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September 26, 2016

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Emerging technologies take hassles out of travel

EVERY traveler has things to worry about ahead of their trip, whether it be misleading room photos, language barriers or getting lost in an unfamiliar location. Fortunately, cutting edge technologies are taking some of the anxieties out of travel and letting you focus on what’s important: having fun.

Rooms captured in 360-degee photographs, advanced search features, automated check-in, real-time street views and intelligent mobile systems are just some of the innovations that promise to reinvent the hospitality experience.

Giants such as Starwood, Ctrip and Homeinns as well as startups like Zhubaijia, a Chinese version of Airbnb, have all been actively adopting the latest technologies. These have brought fresh air to the hotel and tourism industries by improving profitability and the traveling experience of consumers.

According to a survey by Forrester, improving hotel user satisfaction could generate upwards of US$65 million each year for large operators with more than 10 million clients.

Top information technology firms have developed specific systems for hotels. These include Honeywell’s integrating security monitoring and air purification system.

Two other emerging technologies, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, are also being tested across the tourism industry. For example, Chinese tourism website Ly.com offers basic VR tours of some hotels through a mobile application. As these technologies mature, applications widen and costs lower, they are expected to become pillars in the industry.

Vivid displays

One risk of home-sharing and apartment rental services like Airbnb are hosts who post misleading photos and descriptions of their homes.

Zhubaijia, a Chinese Airbnb-like startup, aims to solve this problem by posting 360-degree room pictures.

“We really understand the concerns and we provide clients double-check and 360-degree photos to avoid hidden problems,” said Nathaniel Zhang, chief strategy officer at Zhubaijia.

The company uses Ricoh’s Theta S spherical camera, which can capture an entire 360-degree space with a single shot.

The pocket-size camera is used by Zhubaijia staff in cities like Tokyo, New York and Bali. The new technology and strategy has helped Zhubaijia attract celebrity users such as Huang Bo, Song Jia and Angela Baby, who is also an investor in the start-up firm.

Visualization has long been a trend in the hotel and tourism industries, because travelers want to see the easiest routes to their destinations.

Tuniu, a Nanjing-based online tourism firm, plans to offer a similar 360-degree room view service soon, covering 60,000 hotels globally.

Ctrip, the country’s biggest online travel service provider, has also offered real-time street view services to help users reach their destinations.

Chinese-friendly options

For Chinese tourists, travel agencies have developed customized services related to hotel searching, real-time destination translation, overseas Wi-Fi and multi-language support.

These services come as China’s outbound tourism market continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Last year, 120 million Chinese went abroad, of whom 84 million were self-guided tourists, according to industry figures.

Travel companies like Ctrip are now allowing users to search for “Chinese-friendly” venues overseas. These places offer, among other services, Chinese-style breakfasts, electric kettles and Chinese-speaking staff. By the end of last year, over 800 overseas hotels in 30 countries had earned such a designation.

Ctrip also provides Chinese users with “address cards” via their mobile application. These cards contain a hotel’s address in several languages, including English and Chinese, to be shown to local drivers.

Also for overseas Chinese tourists, Zhubaijia plans to offer users free Wi-Fi services which can help them obtain passwords or messages in their native language.

Keyless entry

Imagine arriving at your hotel, by-passing the check-in desk and going directly to your room with an automatically generated receipt. Starwood has introduced a mobile and keyless entry system that allows guests to do just this with a simple tap of their smartphone. Currently, this service is covering brands like Aloft and W Hotels.

“Innovation and personalization are at the forefront of everything we do at Starwood and SPG Keyless represents the perfect intersection of these two pillars,” the company told media previously.

Besides logging-in through special applications, hotel operators plan to allow consumers to check-in/out by the social services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat.

Both Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) see such services as part of their messaging strategies, supporting Facebook Messenger.

Besides high-end hotels, Chinese budget chain owners Homeinns and Rujia have also develops keyless entry systems, which are available at some sites in Shanghai and Hangzhou.




 

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