The intersection of the smartphone market with the hospitality industry has been getting bigger and bigger. We’ve seen barcode implementations, NFC room keys and more. We’ve seen plenty of apps before. Another one has launched today from digital services provider Acentic – it allows hotels to create a self-branded app that routes some hotel functions straight to their guest’s devices. It also highlights the fact that what we really need is less apps with more functions.
What’s the story?
In the simplest terms, Acentic provides consumer-focused digital services to hotels. Its an international company, operating in over 30 countries in regions around the world, and it has a holistic approach to digital entertainment. Its different products handle both broadband and Digital TV, but it also develops its own User Interface for people to access content. It even provides the content – if you’re a hotel that partners with Acentic, it will provide the actual content that people view on their TVs. Come to that, it will provide the actual TVs; good ones, too, big HD units. A hotel with no TVs and no wireless connection can sign a deal with Acentic, and get a fully digital entertainment offering installed into each room from a standing start.
Now the company is branching out into the mobile application side of things as well.
What’s the mobile offering?
Acentic is offering a white-label application for iOS and Android. After downloading the app (presumably they’ll get directions to do so at check-in), the guest can access the following through it:
• Check the status of the minibar, room cleaning and maintenance.
• Find out what movies are available to watch on their TV, as well as book and pay for them through the app so they’re ready to watch in the room.
Well… that’s it at the moment. But the features currently in development are:
• Use the app as a remote control for your DTV.
• Use a single Acentic app in any Acentic-partner hotel.
As for the hoteliers themselves? Well, apart from the general air of luxury that high-tech integration with a hotel offers, the app also carries Acentic’s advertising platform, so you can cross-promote hotel services within the application.
“This integration reinforces Acentic’s commitment to innovative technologies that enhance guest interaction and increase the use of services and revenue generation for our hotel customers,” said Richard Robinson, CEO of Acentic. “It entices guests to use the hotel’s Wi-Fi and entertainment services via the technology they are most
What we think?
Honestly, I expected more from this app. If your application is meant to be my remote control for the hotel, I’ll need it to do more than just let me check what’s in my minibar and find out what movies are on. And, honestly, how useful is that? It’s not like checking what movies are on is a gruelling process. You sit down on the foot of your bed and flick around with the remote control. It’s not something that can be made more convenient by an application.Same goes for checking the minibar. Just open the door.
Look, I understand that the only integration Acentic can guarantee is for digital services that they provide themselves – but that’s something it’s going to have to address. The problem here is that nobody wants to download three or four different apps to control different aspects of their hotel stay. It all needs to be centralised in one “hotel control” application. That means that being able to view and book your movies for the evening isn’t enough. It should be able to order a sandwich from room service; rent a car; book a table for dinner; access concierge services; find out about the laundry options; use Android NFC features to act as your room key; and more.
Now, an application with that kind of functionality requires extremely tight integration with the hotel’s back-end systems – it would be a long process, with a lot of work involved. But as a high-end telecoms company working with hotels all over the world, Acentic should be one that can accomplish that.
