Hotel brand debuts voice-activated rooms

TECH-focused hotel brand Aloft has launched voice-activated hotel rooms that allow guests to turn up the air conditioning or dim the lights with a verbal command to Siri.
In what's being pitched as an industry first, Aloft hotels has gone a step further from the concept of iPad or tablet-powered rooms – which only a few years ago had been considered leading-edge – to bring the voice-enabled power of Siri to hotel guests.
That means, for instance, that if the room gets too hot in the middle of the night, guests can lower the temperature with a quick command that may sound something like "Hey Siri, cool the room."
No need to get out of bed, shuffle over to the lights, and look for the thermostat.
Likewise, guests can control the room lighting with a simple command, or ask Siri for suggestions on nearby attractions.
To use the voice-activated technology, guests launch the custom-developed Aloft app on their in-room iPad.
A step-by-step tutorial guides guests through the voice-activation process.
All iPads are reset and personal preferences removed from the device at the end of the stay.
It's the latest innovation out of Starwood's Aloft brand that speaks to the industry trend of high-tech hotel experiences. The world's first robotic butler, aptly named Botlr, made its debut at Aloft Cupertino and Aloft Silicon Valley in 2014.
The brand also debuted an emoji-only room service menu, and rooms are keyless.
In a bid to keep up, Hilton likewise placed a child-sized robot concierge behind the front desk at the Hilton McLean in Virginia earlier this year to help greet guests and answer questions.
And last year, the world saw the opening of the first fully automated, robot-staffed hotel with the Henn-na Hotel in Japan. — AFP Relaxnews