From Hotel Phones to Tablets: How Innovation Shaped Guest Experience

This blog traces hotel guest technology from in-room phones and TVs to today’s streaming and apps, showing how once-profitable innovations became cost centers for many hotels now.

For much of history, hotels were not just places to rest after a long journey. They were glimpses into the future. Hospitality has long been a testing ground for innovation, offering guests experiences that often outpaced what they had at home. Today, however, that dynamic has shifted. While travelers once looked to hotels to discover the latest in technology and service, they now often find themselves disappointed by digital experiences that lag far behind their everyday lives.

But it has not always been this way. To understand where we are and where we are headed, it is worth revisiting the fascinating evolution of hotel guest experience and how hotels helped shape it.

A Glimpse Into the Future: The Golden Age of Hotel Innovation

In 1907, the Golden Gate Hotel in Las Vegas did something remarkable. It installed the first telephone  in the entire state of Nevada. This innovation was not found in a police station, a bank, or a government office. It was in a hotel. Guests lined up to use it, experiencing firsthand a technology that would not become common in homes for decades.

Forty years later, the Roosevelt Hotel in New York became the first to install televisions in its rooms. Only forty rooms had them initially, but that was enough to justify charging a premium. Guests eagerly paid extra, not just for the room, but for the futuristic feeling of watching TV in bed.

Later, pay-per-view entertainment emerged as another leap forward. It was not just about convenience. It was about personalization. For the first time, travelers could decide what they wanted to watch and when. That sense of choice and agency was revolutionary.

Hotels even introduced many guests to the internet. Long before internet and Wi-Fi became a household utility, guests paid to access web kiosk PCs in the lobby and later in their rooms, often experiencing the internet for the very first time while traveling.

For decades, hotels were the gateway to tomorrow.

The Shift: When Home Outpaced Hospitality

Fast forward to today and the story has changed. Hotel TVs no longer impress. They frustrate. Because guests face clunky menus, slow connections, and limited streaming options that cannot compare with what they have at home. Phones in the room are left untouched. Guests balk at paying for Wi-Fi. The very features that once symbolized progress are now seen as outdated, or worse, irrelevant.

Why the shift?

At home, guests now enjoy high-speed internet, personalized streaming, seamless apps, and smart home devices. Booking a table, turning on the lights, or streaming a movie is effortless. In contrast, many hotels still rely  on outdated tools like QR codes taped to tables or phone calls to reception to deliver essential services.

And here is the critical point. Guest experience technology used to be a revenue machine. TVs drove pay-per-view. Phones generated revenue from calls, apprx. 2-5 € per room night in the 1990s. Even internet access was profitable, for about 90% margin in the 2010s. Today, those same touch points are either free or ignored, turning what was once a source of income into a cost center.

For many travelers, the digital experience at home is far better than the one they find even in high-end hotels.

Reinventing Engagement: What Today’s Hotels Can Learn

Despite the challenges, hotels today have more tools than ever to reimagine the guest experience if they choose to use them wisely.

Apps work well for major hotel chains, especially in driving loyalty and pre-arrival communication. Marriott, for example, sees impressive uptake among its Bonvoy members. But for smaller or independent hotels, the return on investment of a custom app is far less convincing.

Smart TVs are now essential for streaming, but the clunky interfaces make them poor tools for service orders or upsells.

QR codes and mobile links can be effective for pre-stay engagement, but during a guest’s stay they underperform. Very few travelers will scan a code just to skip housekeeping or order an extra breakfast.

In-room tablets, by contrast, have emerged as a powerful tool for during-stay engagement. When the screen is ready and waiting, guests use it. And hotels can convert that usage into measurable value, whether that means increasing room service orders, reducing cleaning costs, or upselling high-margin extras like breakfast.

The Future of Travel: Infrastructure Meets Intelligence

Looking ahead, innovation will happen less at the hardware level and more in the cloud. Hotels that invest in modern infrastructure like cloud-based PMS systems, reliable Wi-Fi, and connected in-room devices will be better positioned to benefit from emerging technologies such as AI.

Imagine a guest traveling with two kids. The hotel’s systems already know the booking details, and by integrating with public data like weather forecasts, they can offer personalized suggestions. Would you like some ideas for indoor activities tomorrow in case of rain? This kind of meaningful engagement is already possible.

But while AI will help personalize experiences, it also poses a threat to direct bookings. If future digital assistants book hotels on our behalf, they will likely interface with OTAs rather than independent properties. This makes it essential for hotels to strengthen their direct communication channels before, during, and after the stay.

Why Travel Will Always Matter

Here is the good news. People will always travel. They will always need a place to sleep, eat, relax, and connect. That basic human need is not going anywhere, even as the tools we use to fulfill it evolve.

Hospitality is one of the few industries that remains deeply rooted in human experience. AI may help streamline operations and reduce costs, but it cannot replace the feeling of being welcomed, surprised, and inspired. The hotels that succeed will be those that blend technology with empathy and personalization with purpose.

So the question is no longer whether hotels should invest in guest experience technology. The real question is whether they can afford not to. The tools that once generated revenue now risk draining budgets. It is time for a strategy shift. Hotels must decide whether they want to let guest technology remain a cost center or reimagine it as the engine of engagement and growth it once was.

Because in the end, the future of travel is still something worth checking into. And the time to start rethinking your guest technology strategy is now.

_{Published on 29 August 2025}