Welcome to the brave new world of hi-tech hotel rooms. These are guest rooms driven by facial recognition, voice recognition and something called augmented reality.
And it’s all changing the way you relate to your hotel guest room. And it’s much more than just using your smartphone to open your door or check in.
It’s about in-room chatbots like Alexa and Echo that are using artificial intelligence to receive and respond to your questions. The Echo controls the TV and the thermostat and links directly to the hotel concierge. You’ll find them in suites at the Wynn in Las Vegas.
At the Westin Hotel in Buffalo–if you order extra towels, toothpaste or deodorant– the toiletries are delivered by robot.
And then there’s augmented reality. At the Premier Inn in London, you can open the camera on your smartphone and point it at a city map on the wall inside your room– and up pops details on local bars, restaurants and attractions. But there are concerns — are the chatbots always listening to what’s going on in your room? And how is that information used or even stored? For the moment at least, silence may be golden.
For more on high-tech hotel rooms, check out:
Smart hotels come with privacy concerns
