onsite restaurants, a coffee shop and a specialty restaurant. Typically, Rooms accounts for 65% of revenue, the coffee shop 15%, the specialty restaurant 10%, and Miscellaneous Revenue adds 10% to the Gross Turnover. The hotel achieves an annual occupancy of 70% and an average ARR of US$100, so it will achieve a gross annual turnover $ 7.86 million.

The marketing spend of such hotel would be about 3% of the turnover or $2,35,846. 70% of the marketing spend is traditionally utilized for online marketing and events, or $1,65,092 annually / $41,273 quarterly. About one-third of this spend goes in local area marketing spend.

As the LURE module in PokemonGo costs about 0.60$ for 30 mins, consider that LURE is used 3 times a day for 1 hour each (during restaurant/bar or any other point of sale's promotion hours). It will cost $9720 quarterly. This would have a minimal saving of at least 10% in the marketing spend per quarter versus spend on usual marketing techniques for areas in vicinity. This would eventually extrapolate to 33% annual savings on the local marketing spend and would increase profits by about 3.5% (about US$ 55,030) annually!

Apart from LURE module, hoteliers can have a liaison with Nintendo for hosting Pokemon Gyms (gamers congregate in large numbers at these spots for battling with each others' Pokemon's) at their facilities. McDonald's Japan has signed up 10,000 of its restaurants in Japan for this.

Hoteliers should make apt use of this new trend and be there to capture the market first - it could be a differentiator not only for saving marketing costs, but also for brand recognition.
Some interesting stats about PokemonGo

It has about 26 million active users in U.S. which makes it 5.92% of the android users in U.S.

An average user spends about 43 mins daily on this game

Revenue generated by the game so far ( at 19/7/16) : $35 million

PokemonGo has the highest number of downloads from iOS app store as compared to any other app

Nintendo's market value increased by $9 million within 5 days of the game release

7 out of 10 people that download the app returned to it the next day

PokemonGo's daily usage is twice as much on Android apps than the Facebook app

About the author
Anupam Chawla earned a Revenue Management certification from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He has seven years of experience working in hospitality and consulting, with an in-depth exposure to front office operations and revenue management. He was a Cluster Revenue Head for Taj Hotels and currently is a Manager, Research Analyst for RateGain, a leading provider of cloud-based product and service around the function of rate intelligence, price optimization, seamless electronic distribution and brand engagement to the world's leading hotels, Online Travel Agents, airlines and tour operators.

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All about Pokémon GO and how hoteliers can monetize it

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Pokémon GO, the recent sensation among teenagers and adults alike, is a free-to-play location based augmented reality (AR) mobile game. The game primarily uses the GPS and camera of the user's phone, which augments the user's reality and surroundings into the game.

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Hotel Housekeeping Featuring Holiday Inn Express

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Hotel housekeepers play a fundamental role in the guest experience. Like any job in hospitality there is always room for growth!

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The Internet of Things ( IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing Internet infrastructure.

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A few nights ago, I arrived at a very nice Radisson Blu Hotel in Minneapolis for my talk on the "hotel of the future."

My client was the good people on the Board of Carlson & Rezidor Hotels, the group responsible for a large number of impressive hotels and travel operations around the world.

When I first arrived on the property and entered my hotel room, the staff had prepared a very nice fruit plate, topped with peaches, apricots, and chocolates. This was a very nice gesture, but these were all things that my dietary restrictions would not allow me to eat.

The thought occurred to me that the hotel probably would have appreciated knowing up front about my food allergies, but it kinda ruins the moment if they have to ask lots of questions before they surprise you.

So I spent time considering this dilemma. What kind of anticipatory system could be created to broadcast the needs and preferences of guests to a hotel without turning it into a lengthy discussion?

It occurred to me that this is the exact space where smart building technology is intersecting with the Internet of Things.

In the past, hotels built their business around employing highly attentive people. In the future, they will replace many of their staff with highly attentive buildings.

