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Three Mistakes Hotels Are Making with Wi-Fi
Posted: 09/18/2023

Wi-Fi is now like the foundation for your hotel: if it’s not solid, it can jeopardize everything.
Your HSIA network has to deliver the performance and experience your guests demand; Wi-Fi has evolved from being an amenity to a necessity and key driver of guest satisfaction.
In the converged world, all your systems for business operations depend on a solid and secure Wi-Fi network. Without it, nothing else works properly—your staff and systems will struggle, and you will waste precious time, money, and resources trying to recover.
Here are three things you may be doing that put you and your Wi-Fi network at risk, and what you should do instead.

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Definitely Doug 9/15/23: Experience Matters!
Posted: 09/15/2023

Hotels are usually the first thing a traveler books within a destination. And hotels usually know that destination better than anyone else (or any website) a guest might consult. But are hotels connecting the dots?

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Definitely Doug 8/25/23: Check It Off the List!
Posted: 08/25/2023

This week I will cover software that goes under various descriptions, including quality assurance, audit, and checklist management. It includes anything that involves a standard list of things that someone needs to perform or verify. In hospitality, this is still an emerging field, but is growing very rapidly.

Between 2020-2022, traveler adoptions fluctuated drastically due to the lockdowns, the impact of the variants, and the vaccination schedule. As the pandemic is behind us and people start to travel in 2023, one question is on every practitioner’s mind: What are the traveler’s current expectations and preferences in the post-pandemic world?

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Definitely Doug 8/11/23: Charge Me Up!
Posted: 08/11/2023

Few things make travelers more anxious than a mobile phone with a low battery. For years, hotels have tried to play catch-up with evolving mobile device charging standards, and many seem to have given up. Guests can sometimes find desktop or bedside USB ports (dated but still relevant charging standard), but most hotels offer only an electrical outlet, and too many times it is in the most difficult-to-reach location possible. Others have made expensive decisions to install USB ports on bedside tables or work desks, only to find them out of date when the standards changed – or broken by frequent use.

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Interactive Technologies Power Alibaba Group’s FlyZoo Hotel in Hangzhou-Could this ‘robotic’ property be a prototype for the future?

12/03/2018

by Fran Worrall

After two years of preparation, the FlyZoo Hotel — a futuristic property that uses interactive technologies to do everything from greet guests to deliver room service — is ready for business. Owned by China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, the hotel, which is currently on soft launch, is located on the company’s corporate campus in Hangzhou. The property is set to officially open later this year.

In late September, Alibaba A.I. Labs, which leads development of the company’s artificial intelligence products, announced a robot designed specifically for the hospitality sector. The tiny automatons, which stand about three feet tall and move at a speed of approximately two miles per hour, are encased in aluminum and feature multi-sensor data functionality and parallel computing. The robots come with an autonomous navigation system to recognize obstacles, a communications system to control elevators, facial recognition technology to verify identities, and semantic mapping to improve human-robot interaction.

At FlyZoo Hotel, robots are found throughout the property. Guests can ‘talk’ to the interactive assistants using voice commands, hand gestures and touch. The robots can perform a variety of tasks, from delivering laundry to closing the curtains. They increase efficiency and reduce overhead by bridging the gap between guest needs and response times and enabling the property to significantly reduce staff.

In the near future, Alibaba Group says it plans to open unmanned restaurants and libraries on its corporate campus. A.I. Labs will determine if the robots are suitable for other scenarios, such as hospitals and offices, after testing them in the hotel sector.

According to research firm Global Market Insights, the demand for service robots is on the rise, primarily due to advances in artificial intelligence, cloud technology, machine learning and the Internet of Things. These technologies not only enhance efficiency but also enable decision-making in real time.

Likewise, the International Federation of Robotics (IRF), a global industry non-profit organization, predicts a positive long-term sales forecast for service robots, with an expected growth rate of 20 percent to 25 percent within the next two years.