That centralized control panel or little switch — which is adjacent to the bed in some hotel and resort properties and allows you to control many of the lights and electronics in the room — is about to become obsolete, as Hilton unveiled a concept earlier today called Connected Room, with which you can personalize and control every aspect of your stay from your portable electronic device.
Control Every Aspect of Your Stay With Connected Room by Hilton
Using the official mobile software application program of Hilton on your portable electronic device, you will be able to control the temperature, lighting, television and window coverings in your room. You will also be able to personalize your hotel room with technology which loads the most popular streaming media and other accounts to the television in the room.
The existing Digital Key technology — which was introduced in August of 2015 — already gives you the capability to select your room, check in to your room, and open the door to the room without a physical key.
Over the long term, Connected Room will support a range of connected devices, engagements and experiences. You will able to use voice commands to control your room or access your content, and to upload your own artwork and photographs to automatically display in your room. You will also be able to set various preferences in your Hilton Honors membership account profile to further customize your in-room experience to your individual preferences.
Although the technology is currently still undergoing beta testing, Connected Room is operating live in one hotel property with a physical remote control instead of a portable electronic device — such as a tablet or smartphone. After being deployed in several more hotel properties within the next several weeks, it is expected to be scaled rapidly to hotel and resort properties throughout the United States in 2018.
Summary
Hilton calls this new technology “the industry’s first truly mobile-centric hotel room” — and it does have the potential of being useful.
Imagine no longer having to use the remote control, which has been identified as one of the worst “germ hot spots” in a hotel room and possibly cause guests who are fearful of germs to carry their own remote control — or “decorating” the room with your own images instead of physical ones attached to the wall in picture frames.
How about not only actually controlling the temperature of the hotel room — many thermostats currently do not allow you to be able to control the temperature of the room to your liking — but also being able to conserve energy with it? Perhaps you may even be able to heat or cool the room prior to you returning to it after being out? You will have the option to conserve energy.
Hilton potentially benefits from the new technology as well, as updates to software can be implemented through the Connected Room platform to create new experiences and offer new features instead of relying on new hardware to update hotel rooms. Additionally, hotel operators will be able to monitor how their hotel properties are managing energy in real time to ensure they are effectively reducing environmental impact, which is important to Hilton.
That the Connected Room technology will provide hotel operators with better insight into guest preferences might cause hesitation and trepidation amongst some guests due to the emulation of “Big Brother” and could have the potential to be creepy to some people…
…but judging from the 34 million digital check-ins; four million room key downloads; greater than 18.7 million doors opened — in the month of October of 2017, a door was unlocked with Digital Key every 1.5 seconds — the vast majority of guests will more likely embrace the technology than eschew it.
I will need to try the technology first-hand before I can arrive at a definitive judgment.
Source: Hilton.
