At this year’s HITEC, there was plenty of innovation—voice-enabled devices, robots, systems made better with the use of artificial intelligence, etc.—but a common theme you heard from vendors when walking among the booths was that the focus wasn’t on the sexy new product; instead, the messaging many of them wanted to convey was that their technology would simply work for hoteliers and guests, and would make their lives easier. Simplicity and functionality were the theme on the trade show floor.
Vanessa Ogle, founder and CEO, Enseo, echoed this point. “When we launch a platform, how do we make it beneficial to each one of the constituents? Something great for guests, something great for employees, something great for owners, so there’s benefits for everyone,” she said, noting that most hotels don’t have the budget to buy everything new. As such, when the company launched Fido, which is the complete architecture for managing smart devices in guestrooms, it made sure it was as functional as possible, compatible with other equipment. “With Fido, what we’re seeing is hotels have already spent a lot of money on technologies. We’re not the company that says they should start over. Fido is being able to use the technology that’s already in the room so a hotel doesn’t have to go spend $1,000 on custom equipment going in. They can use any industry standard piece of equipment and combine them together, but to the guest, it’s one experience.”
