Marriott Tests Smart Hotel Rooms To Predict Guests' Needs

Imagine a hotel room that could adjust lighting and temperature by assessing your mood, set your alarm clock and even start a shower for you. 

Marriott International has teamed up with Samsung and French industrial group Legrand to do just that. The partnership created an Internet of Things Guest Room Lab to test and trial bringing personalized hotel experiences to guests.

The smart hotel lab is powered by IoT systems that connect devices and applications throughout the room, allowing them to communicate with one another to enhance the guest experience.

The lab, located in Marriott’s Innovation Lab at the company’s corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, leverages mobile and voice-enabled technology to allow guests to set up the room in a way that works with their needs, whether that means integrating business-related amenities or creating an environment in which they can relax.

While Samsung focuses on creating enhanced controls and personalization technology for the room, Legrand is working to perfect power, light and data solutions.

“We know that our guests expect to personalize almost everything in their lives, and their hotel experience should be no different,” Marriott International Global Chief Commercial Officer Stephanie Linnartz said in a statement.

So far, the Guest Room Lab includes technology such as a virtual assistant that can set an alarm and start a yoga routine that will appear on a full-length mirror. It can also request housekeeping services and automatically start the shower at a temperature chosen by the guest.

"Following the three-month-long IoT Guest Room Lab, Marriott, Samsung and Legrand will analyze feedback to continue innovating with IoT technology. Consumers will start to see elements of the technology in hotel rooms within the next five years," Marriott wrote in a statement.