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
4 comments:
Hey Michelle! I thought you chose a great article. I also agree that there is too big of a focus on technology in the hotel industry today. When a guest checks into a hotel room, generally they are either traveling for business or on vacation. Either way, no one wants to walk into their room and not be able to figure out how to turn the lights on. Staying at a hotel should be a relaxing and stress free experience. As time goes on the technology used in the hotel industry becomes more and more advanced. Unfortunately the average human being cannot accommodate to these types of changes as quickly as you may think. I understand that technology can contribute to the experience of a guest in a positive way, all I’m saying is keep in mind who your consumers are. In other words, keep it simple.
I know when I go into a hotel. The high tech equipment is cool, but is it really necessary? If i'm on vacation, I don't really want to be in the hotel room checking out all the features, I want to be out wandering the streets. Some technologies such as wireless/flameless candles may be appropriate for a honeymoon suite but for a normal hotel room?.. probably not. Whats going to make a guests experience great is going to be fast service, not all the technology you can cram into one room.
I found this article very interesting and I agree with both Michelle and Bradley Schmidt on the issue that hotels need to focus on customer service and that the technology works, rather than the technology itself. I had never thought about guests not being able to operate their hotel room because of the technology used in it. I would be very upset if I checked into a hotel and was not able to operate the technology in my room. I remember the first time I was in a European hotel and did not know about having to insert your room key into the light switch in order to activate the electricity. I was very frustrated and upset because I couldn’t perform the simple task of turning on the lights.
I can understand why many people are having difficulty operating guest room technology. Many older people have trouble reading or understanding small LCD screens and the options displayed upon them. I feel hotels should consider putting together a comprehensive manual that explains how to operate every electronic amenity in the guest room. However, I don’t think hotels should be adding many electronic amenities that will require the heavy use of an instruction manual. I also think that instead of focusing on who can add the most high-tech amenities to their guest rooms, hotels should be concentrating on customer service and reducing energy consumption.
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