Here's a quick scenario that will explain the symbiotic relationship that will develop between people and a building that can attend to their every need.

Automated luggage attendant
1.) Highly Attentive People Replaced by Highly Attentive Buildings
The Anticipatory Hotel Scenario: As soon as you register for your stay, the hotel begins to track and understand you. On the day of your arrival, the hotel knows where you are and anticipates your arrival.

When you get within 10 miles, the hotel automatically adjusts the temperature and humidity levels to your liking so it will be perfect when you arrive.

Upon arrival, you will be greeted by an automated luggage attendant designed to whisk your bags to your room. Since each of your bags has auto-tracking tags, you're not concerned about losing any of your bags.

At all times, helpful people are just a button-push away, but the building itself has been optimized around its automated peopleless systems.

Upon entering the lobby, you are automatically registered without having to check-in. Your room number and directions are displayed on your smartphone. "Proceed 50 feet in the direction of the arrow and take the elevator on the right."

Virtual receptionists will be positioned at key intersections to help out whenever the need arises.

As you approach your room, the door will automatically unlock and you will see your luggage already waiting for you.

Upon entering your room, you'll instantly begin to appreciate the anticipatory nature of this building.

Since it knows what mood you are in, it will automatically be playing music that syncs with your personality at the perfect volume. This music will change along with every shift in mood or activity, and will disappear completely when you no longer want it. You need only think it, and it's gone.

Temperature and humidity have been dialed in specifically for you. Window shades will open or close depending on your position in the room, time of day, and intensity of the sunlight.

If you're in the mood, a fire will automatically appear in the fireplace, and the color of the flame will automatically adjust to match your ever-changing whims.

Walking into the bathroom, you need only say, "hello mirror," and a display will appear behind the glass. A quick scan of weather reports, headlines, your personal agenda, and a few fitness facts such as heart rate, weight, and body temperature will only scratch the surface of what's possible.
2.) "Greenliness" to be Replaced by Hyper-Cleanliness
Gone are the days when hotels need to constantly remind you of their commitment to the environment. The new trend is to remind you of their commitment to cleanliness.

The "quantified self" is enabling us to monitor precise inputs and outputs of the human body. So having a set of monitors displaying air quality, water quality, radon levels, pollen counts, noise and vibration histories will become very common.

Stepping into the shower, not only will the controls anticipate your desired temperature, spray selection, and intensity, but will display readouts of everything from chlorine levels to bacterial counts.

When it comes to toilets, toilet paper flushing commodes will no longer be good enough. Next generation Japanese-style electronic toilet-bidets will attend to your every need.
3.) Rethinking Baseline Expectations
When was it that customers began expecting every hotel to have a hair dryer? How about cable TV, hair conditioner, coffee pots, or shower robes?

Over the centuries, hotels have evolved from the basic four-wall flophouse to a highly sophisticated luxury stay facilities, with a growing list of essentials to accommodate our increasingly complex needs.

Even though a few things like stationary and postcards have started to disappear, the list of expected amenities continues to rise, complicating the hotel operation immensely.

As an example, Wi-Fi today is not only an expected amenity; customers expect it to be free. With most customers bringing many different devises, even services that offer: "buy one connection, get five devices connected," is not enough.

Along with increasing levels of paranoia about water quality, hotels that do not offer free bottles of water will be relegating guests to drink unfiltered tap water, an without water-quality monitors, in many people's minds, this is as good as asking them to drink poison.

Once hotels get past charging for Wi-Fi and bottled water, they will begin to discover a whole new range of premium services that will more than offset any revenue loss.
4.) Well-Balanced Operations Replaced by the Great Imbalance
Hotels are becoming the center of the universe for a much larger ecosystem that involves branding, retail, and entertainment products.

While Gucci, Lamborghini, Absolut, and Dior all represent premium brands, they each have something else in common. They lack a sense of place. Premium hotels attract a customer base that all top brands are anxious to align themselves with.

This has led to the current "shopfronting" craze, but slick storefronts displaying premium brands are often not authentic enough for the raw, real-world experience being demanded by today's selfie-shooting bucketlisters.

