Dealing the Infuriating, Overwhelming and Unwanted Smart Tech in My Hotel Room | Hacker News Reader

Dealing the Infuriating, Overwhelming and Unwanted Smart Tech in My Hotel Room

nytimes.com

28 pointslisasays19 comments

The reverse happened to me in a hotel room lately. Everything was touch controlled from two panels panel next to the bed: lights in the bathroom, floor, bar, bedroom, kitchenette, indirect (colored) mood lighting, the tv, the blinds, everything but the AC.

Except, I could not figure out how to turn on the reading lamp on the bed-stand. What followed was a reverse UX drill-down. I tried every element and combination on the bed panel and the touch switches next to the door. (confusing everyone looking at my hotel window from the outside). Following the wires to a standard AC plug, I concluded it might not be operated by the touch panels. Just to be sure I unplugged it and plugged it in on the desk outlets. Nothing. So maybe some kind of touch activation in the base? Nothing. Do I need to touch it longer? Nope. Maybe touching the lamp shade? No, nothing again. Some kind of ring element to twist on the lamp arm? No, that's really just a nut to fasten the lamp arm. Maybe there was a pull wire that got ripped off? No. Sigh. I give up, maybe its just broken.

Next day I figured out it was a unmarked black flip switch, flush on the opposite side of the black metal base.

The author tries to make this an age issue. Young travelers love the technology and older travelers don't. I'm not sure where she thinks the cutoff point is. She makes sure to point out that one fan is 33, so that is below whatever she thinks the cutoff point is. My fiancee is 39 and doesn't love all the technology when we stay at hotels. I find it convenient and appreciate it. I'm 54.

39 and no thanks. It doesn't "just work" and honestly I just want a place to lay down and sleep. The hotel room is not the destination.

You know that meme of the VCR (Video Cassette Recorder, for the youngin's) with the clock that's blinking "12:00" until the kid comes and fixes it? Well, those VCR-fixin' kids are in their 50s now. So at what point does the author just confess that they're a cranky techno-phobe (and nothing wrong with that!), rather than blaming it on age?

Honestly, I could use with more smart tech in my hotel experiences.

Why can't my hotel chain of choice's app let me do the following all within the app:

- Book the room

- Check in (geo-locate to verify if necessary)

- Be my room key

- Be my TV remote

- Help me pay for any additional purchases I make (over the counter medicine, toiletries I forgot, mini bar, room service)

- Let me request extra towels/pillows/etc.

- Check out

My ideal hotel stay would involve very minimal interaction with humans.

Sounds like the Hyatt app.

Why can't my hotel chain of choice's app let me do the following all within the app:

Sounds great for a Motel 6 setup.

But making me download an app, sign up for an account, verify my email address, sync with my current reservation, and learn his to use a new app just to ask a question or get she extra pillow isn't luxury. If I wanted to do things myself, I'd get an Airbnb or go to a campsite. I'm paying for a hotel because I want a hotel.

Or worse: I don't even get to choose the hotel because my employer is paying for it, or I'm at a convention.

It's taking the "hospitality" out of the hospitality industry.

Both a highly capable app like I described and a hotel staffed with friendly and hospitable humans can coexist to accommodate any type of guest.

If you try that, you will eventually converge on one of two outcomes: the staff will all be using the same app as the guest, for better or worse; or the staff will begin to earnestly recommend that every guest install and use the app, especially when busy or unavailable, because that's how it works now.

Also, remember how HR and accounting work regarding efficiency. If they detect that the human touch is redundant to a fully-functional app, one of them's gotta go.

I'd first want to get some estimates for the cumulative costs of somehow supporting the likely X% of guests where The Dang Thing Just Doesn't Work, or individuals who don't own a smartphone or groups without "enough" smartphones.

If every location is gonna keep a big basket of backup keys and backup remotes anyway... Well, having a single consistent lower-tech approach might well be cheaper.

I've stayed in both ends of the spectrum on my current holiday. One place let me control the color of the lights and every thing was digital. Like the author, it was annoying to decipher what I needed to swipe or tap to turn the damn lights off after being exhausted from a long trip. Wasn't as bad in the morning when I had a minute to decipher it but completely unnecessary.

Another place gave us a metal key. You left it with the front staff when you went out and they gave it back to you when you returned. We thought it'd be annoying at first but they're very quick to do so, nice when they remember you and hand it over immediately.

My current hotel is a happy medium. Not too much technology, but extremely comfortable. Front staff is kind and helpful. Telephone in the room if you need to reach them and WhatsApp too if you prefer texting them.

Anyway, I agree with the author. Don't make me think after a long trip.

https://archive.is/7Tsiw

Surveillance -- it's everywhere.

One more trend I hate.. touch panels on elevators instead of buttons. My current hotel the "buttons" are so finicky you have to press with like the entirety of your thumb for like 3 seconds in exactly the right location for it to activate.

My wife and I were fiddling with it for a minute trying to go down and a cleaning staff noticed us struggling, came over, and then it took him 20 seconds to trigger it too! Tried using his knuckle to trigger it. C'mon!

You'll be thankful when the mischievious child who boarded 100 floors above you wasn't able to smear his hand across the whole panel and significantly delay the elevator.

Only 5 floors but if the panels worked correctly it might be even easier to swipe.

the worst I've seen is a hotel in NY that only had one network that all rooms connected to but also had Google cast TVs

so in my google home application I could see the titles of all the other rooms and control it remotely

Sounds like poor UX design all around. Some of these companies seem to be grasping a straws to be innovative and "new". Something the best solution is the easiest one. A $1 toggle switch, for example.

Hotel room interface problems I have known and loved: lights with no switch at all (instead you need to origami your hand inside the shade or twist some rotary knob integrated in to the peak of the lampshade), central control panels with modal groupings that don't match real world use ("night mode", "evening mode", "reading mode", "interior designer mode", "electrical band-aid mode", etc.), devices (TVs, kettles, phones, remotes, ACs, AC controllers, fridges) with perma-idle lights, inaccessible power points so you can't just de-power them, dodgy keycard inserts, keycard inserts that take paper, blinds that have remote control only so you can't move them naturally, AC that doesn't work (classic is 'central control' AC with no actual in-room preference - becoming extremely popular in 'mid'-range chain hotels but I've seen this in "5" star places), windows that don't open, towels stashed in irritatingly inaccessible or invisible locations, disfunctionally small bins, minibar-dominates designs, the prestocked minibar-fridge-as-sole-fridge where you actually need the fridge for something else, one could go on...

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