The Future of Hotel Rooms

3 “Kludgy” and “Kudge” are technology-sector idioms that describe a computer system made up of poorly matched components. OED

attributes the term to a 1962 issue of Datamation magazine using it as: "an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a

distressing whole."

2 According to Canadian-based VALSOFT Corporation, specializing in the acquisition and integration of vertical market software companies.

Contact:

Buddy J. Levy, CEO; blevy@lawlevy.com

Hilton Hotels (operators of the largest and most successful reservation service) has developed an advanced

smartphone app that allows the customer to choose their room, check in remotely, and even send an

electronic key to the phone to open the room door allowing the customer to completely bypass the front

desk process. But the technology stops there.

Marriott Hotels has introduced an in-room voice activated personal assistant that uses “a hybrid of

Artificial Intelligence and human brain to answer guest queries and services”. The system delivers

answers to common questions about hotel services and amenities as well as allowing the customer

to order room service, check-out, and make reservations in hotel venues. Developed by a Romanian

travel and tourism software company, the system does not interface with existing proprietary hotel

operational and analytical systems.

IHG (International Hotel Group {Holiday Inns, etc.}) has focused their technology upgrades on booking

methodologies, mobile check in & check out, smartphone beacons to track customers throughout the

property, and a 13-language Apple-watch translation app for world travelers. In short, they offer a

suite of unrelated applications.

The Problem & The Competition

Kludgy 3 summarizes the problem of all current industry systems; and related to kludge is the lack of interoperability among various hotel systems.

Kludgy; No Interoperability;

Independent operators and smaller chains have implemented various combinations of GPS tracking, in room dining, valet services, lobby kiosks for local information and mapping, food & beverage functions, and order-from-anywhere functions. • The exceptionally “high-tech” Aria Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas uses UK-based Crave Technologies in-room bedside tablets allowing customers to control the curtain, climate, lighting, “do not disturb” notifications, browse menus, place orders, change television and music channels, read on-line versions of newspapers, and set “scenes” to automatically set a mood or, choreograph wake up with an alarm which can open curtains, turn on lights, etc. • Wynn Las Vegas has installed a special version of Amazon Echo in each room to allow voice access to room service, mini bar, spa, housekeeping, laundry service, bell service, car valet, check-out, and amenity information. • The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas offers guests “Rose” -- a flirtatious chat-bot robot greeter/desk clerk that continues to send sexy text messages to guests during their stay. • The Venetian Casino-Hotel-Convention Center uses guests’ smartphones’ GPS software to position a property map to guide customers through conventions and around the property. None of these solutions are fully interoperable (ours is) and most operate with ill-assorted collections of code-fixes assembled to mimic full compatibility. Universality, these are stand-alone applications with neither integration with existing hotel management systems and certainly not with complex casino player tracking and management systems. Even the functionality between their own components are usually only patch-work inelegant, inefficient, or rigged together, work-around configurations (rather than new code, like SmartRooms©). The general clumsiness of these products is further complicated by government regulatory restrictions on any software that touches casino gaming data; making that interoperability all but impossible for any company unable to obtain the gaming licenses; licenses that are routine in our core business.