iPod as Teacher

In the article iPod as Teacher, the author tells us about the use of iPods for training new employees at Pal's Sudden Service. Pal's is a Tennessee-based regional burger chain. They have more than 650 employees who require 120 hours of on-the-job training before they can start working. Pal's was approached by TJ Schier, the founder of podTraining to try out iPods as an additional training tool. Shortly after, Pal's integrated 30GB iPods into their training process. The videos feature short bursts of information at four minutes or less on each subject. They have a four step training method: tell, show, practice, and coach. Regular training without the iPods was inconsistent from one restaurant to another because each location took a different approach to training their new employees. Employees are able to finish training in 13 days instead of the usual 3 weeks without the iPod. Since the introduction of the iPod in the training method, there has been a lower rate of mistakes and a double-digit growth in sales. Turnover averages 91% for employees and 4% for assistant managers. Pal's had expected to reach payback for the 200 iPods they bought within 12 -15 months but actually earned it all back within 6 months. Pal's has also implemented iPod training for managers to refresh them on strategic planning, sales projections, and expense projections. Pal's was the first organization to recieve the Tennessee Excellence Award twice .


I thought that this article was pretty interesting. I had never thought about using iPods to train new employees. I had heard of professors putting their lectures on iTunes as Podcasts so that their students could download them and listen to them on their iPods. I think the use of iPods for training is a great idea especially if it brings greater turnover rates for employees and the restaurant itself. It also seems like its a good idea because it allows employees to go through the training process faster than the traditional way. I am interested in seeing how exactly the iPod works for training. I want to know if with the iPod, the employees are still required to do on the job training or if they just listen and watch the iPod and are good to go.

(2007, April 1) iPod as Teacher. Hospitality Technology. http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=8D86DF469BD74C098382D9532C904D8E&nm=Additional&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=FBDB371A31CF4D9EA2C7F7A5401A1D5F

Hi-Touch vs. Hi-Tech

In the article High Touch vs. High Tech the author tells us about a new restaurant, uWink Media Bistro. The restaurant has tables that have touch screens to order your food instead of having a waiter come to the table to take your order. A food runner delivers your food to your table and there is a “host” who goes around making sure that guests aren’t having any troubles with the touch screens. The screens also allow guests to play games with other tables in the restaurant. The concept was founded by Nolan Bushnell who is the founder of Chuck E. Cheese. The restaurant is located in Las Angeles and opened in 2006. The target audience is women ages 21-35.

The author believes that the concept is a great idea but also thinks that it may be taking self service too far. It doesn’t allow for guests to ask a waiter what they suggest or even any way of customer service. Many people go out to eat to be served without having to do any work and reward the server with a tip if they have good service. This touch screen restaurant first eliminates the need for waiters and second the need for guests to tip. The hospitality field is considered a customer service industry but when the jobs are taken over by touch screens, the guest-server interaction is completely removed. Are people willing to give up the customer service for self-service?

I found this article interesting because I am very into how the hospitality industry is becoming more and more about self-service and not customer service. I think the whole idea of touch screens at the table to order your food is great for quick service restaurants but I don’t think they are a good idea for family style, sit down restaurants that would normally have waiters. The whole idea of having waiters is so that guests can relax and not have to do anything themselves. Also without the waiters, guests can’t get recommendations about what is good and what isn’t. The idea of being able to connect with other tables to play games is a great idea for kids because they can get very restless while waiting for their food. I can understand that some people would find this idea great because they don’t like to be bothered every five minutes by someone asking if their meal is good or if they need anything but at the same time, do you have to touch something on the screen when you need something and sit and wait until the “host” can come assist you? I would just find that annoying. I feel that the hospitality industry is starting to rely too much on self service and technology and soon will be taken over by technology in the future leaving many people without jobs.

(2007, March 1) Hi-Touch vs. Hi-Tech. Hospitality Technology. http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=8D86DF469BD74C098382D9532C904D8E&nm=Additional&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=22096FF1A41F43908F3ED531991632C9

Self Service with a Smile

Self Service with a Smile by George Koroneos talks about self service kiosks and their different uses in hotels. The use of kiosks in hotels has become very popular. Hyatt hotels has check-in and check-out kiosks but they also have in-room folio access. Guests can access their folios on their tv screens and check out from their room. They have also installed a self-service food delivery system. Guests can place an order on a kiosk located in the lobby and have their food served to them in the sitting area of the lobby. TWELVE hotels which is a new boutique hotel brand has kiosks that allow guests to check-in and out and connect to local airlines to print boarding passes. They have also installed self-service touch screen terminals in ever hotel room. The terminals allow guests to order room service, ask for towels, or request anything else they might want or need. The computer can also be used to check out of the hotel and to have the valet bring your car around to the front door.
Great Wolf resorts are using a different type of self service. The resorts are using wristbands as guests "keys" to their rooms and also as ways to pay for things at the resort. Guests can scan their wristband at a pay station and pick up anything from food to video games. The guest's account is directly debited. The resorts have now gone to a cashless system for the wristbands. Before the cashless system, the wristbands could have a certain amount of money set on them. With the cashless system, everything is just directly charged to the guest's bill. Adults can put a certain amount of money on kids wristbands or they can set up a debit account that charges right to the room. These wristbands are great because guests don't have to worry about carrying cash around with them or having to store their wallets in a locker when they go tot he water park.