For this reason, the well-balanced hotel operations of the past are being replaced by the great imbalance. Yesteryears cookie cutter approach to designing hotels is being swapped out for one-of-a-kind designs that highly leverage the strengths and identity of the local community.

As a case in point, the Radisson Blu Hotel I stayed at in Minneapolis was attached directly to the Mall of America, and the lobby was filled with unusual coworking spaces as a way to leverage the indoor work/play environments needed to offset Minnesota's harsh winters.
5.) Reinventing the Sharing Economy Hotel
As sites like Airbnb, Crashpadder, and TravelMob continue to grow, and the sharing economy becomes engrained in our everyday thinking, it's easy to envision many kinds of virtual hotel operations made up of condos, small houses, and various kinds of living units spread out around a city.

Naturally these will vary considerably, but we will soon see Virtual Marriotts, Virtual Hiltons, and Virtual Radissons adding to their hotel mix. Many will do this to dampen the proliferation of Airbnb and sign exclusive rental agreements on the best units.

Starting with a "front desk" operation located near a high traffic intersection, the operation will have both physical and online presence. Each unit will have to meet a set of standards, and all housekeeping, maintenance, and insurance will be handled by the hotel company.

For the premium hotel, the appeal of this kind of operation is that there will be very little investment in bricks and mortar, and owners of the rental units will receive a percentage of each night's stay.

At the same time, running a distributed hotel operation comes with its own set of problems. Telling guests their room is still a 20-30 minute drive away, responding to late night maintenance calls or noise complaints, or providing any kind of room service will be problematic.

For most it will be a relatively easy brand extension, without the capital outlay, and it will enable them to quickly enter markets they currently don't exist in.

Disney's MagicBand
6.) The Emergence of "Magic" Payment Systems
When Disney's MagicBand technology first appeared, it was like the unveiling of the first iPhone. The digital world made its first major inroad into the theme park business in a significant way.

Disney has made a $1 billion investment in the MagicBand system, so don't expect it to go away anytime soon.

Similar to keyless car entry, MagicBands store tickets, hotel keys, debit and credit card information and can be used anywhere just by tapping a sensor.

With their embedded RFID chips, MagicBands also enable Disney to track guests as they move around the park, send special alerts when wait times for rides get too long, and even address children by name or wish them a happy birthday.

A similar type of magic bands for hotels will enable guests to access their room, track their workouts in fitness centers, buy drinks at the bar, attend a concert, go shopping, rent a car, book an excursion, or even pay for a taxi with the flip of their wrist. The ease of making a transaction will increase overall sales dramatically.

MagicBand is very much a precursor to the face-recognizing smart-room technology described in the Anticipatory Hotel Scenario above. But a Radisson Blu MagicBand, as example, will have the ability to extend the hotel's influence far into the local community, and even across country lines.
Final Thoughts
Smart home technology is baby stepping its way into our lives, and at the same time, elevating our expectations for hotels. In fact, we expect hotels to be ahead of the curve.

For them, this whole upgrade begins by creating a new operating system capable of incorporating smart hotel features far into the future.

None of this will be easy. Every new master plan will begin to feel totally outdated six months after it was first discussed, but someone will figure it out.

These six trends will indeed seem radical, upon first glance, to the hoteliers of today. But this kind of technology is coming, and it will happen much sooner than we think.

Personally, I can't wait.

By Futurist Thomas Frey

Author of "Communicating with the Future" - the book that changes everything

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Six Radical Trends Redefining the Hotel of the Future

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A few nights ago, I arrived at a very nice Radisson Blu Hotel in Minneapolis for my talk on the "hotel of the future." My client was the good people on the Board of Carlson & Rezidor Hotels, the group responsible for a large number of impressive hotels and travel operations around the world.

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http://setupmyhotel.com/train-my-hotel-staff/front-office-training/131-the-guest-cycle-in-hotel.html

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A basic example of housekeeping checklist.