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WHEN Andrew Solum, a
London-based travel management consultant, checked into
his bedroom at Hong Kong's Langham Place Hotel, he was
delighted to hear the dulcet tones of Brian Perkins
reading BBC Radio 4 news.
"I had just come off a
lengthy flight from the US and it immediately made me
feel at home," he says. "My Italian colleague found an
Italian radio station playing in her room."
These auditory delights
came courtesy of a combined telephone and web-enabled
personal computer installed by the hotel in all its
bedrooms. Familiar to viewers of the television serial
24, the Cisco IP phone can be customised by guests if
they fill in a password-protected profile on the
internet before arrival.
One option is choosing
a favourite radio station to be uploaded for selection
on the touch-screen. If not, the hotel chooses a radio
station from their guests' home country.
Other preferences that
can be loaded on to the phone include frequently dialled
telephone numbers for speed dialling, company stocks
(run in a ticker-tape along the bottom of the screen)
and even a photograph of a guest's loved ones. Jeffrey
van Vorsselen, Langham's general manager, says: "We are
still discovering the possibilities."
The phone introduced by
Langham Place is perhaps the most vivid example of how
technology is helping hotels to personalise the service
they provide to guests.
There is, of course,
nothing new about the idea, as may be testified by any
pub landlord who keeps named tankards and strangers off
bar stools reserved for favoured regulars.
Indeed, several hotels
have also found more low-tech ways to look after their
best customers. One example is the Peninsula Beverly
Hills, California, which can retain guests' clothes when
they check out and have them hanging up in the bedroom
wardrobe awaiting their arrival the next time they check
in.
The hotel also prints
stationery and business cards with temporary contact
details for guests staying more than five nights, while
regulars are indulged with linen and bathrobes
monogrammed with their initials.
Another service offered
by the Peninsula is advance mini-bar customisation.
Before arrival, guests partial to a gin and tonic can
order sliced lemon or, if on diet, request that the
chocolate bars and any other temptations be removed.
Technology is pushing
this trend along. GuestWare, an American company, sells
hotels "guest experience management software", which
stores biographical information, guests' preferences and
even their complaints.
"The software allows
hotels to expand personalisation to a larger group more
efficiently," says Mike Benjamin, GuestWare's
vice-president. "It blows guests away if they call
housekeeping for an extra pillow and that same pillow is
already there waiting for them next time they come
back."
Executive floors in
hotels are another example of personalisation, where an
extra effort can be made, Solum says. "It's nice to be
known by your name, not your room number."
source = times |
