SkyCity eyes hotel of the future

SkyCity is preparing to take a punt on what technology features customers will expect from five-star hotel rooms in three to five years' time.

Chief information officer Mike Clarke says the casino operator has talked to customers and prospective suppliers to try to define a "room of the future".

"In the early days of laptop travel, you would be under the bed pulling out the telephone cable," he says.

But now business people and tourists are travelling with digital and video cameras, iPads and MP3 players.

"What we are looking to do is create a range of options. If you just want to be able to check your Facebook page and your email then you should be able to do that on the television."

Guests are now used to listening to their own music anywhere, he says.

"Let's get it so we can plug that in through the sound system that is already there, without people having to have 14 cables and a soldering iron."

The television, room phone or a separate control panel could control the air-conditioning and electric curtains.

SkyCity may need to provide different options for people to check menus, make restaurant bookings or order extra towels, he says.

"It could be through an XML application on the IP [internet protocol] phone and on the television. We are not saying it has to be one place.

"Guests should come in, have the `technology experience' and not even notice it. Then I think we have won."

The company owns two hotels with 656 guest rooms in Auckland and another in Darwin, Australia.

Usability consultant Trent Mankelow, co-founder of Optimal Usability, says connectivity is especially important when people are travelling. Hotels have a lot of room for improvement.

"The number of hotels I've been to where it is extraordinarily expensive and nothing works ... there is so much room for innovation there."

Televisions with USB ports and slots for SD cards that could be used to play back pictures and movies could make a big difference.

He is helping organise a conference in Munich for the Usability Professionals Association at a hotel that wanted to charge 15,000 (NZ$26,000) for five days' internet access for 700 delegates.

"Even then, they are saying 700 people is too many, and they are only going to be able to allow a certain number of people access at a time."

- © Fairfax NZ News