Comment: Get ready for change in hospitality

At the time of writing, the mobile app Pokemon Go – in which players point their mobile phone cameras at real places and imagine themselves training and battling virtual creatures in them — had just become the latest global smart device sensation.

Actually, this phenomenon can be said to have been anticipated in the world of hotels at the new Premier Inn sub-brand The Hub, now operational for more than a year, which already has five UK properties. The brand’s app not only allows guests to book, check in and control the lighting and temperature in their rooms, but even has a great feature that provides recommendations about local restaurants and tourist attractions when guests point their phone cameras at a local map art piece on the guest room wall.

Closer to home, the authors of this article are investigating the use of similar ‘augmented reality’ technology for a themed hotel project in Dubai.

In fact, self check-in apps that let guests bypass the reception desk and double as virtual room keys have been in use for a few years now in the US, for example, by Marriott and Starwood for their loyalty programme members.

To tout its tech credentials, Marriott launched its virtual reality ‘teleporter’ booths back in 2014, which allow users to ‘travel’ instantly to London or Hawaii right from the lobby bar of the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront on a 4D virtual journey while wearing an Oculus Rift DK2 headset.

At the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai this April, South African speaker Graeme Codrington from the TomorrowToday Global company predicted that in the near future, gatherings of the type would be held virtually, with delegates wearing VR headsets in the comfort of their own offices or homes, instead of meeting at hotels.

In related news, Elon Musk’s auto-piloted Tesla cars are all the rage, despite a couple of high-profile accidents that have seen the company working hard on refining its ‘autosteer’ technology.

Hotels are another notable testing ground for cutting edge automation, with Japanese manufacturers now building robots that can replace hotel receptionists, housekeeping attendants, barmen and even entire kitchen staff. Of course there are teething troubles, but the momentum is irresistible.

The prospect of the ‘humanless’ hotel, i.e., one without human employees, but still full of human guests, is no longer science fiction, but likely to become commonplace in our lifetimes.

The full deployment of automation in all kinds of industries is being delayed worldwide because of the social implications, but will inevitably come. The expectation of massive unemployment when machines replace humans is offset against the increasing free availability of information through the Internet, which is eroding the principles of scarcity and monopoly upon which the capitalist system itself is based.

The so-called ‘sharing economy’ is in its infancy, and the term is interpreted in too many ways to be definitive.

However, Airbnb — which has just signed a deal with the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing — is often held up as an example of the sharing economy, whereby home owners rent out their spare rooms or flats to travellers directly through the app/web site, thus cutting out the network of middle men on which conventional hotels rely — not to mention undercutting hotels as well, just as Uber undercuts traditional taxis.

The world is changing fast, but change is safe, as the therapists teach us. Hoteliers have a reputation for being reluctant to change and to adopt technological advances, despite the individual examples we have given of the few properties that have taken the leap. Many people have vested interests in remaining the same.

But rest assured, change will happen, come what may.

That is why this will sadly be the last article in Hotelier Middle East authored by the undersigned.

Between us, we have been contributing monthly columns and one-off articles to this magazine since 2003.

We have given you thousands of facts and figures, and shared with you our opinions and those of scores of authoritative interviewees.

We hope you have been entertained and gained a few insights along the way.

However, a new editorial policy dictates that you lovely readers deserve a change of voice.

We wish our successors every success and many years of happy scribbling!

About the Authors:

Guy Wilkinson is non-executive director and Barbara Wilkinson is COO of Viability, a hospitality and property consulting firm in Dubai. For more information, e-mail:guy@viability.ae or barbara@viability.ae.