In the lobby
Having forgotten to book a hotel for the Saturday night of my stay in New York City, I browsed through travelzoo two weeks before my visit trying to find a reasonably priced hotel. The TRYP hotel Times Square South came up with good value rooms.
It was a hotel with innovative spaces and retro decorations. It was extremely innovative in its use of technology. On entry into the physical hotel lobby, two large monitors greeted guests with hotel updates, opportunities and events. Upon registering as a guest with reception, I was given a username and code to join their social networking lounge – “ the Lobby Friend”. This temporary membership gave me access virtually to concierge, hotel staff and guests who had also joined the Lobby Friend.
The monitor in the lobby sharing Virtual Lounge updates
This had some great advantages:-
- Enabled networking and publicity of organised events by guests
- Concierge could immediately alert members to special deals/tickets/events as they came to hand.
- Finding NYC outlets eg “If I want to find specific store I could post a message and one of the hotel staffers would reply with an answer.
- If I got lost I could post a message and concierge or staff would help me (I loved this idea! as this was my biggest fear!)
As this was a reasonably new app, and as I was only there one night, I did not make much use of it. However, if I would have been there longer, I may have. The opportunity of a lifeline that if I got lost, sold me on the idea.
What do you think of this type of app? Would you make use of it? How could something like this be adapted into the classroom. Would a ‘lost’ button or update be useful for students when they get confused?
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