Sonifi Solutions, Inc., which works with global brands such as Hyatt and Marriott, generates unique QR codes for guests on their in-room television — to activate, you scan with your phone camera, as you would a web-based restaurant menu, which takes you to an app or website. Then with their phones, guests control their TVs and lighting, connect with the concierge (by chat), order in-room dining or make a spa appointment. The “personalization” piece of the platform extends to the television, which based on guest behavior and information gleaned from a loyalty program, can be set to a yoga class for a fitness enthusiast or ESPN for a football fan.
“By streamlining mobile capabilities and letting phones be the place of fulfillment, it saves guests time,” said Kara Heermans, a Sonifi senior vice president.
Juliana Colangelo, 33, a vice president at the wine and spirits marketing firm Colangelo & Partners, is a fan. (Note her age.)
“Smart TV QR codes get me what I need on my phone, from hotel gym classes to valet parking,” she said, adding that she wishes that rooms had QR codes to leave staff tips. “I never carry cash anymore.”
A system that wastes ‘mental energy’
But please, can we go back? These “guest enhancements,” touted as in-demand by hoteliers and the tech companies that make them, are not in demand by me. They have been, in fact, obstacles — obstacles between me and sleep, me and the view that I had paid for, and me and firm pillows (in Miami, that request was not an option on the tablet, and no human answered the phone in housekeeping). What was once straightforward is now idiotically complicated.
“I used to walk into a hotel room and relax. Now it is a job to figure out how to use the lights and switch off the television, which, of course, is set to the hotel’s promotional station,” said Jill Weinberg, 67, a regional director with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and like me, a frustrated hotel guest. “Here is an entirely new system to waste mental energy upon every single time I travel.”
Another quibble with “personalized” hotel rooms? They are impersonal. “Frictionless” functionality does not engender character or soul; people do. I like being welcomed by the front desk, to discuss restaurant ideas with the concierge and chitchat with the other staff, who more often than not have interesting local tips. I could care less if a room “knows” that I like Pilates and the thermostat set to a nippy 69 degrees. And I’m not downloading an app just to request towels. Can’t I just ask housekeeping?