Designwire Daily: from the editors of Interior Design magazine

Intelity Platform Gives Guests 24-7 Control

by Staff | Monday, December 12, 2011

Mike Suomi, Stonehill & Taylor, and James Gray King of Apple, which hosted the Intelity event at its 14th St. store in NYC.

On the third floor of Apple’s 14th Street Manhattan store, Intelity CEO David Adelson last week demonstrated why hotels will undergo a radical change in the near future that will impact nearly every facet of the hospitality industry from costs and management to design and architecture. During his presentation of the Orlando, Florida-based company’s Interactive Customer Experience (ICE) platform that essentially puts all guest services under one digital umbrella, Adelson demonstrated how it gives guests the ability to “order what they want, when they want and how they want.” But more than that, ICE allows a hotel to better understand customer needs, be more efficient and, most important, cut costs.

Intelity's President/CEO David Adelson and Director of Hospitality Sales Lori Block

“Who in this room doesn’t want to get rid of in-room directories?” asked Adelson, who said the ICE platform enables hotels to update menus/prices/local information in real time, so no more waiting a year or two to replace  out-of-date directories.

Shane Krige, General Manager of The Plaza in New York, said iPads with the ICE interface have been in all rooms for about a year, allowing guests to control everything from in-room dining and housekeeping to wake-up calls and room atmosphere. “It’s not replacing the human element, just giving added service,” said Krige who proudly stated that a butler still serves each of the hotel’s floors. (For those worried about theft, Adelson said  incredibly that only four iPads have gone missing from hotel rooms that currently carry them.)

Phil Schwartz, Chief Marketing Officer of Intelity holding an iPad featuring the ICE app.

Using the iPad as the medium for this interaction in hotel rooms is smart, says Michael Suomi, Principal and Vice President of Design for New York-based Stonehill & Taylor,  because unlike other devices, the iPad invites a guest to touch, explore in an easy and intuitive way. In a new venture he is working on for a large hotel chain, Suomi said the goal is to  use the I.C.E. interface with iPads embedded in furniture in the lobby or other common areas where social networking, gaming, business needs and/or email can be accessed. In rooms where they may be used, he said tethering it to a desk or elsewhere seems “cheesy.” Instead his clients are looking into alternatives to dissuade sticky-fingered guests by wiping or disabling the iPad once it leaves the room or hotel.

James Harvey, Financial Controller, and Shane Krige, General Manager, both from The Plaza, which has used Intelity's ICE for about a year.

Suomi’s concern, however, is that the hardware will become obsolete sooner than the average hotel’s 7-8 year replacement plan. “It would be too costly to replace one in every room when a new iPad comes out,” he said, noting that the solution has to be scaleable. That’s where leasing makes sense, says James Gray King, Apple Business Specialist in New York City, adding this already happened in other industries like healthcare and business. Leasing enables companies to buy into the expensive hardware, but also upgrade and/or add when necessary without being cost prohibitive.