Hotel TV Information Systems - Is This the End?

The rapid speed of technological advancement pressures hotels to invest into new technical systems every few years.

It is no surprise that TV devices in hotel rooms are therefore put to test frequently. It seemed to be obvious at the beginning of the century: Flat screen technologies became more and more affordable and companies promised these systems to be self sustaining by generating sales revenues for digital media. Additionally, many hotels opted to integrate a hotel TV information system for their guests. Here, the guest had the option to use the remote control to access guest information. Nowadays, however, times have changed and hotels are more reluctant to make new investments. Following, are a few reasons why less and less hotels decide to deploy TV information systems:

1.  Hotel TV information channels are difficult to use
It takes a lot of patience to book a spa treatment or register for a hotel newsletter via a remote control. Many hotel TV systems’ operation is complex and hard to comprehend for guests. Some hotels even offer instruction manuals to explain the operation of their smart hotel TV solution. The necessity of such manuals clearly shows that the product is too complicated.

2.  Fewer and fewer guests utilize hotel TVs as a source of information
When turning on the hotel TV, the guest is pursuing a simple goal: watching television. The initial information channels are a burden to the guest, who is interested in news channels and movies. As a consequence, the average exposure to such channels is less than one minute.

3.  Guests become more reluctant to buying movies via hotel TV solutions
Clearly speaking, blue movies have been the major revenue-generating stream for hotels using TV solutions in the past. In recent years, however, a lot of Internet services started to provide similar content on their websites for free. This led to a cannibalization of the hotel’s only revenue stream; thereby making the above mentioned refinancing argument invalid.

4.  Value propositions of new generation devices do not improve
Hotels that are already in possession of flat screen TVs, mostly even HD ready, are hardly convinced to exchange devices in all rooms and invest into a slightly better resolution or larger screens. The transition to digital television provided investment incentives, the current developments, however, do not offer significant advancements. SuitePad offers a modern alternative to hotel TV solutions. SuitePads are tablet PCs that guests can use to access hotel services, inform themselves about the region via digital concierges or read digital newspapers.

One of the key advantages is the easy to use interface. The intuitive touch screen can be used to provide feedback or register for a newsletter at the touch of a button.Another major advantage is the impressive utilization statistic. More than 80% of all guests engage with SuitePad daily and spend on average more than 10 minutes per session. This allows for an improved placement and sale of hotel services. Thereby, SuitePad offers a broad range of potential revenue streams beyond the scope of movies. The guest is able to book spa treatments, make restaurant reservations or receive push notifications for available appointments via the tablet. At the same time, the device saves printing costs for guest directory, feedback forms, TV program magazines and co… This new generation of devices impresses guests, as they do not expect such an innovative and easy to use solution in their room and simultaneously, hotels can benefit financially.

Certainly, it is still of great importance to equip hotel rooms with modern TVs. A large screen is simply a must have for a high standard hotel. However, instead of information channels and movies, it is of high significance that these devices operate with a mirroring function. Thereby giving guests the option to stream content from SuitePads or their own devices onto the TV

.Costs saved by not implementing hotel TV information systems, together with steadily decreasing tablet prices (tablet PCs from 70 Euro), allow for a great investment possibility in SuitePads.

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_{- Published on September 05, 2014}