5 Things Every Tech-Savvy Hotel Should Have This Summer
Humanity has been traveling places and visiting things for a very long time. And when a person travels, for whatever reason, they need a place to stay. First hotels in the modern sense have been around since the early 19th century, and the business has been booming ever since. But times, they are changing, and the modern tourists and clientele want something more than just places of stay. Be it an extremely high level of luxury, or just a location that is far away from the curious eyes of the public, hotels have developed in many ways, and there are a lot of different types of hotels and hotel clients. But what about us, the tech-savvy clients? What about people in love with technology and gadgets, and everything related to computers and Internet?
Well, in this guide we’ll show you the five things every tech-savvy hotel should have, to impress geeks and tech enthusiasts from around the world.
1. If We’re On Social Media, What About Hotels?
So here’s the situation: you’re getting ready for your holiday in the hotel of your choice, and after you’ve booked your stay and got all of that out of the way, you go and send a message to the hotel, on Messenger. You introduce yourself, and tell them when you’re arriving, ask for some last minute directions and chat a little. This way you feel more connected to the hotel, and the feeling that they are truly connecting with their customers, and have time for them is something that would really impress you, wouldn’t it?
So you arrive at your hotel, and the receptionist welcomes you by your name and inquiries about your trip, to make sure the directions were all good. You immediately take to Twitter to say that this is a very cool hotel, and the hotel responds in a short period to thank you for your kind words.
This kind of social media integration is something most geeks and tech-savvy people would love. To be able to connect with their hotel on social media, and engage in communication with the hotel. That shows that the hotel has a deep understanding of how social media work, something not a lot of people still know. Social media truly is the present and the future, and every step hotels take to make themselves more visible and interactive can only be a step in the right direction.
2. Local Payments Make Purchases Easy
This one is very interesting, and if you find a start-up that does this, just remember, you’ve read it here first. So, the idea is to create an account when you check in the hotel, and that account can be used for any and all payments and purchases for your stay in the hotel.
We’re talking hotel purchases, but also purchases outside the hotel grounds. Wouldn’t it be great if you could leave your money and credit cards behind and just use one account for the holidays? Use it to pay for drinks, souvenirs, taxi fares and even bike rental. It would make everything just a tad easier, and more tech-oriented. Not to mention you could integrate the system with contactless paying systems such as Apple Pay, so you just wave your card or phone around and pay for everything with no worries.
3. A Hotel App Connected To All Services
More and more hotels are using custom apps to make the stay for guests a more enjoyable experience, but what can an app actually offer? The idea is this: you come to your hotel, download the hotel app, log in to the said app and voila! You have everything you need to know about your hotel, the town you’re in and much much else. The app can be used to interact with the reception, order room service or check out the calendar for the days ahead. You wouldn’t need to use 10 different sites and apps to check out what’s going on around you, and the best thing is that the app is connected directly to you and your room, so you can control your TV, air conditioning and more from your phone! For the guests that like to get loose in the evening but need to go somewhere in the morning, the app also lets you arrange a wakeup call whenever you want, so your days aren’t spent in bed, but outside by the sea!
4. Video Game Consoles And Gear For Fun
There’s just some people who like to play games a lot. I may or may not be one of them. And believe it or not, those people go on vacation too. That’s why we reckon that every tech-savvy hotel should offer some kind of gaming console in their rooms, so the guests can enjoy their free time doing what they love.
We can all agree that there’s something great about socializing over gaming, and wouldn’t it be great if you could just plug in a PS4 console in your hotel, and play games if there’s rain outside? Gamers would instantly flock to your hotel, and you’d be labeled as a hotel that thinks of the future.
Of course, a person needs to take all things in moderation, so it’s probably not wise to spend your entire holidays playing videogames in your hotel room, but one can’t deny that it’s a wonderful idea to help geeks unwind after a long day at the beach or a long night of partying after a great conference. It also connects couples and roommates, so there’s more fun for everyone. Just be careful not to forget the main reason you’re there for-the nature and the sights.
5. Gadgets. Nuff’ Said!
Well, of course, we’ve saved the best for last. You see, not a lot of hotels use technological gadgets to their advantage. It’s truly a mystery for us, but we would definitely advise hotels to slowly start incorporating more and more cool gadgets into the hotel rooms just to give them that little edge over the competition.
Imagine a hotel room that lets you control the intensity and the color of the lights from your smartphone, or a bathroom with Bluetooth speakers built into the shower cabin. It surely can be done, and the small touches like these are what sets apart some hotels from others. For instance, it would be great to offer wireless charging possibilities for guests in rooms, you just need their mobile phone make and model and that’s it – instant gratification.
There’s literally tons of cool stuff hotels can put into the rooms to make them more tech savvy, such as massage beds that are smartphone-controlled, and a surround sound system in the room that is also controlled by your phone and connects to it via Bluetooth!
Possibilities are literally endless, and hotels really have a plethora of opportunities to impress us, the geeks. It’s not hard, and it would certainly bring results, especially with the current shift to new technologies and smartphone integration with absolutely everything.
It remains to be seen what of these features we’ll see in our hotels, but we can only be sure that the hotel industry certainly won’t be missed by the newest trends in tech and social media.
