Futuristic, high-tech upgrades at two hotel groups in China

Hotel guests in China will now be able to book in smart rooms that support AI, with voice control and facial recognition technologies.

Have you ever had issues figuring out how the air-con control panels work? Did you wait in line for several minutes to check in at a hotel? Well, from now on, if you’re traveling to China, you won’t have to worry about these aspects anymore

Two international hotel groups have recently announced that they’re going to make guests’ accommodation experience more futuristic by upgrading their properties throughout this country and making their rooms “more intelligent”.

Voice control technology

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced their collaboration with Baidu, a tech company from China that specializes in AI and internet search services, in the attempt of introducing “the next generation of intelligent hospitality.”

“IHG has always been at the forefront of innovation. We are thrilled to be pioneering in the hospitality industry and exploring the various possibilities of future experience with our guests,” Lin Wang, who is the vice president of Marketing at IHG Greater China, said in a statement.

“Millennials are particularly sensitive to technology, often seeking new things to try. The AI Smart Room will undoubtedly be extremely attractive for them, paving the way for a new level of modernization and consumer satisfaction,” he added.

There will be no less than 100 AI-powered suites in various hotels based in China by the end of 2018. All of them will benefit from voice control technology in order to improve the human-computer experience and make it more interactive.

Guests will have the chance to switch between leisure and work settings modes, depending on their preferences and on their needs.

Facial recognition technology

Meanwhile, another giant hotel group, Marriott, has announced on July 11th that a new product of the partnership between them and China’s giant e-commerce and tech company, Alibaba Group, has emerged. They have been working in the past period on a project to introduce facial recognition check-in technology at two of the brand’s international properties in China – Sanya Marriott Hotel Dadonghai and Hangzhou Marriott Hotel Qianjiang.

The hotel officials said that the traditional check-in process usually takes around five minutes, but it can take even longer during peak times. People spend precious time queuing instead of taking advantage of the hotel’s services or visiting the surroundings. With this new facial recognition check-in technology, everything is completed in less than one minute.

The machine helps guests to check themselves in by scanning their IDs and taking them a photo. Also, guests are required to input contact details. Once everything is done, the machine verifies the information and then dispenses their room key card. However, this process only targets Chinese travelers, at least for the moment.

For the moment, this new feature is still being tested in order to see how guests react to this high-tech change. Whether they decide to implement it in all Marriott hotels in the country or not, it depends on the guest and hotel feedback.

There’s a fully automated hotel in China

For more introverted people who don’t feel comfortable speaking to persons they don’t know but are in love with traveling and exploring the world, there’s a hotel in China where they don’t have to interact with any human being if they don’t want to.

Smart LYZ is a fully automated hotel. The company that designed this concept and developed the AI technology is based in Shenzhen and they opened the first hotel of this type in January 2018. The success was so big that they have already added two more automated hotels in the region and have planned to build 50 more by the end of 2018.

You book a room via the hotel’s Wechat website, you check in using the facial recognition machine installed in the main hall at the hotel, you unlock the room door using the given passcode or using the hotel’s mobile app and also, you use one of the app’s features to check out.