Hotel of Tomorrow
Inspiring Best-of-Breed Thinking
The Challenge
Can you imagine inviting competitors to a brainstorm session for the future of your industry? Well, that’s what Gettys, a Chicago-based interior design, architecture and fulfillment firm for the hospitality industry, along with Hospitality Design magazine decided to do with their Hotel of Tomorrow (H.O.T) Project. The H.O.T. Project’s mission was to conceptualize the future of the hospitality industry, while fostering the spirit of innovation through collaboration.
So they opened the doors to 115 nationwide representatives from hoteliers and developers, furnishings and fixtures suppliers, technology developers, industry experts, media and public relations, and even competing design firms for a one-day think tank. To make the efforts as productive as possible, they asked Stone Mantel to lead the innovation process.
One Day to Inspire
Stone Mantel believes that creativity lies in every soul. We don’t buy the argument, “I can’t do art, so I’m not creative.” Everyone has experiences. Everyone has ideas on improvement. Everyone can contribute. So we set up an inventive approach to extract ideas from every participant. Our job was to inspire them to be as creative as possible with what they knew from their experiences, what they saw in real trends, and what new developments lay in the future.
We started the innovation charrette by teaching them what we know to be true: Disruptive experiences that are new, true, meaningful and relevant make happy customers. We’ve seen it proven in industry after industry—from the grocery chains to travel destinations, from household products to portable music devices.
Competition really gets the juices flowing—particularly when stakes are involved. So we divided the group into teams and had each individual ante up $10 from their wallets. Electricity raced through the room. We then led the teams through seven rounds of innovation—to address everything from the room to the check-in experience, from the amenities to the furnishings. A panel of judges selected winning ideas from each round, and the losers paid the winners.
The Outcome
Over 300 ideas to make guest stays as comfortable as possible and to anticipate their needs were generated in the Stone Mantel-led session. A handful were displayed at the Global Exposition and Conference for Hospitality Design in Miami in September 2006. These ideas are technological marvels that even the Jetsons never had.
The H.O.T. Handheld – Forget room keys, remote controls, and telephones, this device would be handed to new guests upon their arrival and would serve all functions. Also included would be security monitoring of the room, GPS tracking of you and your buddies, and mobile video conferencing.
The Kinetic Corridor – Corridors currently have only a utilitarian function. But in the H.O.T. Project, through CO2 scanners and motion detectors, corridors come to life when guests enter them—recessed lights drop down and illuminate like a wave, room numbers enlarge for easy reading, bio-engineered plants filter the air and provide aromatherapy.
Booking the Room – Digitally select your room just like you can select your airplane seat, either online before arrival or via a touchscreen in the hotel lobby. Check out room reviews and the room interior with 360° photos—even check out the view from that specific room.
Room Amenities – Thanks to nanotechnology, H.O.T. Project bathrooms feature spotless antibacterial tiles, not to mention intelligent bathtubs that mold to the shape of your body. Of course, these bathrooms are environment-friendly. Water disposed from the sink and shower is filtered into the toilet reservoir and recycled on the spot.
The Results
Gettys and Hospitality Design were thrilled with the ideas generated in our innovation charrette. And the media have shown excitement in their coverage of the concepts. We consider the H.O.T. Project a huge success.