Hospitality Innovation News

As my passion of travel and hospitality grew ten years a go, so did my interest in hotel marketing. My research into hotel marketing then developed until I became fascinated by hotel systems and began working with system developers and delivering training within hotels in Asia.

Slowly, my interest in hotel systems has expanded to encompass all things of a technical nature within the hospitality industry; particularly the nerdy innovations that could be considered superfluous by some but I consider to be ‘funky enticements’.

Latest Innovative Announcement

The latest techy announcement comes from Starwood , who have entered into a partnership with Zinio , a company that digitally published printed magazines. Starwood will now offer a Digital Newsstand to guests in Four Points, Element, and Aloft hotel properties, for free!

My understanding is that the Digital Newsstand will be accessible in guest rooms and at kiosks in the lobby.

The Starwood press release states:

“The digital newsstand, … will offer participating titles including: Caribbean Travel & Life, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Field & Stream, Golf Fitness Magazine, Kiteboarding, Macworld, mental_floss, Outside, Outside's GO, PC World, Saveur, Ski Magazine, Skiing, Spa Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Wakeboarding and Working Mother.
Also, Starwood will be the first hotel company to offer VIVmag, the first interactive digital women's luxury-lifestyle magazine, conceived and designed exclusively to be read digitally.

To access the digital newsstand during your stay, you click through from the internet portal page (on your laptop in your room or on a lobby kiosk) "to the private-label newsstand where free single issues will be featured," pick the magazine you want to read, register for Zinio, and read mags to your heart's content.”

The digitized magazine titles will include animated graphics, easy to read text, account registration, and simple navigation.

You can expect to see the digital newsstands in Element hotels by the end of May and hopefully we will see them at Aloft and Four Points by Sheraton properties later this year. Whether this includes Asian hotels is not clear, but I do hope to see them in at least large cities by the end of the year.

Yet another example of innovation from the Starwood group of hotels!

If you know of any innovative hotel booking software or hotel technology, I would love to hear your comments and reviews. Please get in touch via the ‘comments’ link below or by emailing me at eharradine@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks for reading (and for your feedback)

Emma

Hotel & Travel Innovations

Above: My personal favourite innovation within the hotel industry. W Hotels have introduced the Whatever/Whenever service to their already extensive list of luxury services.

Hotel & Travel Innovations

Today I have been looking back over the last three years, and reading travel articles I’d written for both business and pleasure; I cannot believe how much the travel industry has changed. Obviously, dramatic changes occurred after the events of September 11th; however, it’s changes unrelated to this event that have made the biggest impact. Technological changes have made the most noticeable difference; the web; hotel booking systems, and low cost operators have rendered the travel agent virtually obsolete.

Hotel booking systems have changed dramatically. Many of the small to medium-sized hotels I originally consulted for were using nothing more than a pen and note paper to record bookings; many didn’t see the necessity for a computerized system. And even then, the systems that were available didn’t even have graphical booking calendars let alone the ability to create reports. Now, systems include financial reports, maintenance schedules, and invoice options.

Booking Systems

And what does the future hold? Booking systems aimed purely at small to medium-sized hotels, motels, guest houses, and inns are evolving into web based booking systems to allow potential customers to enquire on room availability.

And within other areas of the hotel and travel industry:

Despite the struggling economy, airlines appear to be looking to the future; upgrading business class to the point that it looks like a luxury hotel and airport lounges so that they resemble fine dining restaurants. So what’s next? Will we have private bath and shower areas and individual lockable rooms in first class? Economy class changes will be interesting to monitor as well; self check-in seems to finally have caught on and pay TV appears to be growing in popularity. How about more comfortable seating and the ability to get from your window seat to the aisle without disturbing fellow passengers?

Shanghai and London have led the way in terms of innovative airport transportation. The Maglev (a magnetically levitated train) is a definite ‘must-do’ when in Shanghai and the Heathrow Express (the most expensive train journey in the world per mile) is a definite ‘don’t-do’ when in London. But of course, companies selling over priced on-airport parking shudder at the though of inexpensive and innovative airport transportation, so I wonder where their futures lie? Is there room for innovation within airport parking? I hope so!

What about hotel innovations? The concept of budget hotels has extended the term ‘budget’ to include new ‘miniature hotels’. Miniature hotels take the idea of ‘no frills’ and run with it; no frills means no TV, no windows (unless you’re either lucky or willing to pay extra) no phone (excellent, no calls from prostitutes at three in the morning!) and no toiletries, but of course, they’re extremely cheap; catering to guesst who couldn’t normally afford the luxury of travel.

At the other end of the scale, high-end hotels have added new luxuries to their already extensive list; bath butlers, personal butlers, elevator wi-fi, to name but a few. My personal favourite luxury innovation is Whatever/Whenever by Starwood’s W Hotels. Their advertising reads:

“Birthday Party at 35,000 feet? Wedding Dress Pickup by Helicopter? Bath of Hot Chocolate? At W Hotels, your wish truly is our command with our Whatever/Whenever service. We’ll make your special moment magical, and transform your dreams into reality. Whatever you want. Whenever you want it (as long as it’s legal!)”

At this precise moment, I’m trying desperately to think of the most original and difficult to achieve Whatever/Whenever possible. Any ideas?

If you have an idea for a crazy Whatever/Whenever or have heard of a crazy hotel/travel related innovation, I’d love to hear from you. What’s your favourite travel innovation from the last three years?

Thanks for reading,

Emma

Please leave your comments here or email me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk