When you’re invited to try out 3D telepresence, you beam yourself up, because not every business hotel can claim superinterestingness like that.
Thus reporters in Madrid this week found themselves eagerly trying out the holographic tech at NH Collection Eurobuilding, which the company claims is the first to be permanently installed in a hotel.
It is also about to be tested in NH Hotel Group‘s nhow brand properties in Berlin, Milan, and Rotterdam. Major shareholder HNA, a Chinese financial group, is betting on growth through rejuvenation of business traveler amenities.
The tech, which enables an event organizer to virtually bring in key personnel or speakers from elsewhere, can be rented out for meetings and events.
The innovations are part of a three-month refurbishment of the NH Collection’s flagship property in Spain, built in 1971.
The revamp also included the installation of a 300 sq. m. LED screen on the vaulted dome above the lobby.
The dome, made by Fractalia Systems, is claimed to be “the largest multimedia vault screen in Europe, and the largest vaulted (semi-transparent) display in a hotel anywhere in the world.” (See a video of the LED vault, here.)
Many of the 432 guest rooms are also high tech, thanks to the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync, which mixes videoconferencing with interactive collaboration tool Lync, enabling video teleconferencing.
NH Hotels plans to install the system in 15 hotels by the end of the year. Rooms also have “next-generation LED television sets” and contemporary thermostat controls for room temperature.
The property also has four “Living Lab” bedrooms and a communal area that allow guests to test technology amenities for possible adoption chain-wide:
“such as wireless charging of mobile devices and video support via tablets, enabling the guest to view the receptionist when making queries.”
The hotel chain also claims that it is launching “a start-up accelerator” that has six-month sprints “to identify and encourage entrepreneurial talent by fostering pioneering projects in the hotel industry via contests.”
The company will release details later, but the idea is that its space would be open for free to qualifying businesses for short periods of time.
NH Hotels told a reporter from C&IT that the meetings and events business is crucial for the chain, as MICE generates 25% of the company’s revenue. Spanish hotels generate a quarter of the company’s revenue, and the chain plans to renovate many of its properties to increase MICE income.
The most important tech trend in the building? Free Wi-Fi at download speeds up to 2mbps. Let’s hope more luxury and business European hotels adopt that standard.
NB: Images courtesy NH Hotels.
