Hotel guest community collaborates online to develop next generation room

London - (April 1, 2009) – iBAHN, the worldwide leader in digital entertainment and Internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries, today announces the results of an online campaign to create a hotel room designed by the public.

The online collaboration produced some interesting results, now available on the Our Hotel Room website, (www.ourhotelroom.co.uk) which show that almost 20% of respondents rate tiered internet connectivity, including a free base service, as top of their wish list.

The aim of the Our Hotel Room campaign was to offer the hotel community the chance to help create the first hotel room developed collaboratively online, focusing on technologies and services that are available now, as well as those services to be released over the next year.

More than 1,000 people visited the Our Hotel Room site to offer their suggestions and cast votes for a range of services during the initial phase of the campaign in January and February.

iBAHN’s MD EMEA Graeme Powell, comments: “Our Hotel Room has been a huge success, and we want to thank everyone who took part. The process has allowed us to understand exactly what the guest community wants to see in their hotel rooms over the coming years, and the next stage is to make these requests a reality by building the first Our Hotel Room. We will then invite guests and our hotel partners to experience the room for themselves, with a vision of accelerating the development of next generation hotel facilities.”

Respondents also showed a preference for more responsive charging systems, with 13% asking for room charges to be linked directly to services used, instead of a flat rate. This was complemented by additional suggestions to remove check-in and check-out and offer hotel services via credit card swipe or pin number, instead of a central booking system.

The third most popular choice was a demand for personalised digital entertainment packages, incorporating video, audio and guest services, allowing guests to configure the room for their own entertainment demands (12%).

In terms of additional recommendations, one of the most common themes was environmental issues, with the OHR community suggesting that guests should receive an overview of the carbon footprint/energy used during their stay. In addition, guests would like to know that energy used at hotels is from renewable sources and have the option to utilise renewable amenities during their stay.

More surprisingly, guest segregation was also a popular request with suggestions to divide hotels into family and business floors while also offering male/female room options for single occupancy.

The aim now is to create a showcase hotel room with the most useful technology and hospitality amenities for today’s hotel guests, based on the votes and suggestions.