I think self-service is great. A lot of people like to be able to do things on their own without have to rely on others to help them. The kiosks at Hyatt are movable so that when they have large meetings they can move the kiosks close to the entrance of the meetings. This allows for the guests to check out right by their meeting instead of an extreme amount of people going to the front desk. The use of the personal terminals in the rooms at TWELVE is great as well. Instead of calling down to the front desk to request more towels, the request is sent straight to housekeeping allowing the guests to receive their towels faster. The wristbands at Great Wolf resorts is a great form of RFID technology. They allow parents to keep a watch on what their kids are spending and also at the same time make life and vacation just a little bit easier. They don't have to worry about making sure they have their wallet at all times and it's especially helpful when a family wants to go to the water park. They don't have to worry about a lost of stolen wallet because all they need is right there on their wrist.

Koroneos, George. (2007, March 1) Self Service with a Smile. Hospitality Technology. http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=8D86DF469BD74C098382D9532C904D8E&nm=Additional&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=C5EF074DAD4C458CA8A0B0F89469267E

High Touch vs. Touch Screen

High Touch vs. Touch Screen by Mary L. Carlin is about the self service kiosks being implemented into hotels. Carlin talks about the different touch screen kiosks that many hotels have available for guests to use. The article says that many hotels are implementing the kiosks because they need to keep up with the tech-savvy world. The kiosks allow people to check in within seconds and checkout within seconds as well. The article also brings up the topic of whether or not the kiosks are a threat or success for hotels. Carlin believes that it depends on the demographic and where the kiosks are located in the hotel lobby. The placement of the kiosks in the hotel lobby is a big to do. Many believe that they should be located at the front desk or as close to the front desk as possible. They also think that a front desk agent should be stationed at the kiosks of a guest needs to be assisted. The implementation of these kiosks is lowering the need for front desk agents. Also with the use of these kiosks, all front desk agents need to be able to know how they work in case a guest needs help with the machine. Carlin lastly talks about other touch screen kiosks that are coming to hotels. They include kiosks that allow guests to print boarding passes and sign up for a hotel’s frequent guest program.

This article really sparked my interest because the use of touch screen kiosks in hotels seems to be a growing trend. I haven’t decided whether or not I think that the self-service kiosks are going to be a good thing for hotels or not. I completely agree with them for the simple fact that people like to do things on their own and don’t want to have to worry about interacting with someone to get a room key and whatnot, many guests are tired when they arrive at their hotels and just don’t want to deal with the people at the front desk. The downside I see to the self-service kiosks is that they are requiring fewer front desk agents. The more machines there are, the fewer front desk staff there is. I know that there still needs to be someone there to assist guests with the kiosks if they are having trouble with them but that also means that there doesn’t have to be five or six front desk agents anymore. I worked at the Hyatt in my town last summer and also over winter break and we have both a self check-in/check-out kiosk and a self service computer to print your boarding passes. I think that the boarding pass kiosk is a great idea for guests. It allows them to check their flights while at the same to print their boarding passes. The check-in kiosk never seemed to be used a lot when I was working. Most guests preferred to come to the front desk and interact with a person rather than a machine. I feel that with the self-service kiosks it depends on the age group and the style of the hotel. When I was working and someone used the kiosk is was much more likely for the person to be a young business man or women and not an older man or lady. Younger people are more comfortable with technology than older people are and I think that is the main factor that is going to decide whether or not the self-service kiosks are really going to be in big success in hotels.

Carlin, Mary L. (2008, February 19) High Touch vs. Touch Screen. Hospitality Technology. http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=1F14B173AACB4D08A3834FA59A12B66D

In the article, “Too much hotel technology,” Bradley Schmidt talks about how new technology in hotels is becoming too hard to understand for many consumers. Guests are faced with the dilemma of not knowing how to use hotel room lights, or preprogrammed Ipods. Guests are saying that they need program manuals on how to use amenities in their hotel room, this shouldn’t be necessary. Schmidt talks about specific hotels such as Hilton and Marriott and the types of technology they offer. The Hiltons in Chicago and San Francisco offer Sight and Sound pilots. The Marriott in Illinois offers fogless bathroom mirrors with 13-inch flat screen TVs in them. He says the problem is “not the need to worry about technology, but the customer service that supports it.” The author comes up with a possible cure for new technology in hotels. He believes that “hotels need to make sure that a technology is working.” Hotels need to focus more on customer service, not the technology it offers to guests. Employees need to be able to help a guest when they are having trouble with a certain technology in their hotel room. To conclude the article, Schmidt says that hotels need to “offer choices for those that feel comfortable with a technology and want to use it, and choices for those that don't feel comfortable and don't want to use it or don't have the knowledge.”


I found this article to be pretty interesting because you never really think about the fact that some people have issues in hotel rooms just because they don’t know how to use a technology in the room. I agree with what Bradley Schmidt says in his article about the fact that hotels need to focus more on the customer service rather than technology. The employees should know how everything in the hotel rooms work so that when a confused guest calls down, the employee can help them. I understand that many hotels are trying to keep up to date with the current technology trends but they really need to consider the type of guests they will most likely be having and decide whether or not to offer choices for guests where they can chose to have the technology or not. I know that I have been faced with fact of not knowing how to work a technology in my hotel room. I was staying in Marriott’s Renaissance hotel in Hong Kong and pretty much everything in the hotel was controlled by a panel by the bed. At first I was so confused as to how to turn certain lights on and how to set the alarm clock. Eventually I figured it out by pressing almost every button on the panel, but it would have been much easier if there were directions offered with it. I completely agree with the author that guests should be able to choose whether or not they want a room with all these technologies or not; it’s just another way that hotels can appeal to people’s personal preference.

Schmidt, Bradley. (2007, July 1). Too much hotel technology? Hospitlaity Technology. http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=8D86DF469BD74C098382D9532C904D8E&nm=Additional&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=D531C7E58BC94F36AB009DDC3EC55D2F