Imagine you just landed at the airport of your holiday destination and you receive a push notification from your hotel, inviting you to check in while you are waiting for your luggage to arrive. This could be reality in the near future, according to guest ‘digitainment’ company roompad.
“Roompad is an interactive software platform for the hotels of the future,” roompad CEO Marc Frauenholz told 4hoteliers.
The product can be incorporated in hotel-owned tablets or smart TVs and will be available as an app for guests.
The main idea is to accompany the guest from the beginning of the journey until he arrives at home again.
“The big advantage is that hotels can provide their guests with important information before they even arrive and guests can filter this information to adapt it to their needs," said Frauenholz.
Pre-arrival
“Imagine you just landed in Berlin Tegel, turned on your phone and received a message from your hotel saying ‘Welcome to Berlin. Would you like to check in,’” said Marco Richardson at the presentation of roompad at the ITB this week.
“But that’s not all. When the taxi driver asks you for the address of the hotel, you don’t need to search for the piece of paper you wrote it down on. You can find in the app,” he added.
The app will also read out the address in different languages in case the guest is travelling in a country where he is not familiar with the language.
Then, if the guest hasn’t checked in while waiting for his luggage, he can do so while in the taxi. Identification can be done with social media. Once all information is confirmed, it’s saved in the app, including the room number.
“This is very handy for people who travel a lot,” said Richardson. “I’m changing hotels so often that I can never remember my room number when I go for breakfast. With roompad I don’t have to anymore.”
At the hotel
Once in the hotel, the guest will be able to control the entire room with his smartphone. With just a few clicks, he can regulate the temperature of the room, turn lights on and off and change channels on the TV.
“But the question is how smart is it to turn lights on and off with your tablet or smartphone,” asked Richardson. “Not so much! It’s only smart when you add intelligence.”
An example of an intelligent feature is the roompad alarm clock. “Each person can create their own wake-up experience,” explains Richardson.
If the guest needs to wake up at 6 a.m., the room will start to get a bit warmer at 5 a.m. At 5.45 a.m., lights will turn on slowly to imitate sunrise and at 6 a.m., the TV, radio or music player will turn on, quietly first and then louder over time.
“I think it’s a great experience and maybe made waking up easier for the guest,” said Richardson.
Roompad launched its product at the ITB 2015 and hopes to equip the first hotels by April or May, said Frauenholz.
