InnSpire

With an increasing use of technology anytime, anywhere, hotels have to adapt and propose more innovative ways for guests to experience their stay. Hotels are not only active on Internet via various social media (facebook, linkedin, twitter, pinterest), they are now being technology-active within their establishments, developing apps and all sort of gadgets. 

Martin Chevalley, CEO & Co-Founder of InnSpire, said, "Gadgets are becoming an ever-

more integrated part of our everyday life, but that doesn’t mean that everybody loves the gadgets.  What people love is what their gadgets do for them.  I think that Guest Media Streaming won this award because hoteliers realized that it hits the sweet spot for travelers, being able to easily use their gadget to wirelessly stream photos, videos or music of their choice directly to the TV in their room, without downloads or installations.  This innovation meets that need for hotels." 

Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) has announced the 6^th March 2014, the 2013 winner of the most innovative hospitality technology award.

HTNG is a global non-for profit organization that coordinates and articulates the technologies related to hotel industry. It aims in fostering the innovation in order to improve the guest experience, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the professionals.

Hotel Technology Next Generation is a link between innovation, technical practices and the businesses.

It manages every year the most innovative hospitality technology award, during which a technology firm is elected as the most innovative of the year. Different hoteliers and consultants evaluate online or on-site, the technology firms who have developed products and services for the hospitality market. This year’s competition hosted 18 new entrants developing various technologies and systems mainly focused on guest service and entertainment.

The award opens each year a handful of possibilities for innovative firms as well as for hoteliers willing to cope with the continuous and perpetual changes of the technology landscape. 

The winner was the firm InnSpire. InnSpire is an hospitality solution which develops fully integrated technologies to improve the customer experience and the efficiency of the hotel. Indeed, it has systems for staff and resources planning with alerts when there is a peak. It also has a communication software to increase the interaction with the guests, in the case of special requirements or just for a simple room-service order. It enables hotel to follow instantly the activity of their establishments and have a overall view of their sales and for example who are their most profitable clients. 
The awarded service is their streaming solution: guests can easily and wirelessly load their own contents (movies, games, music, photos) from their devices directly to the TV in their room. This technology is possible via the Innspire box; guests just need to activate the system via the TV and connect their IPhone, IPad, Android or Windows phones without any app downloading or any setting up.

This technology respond to a willingness to be connected at all time. It allows guests to be over-connected while travelling, it is a way to facilitate the access to their own data. It also develops value for the hotel implementing the technology, creating an intelligent environment. 

Though this technology seems to be fully integrated in the hospitality industry, we can be critical and wonder if this type of technology wouldn't be a brake to the exploring and wandering implied by any kind of travel. Is the ease of digital accessibility in hotels will change the tourist behavior? 

Sources

Hotel News Resource http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article76818.html
HTNG Organization http://www.htng.org/press-releases/572

Video and Image: http://www.innspire.com

Amandine Peton & Mélanie Lesieur