How IoT is transforming the hotel room experience

By Warren Miller, contributing writer

Smart home technology may be migrating toward the hospitality industry, at least if big hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott have anything to say about it. In the future, when you walk into your hotel room for the first time, be prepared to be greeted by name by the ethereally robotic voice coming from the television. The lighting and temperature might already be set to your preferred levels before you even walk in the door, too.

Hilton is beta-testing its connected rooms in a smattering of its hotels worldwide and plans to expand to even more in 2018. They’re not the only ones, though. Marriott is also investing deeply in the idea of the IoT-enhanced guestroom experience. In its so-called Innovation Lab, located within its corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, Marriott has developed two different model guestrooms with IoT capabilities. The first is a representation of what a room in a newly constructed hotel might look (and sound) like when outfitted with existing IoT technology, such as the ability to dim the lights or close the curtains via voice recognition or through an app on your smartphone. The second IoT guestroom is a mock-up of an already existing hotel room after it’s been updated with IoT capabilities, a process requiring very little structural or electrical changes.

IoT will transform the hotel room experience. Image source: Marriott/YouTube.

Marriott has just begun to let hotel owners and consumer test groups view its model IoT rooms, and if all goes well, it will soon initiate a pilot program like Hilton’s in select hotels.

As more Americans integrate smart automation technology into their homes, hotels are going to be forced to keep up with the conveniences that their guests take for granted at home. Twelve-and-a-half percent of American households are currently considered smart homes, a number that’s expected to more than double by 2021, according to the media research group Kagan . Wynn Resorts currently boasts an Amazon Echo in every room, and other brand-name hotel chains are following suit. There are additional expenses to consider with IoT implementation, but it seems clear that Hilton and Marriott both believe that they’ll realize a significant return on their investment.

Take a virtual tour of Marriott's IoT hotel room of the future in the video below!

Perhaps this recent trend toward automated guestrooms is best described by Ken Freeman, senior vice president of demand generation at Legrand, one of the companies (along with Samsung) partnering with Marriott in the quest to create the next-generation hotel guest experience. “The hoteliers that get this right will gain the loyalty of the next-generation traveler,” he said . The race is on. Just be sure to bring your phone with you.