TOP STORY Interview: Ed Potter on boutique hotel LATEST NEWS FEATURES VIDEOS Editor's comment 17/04/2019
• The future is here. What would have seemed inconceivable ten years ago is now possible, and what's more, it is entering the hospitality space. 5G welcome robots and virtual reality rowing machines are just some of the facilities installed at the InterContinental Shenzhen as a result of the hotel's tie up with comms giants Huawei and China Telecom.
It will be interesting to see what the guest demand and take up of these services are. Although I am a huge fan of Blade Runner, I have to admit to finding this persistent drift of everyday life from the real to the virtual slightly disconcerting and I'd much rather be welcomed by a person than a robot.
But recent research from Criton has found that 58 per cent of guests polled were "likely or very likely" to want the opportunity to check-in via an app and access their hotel room via a digital door key. "With 68 per cent finding it unacceptable to queue at reception for longer than five minutes, offering guests access to a service which global chains already offer is rapidly becoming a vital priority for independent operators," said the company's report. Click here to read more.
Technology is one of the subject that will be discussed in workshop format at next month’s Boutique and Lifestyle Hotel Summit, which takes place in London on May 22.
As well as the usual high quality cast of speakers and content-rich agenda, we have introduced a series of interactive sessions designed to tap in to the collective knowledge and experience in the room. The first will be a development workshop, where attendees will be asked to create a concept for a new boutique hotel brand, splitting up in to smaller groups to trade ideas for the fictional brand's design, social spaces, technology, sleep science, investor considerations, operations, marketing and distribution. This will be followed by speed workshops, in a similar format, on how to make F&B profitable; wellness; accessibility; partnering with your local community, management; budget boutique and hybrid hotels; and guest reviews and reputation management.
We will also be celebrating with the winners of the 2019 BoHos - the Boutique Hotel Guest Experience Awards - which will be announced at a ceremony after the Summit.
Click here to find out more about BLHS and to buy your tickets.
George Sell, editor
Katie Houghton
Group head of sales: +44 (0)7535 135 116
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