Brad Pitt in Ocean's Twelve has a line that goes something like "I want a hotel to run like a hotel should." This may sound like something Yoggi Berra would mutter, causing a few heads to be scratched in the process, but it's a simple summation of all the stuff people want in their experience.
We feel the same way about the check-in kiosks we've encountered in the past. We've written about some positive experiences, but other experiences made us understand the "dust collector" nicknames they acquired. It seemed to us like the idea was ahead of the technology to make it actually useful and convenient.
Checking in at the front desk with a smiley clerk is usually fine, but sometimes you get off a flight that took 45 minutes to taxi to the gate, your driver didn't know north from his elbow and all you want to do is get to your room, throw on a robe and watch some TV with a cocktail and some fries.
This is room 1134 inside the Hyatt Regency Denver where we spent some time this past weekend. As we told you yesterday, we had a successful check-in attempt with the self-service kiosks in the lobby and that probably set the tone for the rest of our stay.
Actually, maybe the feel-good tone started way before that when we actually booked the hotel room. We did it through Priceline, our first time booking through that site. And our bid of $75 was accepted right away.
Regular room rates at the hotel, which are higher during the week when conventions are in full force across the street, are about $235. That might be too high for us, after all it's a Hyatt in Denver near a convention center but the place is pretty fantastic.
And since the Dems have made this their headquarters hotel for the DNC this August, here's what they can expect.
Hotel check-in kiosks have never quite taken off the way that airport check-in kiosks have. Indeed, the hotel's versions of easy check-in have been labeled "dust collectors" in the past and we've read a ton of reports that these things just don't work.
Well, maybe that is about to change.
We checked into the Hyatt Regency Denver (aka the headquarters hotel for the DNC this summer) over the weekend and upon walking into the lobby, a greeter immediately ushered us over to the machines (pictured above). Before we could protest, the greeter urged us to give the kiosk a try.
It was incredibly easy. We simply swiped the credit card that we used to book the room and the touch-screen process went very similarly to the airport check-in. We selected a king bed and even joined the Hyatt Gold Passport program.
Interestingly enough, we booked the room via Priceline and not directly through the hotel. But that didn't matter here. The greeter also informed us that they have had the machines since the hotel opened in 2005 and they have had no problems with them. Could this be the start of a new life for the dust collectors?
This morning we gave you our Geek's Hotel Guide to CES in Las Vegas where we ran down the hotel tech scene for CES attendees. In it, we mentioned a Luddite Hotel, the Roman Tower of Caesars Palace, because it's high tech bathroom TVs are only considered high tech in the past. Like 1985.
Now we can add another geek faux pas. Harry McCracken (any relation to Phil?) of PC World checked into the Sahara Hotel and Casino for CES and took a gamble on the hotel's check-in kiosk.
Whenever I see one, I try to use it--but I'm only able to leave with key in hand maybe 25 percent of the time. Otherwise, said kiosks are either out of order, or they give me an error message somewhere along the way.
Along with my PC World comrades, I'm in Las Vegas this week to attend the humongous Consumer Electronics Show. We're staying at the Sahara--which, despite being one of the last relics of Old Vegas on the Strip, is the first hotel here I've stayed in with kiosks. I ambled up to one and got most of the way through the check-in process before it choked and told me to see a real person.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Sahara, of all times to have your check-in kiosks break down. Note to other Vegas hotels with cutting edge gadgetry: the geeks are blogging you.
The NY Times reported that check-in kiosks still have some kinks to work out but that more and more hotels seem to be adopting the technology as a way to decrease check-in time. This seems to be a change from last year when they were still called "Dust Collectors."
We decided to investigate what hotel guests have to say about these gadgets on TripAdvisor. One guest at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis said check-in time with the kiosk was less than 60 seconds.
The kiosk at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas saved some guests from the horribly long lines at the front desk but still couldn't make the rooms in the hotel any nicer.
At the Embassy Suites in St. Louis a guest used the kiosk and gave a detailed description of the experience:
We were booked into the Embassy for two days of meetings in late June. I used the computer kiosk to check-in but there were plenty of staff at the front desk as well. By using the kiosk, I was able to pick a room from open inventory which, while not my first choice, met my needs and was available immediately. Unless there is a line at the front desk, I think that checking in with a person is actually faster.
However, guests at the Twelve Hotel in Atlanta found the check-in kiosk at this hotel didn't work. Another guest at the Hilton New York went several steps into the kiosk-process only to have the machine tell her to see the front desk, proving that sometimes humans can do the job better.
So far, the bigger chains like Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, and Embassy seem to be the ones who are somewhat successfully employing these kiosks. Marriott's also getting in on the game by testing wireless check-in from handheld devices. But with hotels constantly competing with each other for better service and staff, technology may not be the answer here, especially if the machines can't help you get a better room.
Word on the street is that "automated check-in kiosks are unreliable."
Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Reseach estimated that one in 10 lobby kiosks do not work. Mainly because their internal computer cannot link up with the hotel's reservation system or else they spit out a key to a wrong room, sometimes one that's occupied.
Hotel corporations like Sheraton, Starwood, Hilton, and Marriott are all gung-ho to implement kiosks in their lobbies--primarily because computers can do human jobs on the cheap (think "I Robot.")
All of the above hotels plan to add more kiosks by the end of the year.
But will they work and will people like them? Judging from past history, it doesn't look so good.
This third go-round on the kiosks. Apparently, there was some activity in the mid-80s and 90s but no one was really interested.
"Whenever you see a kiosk in a hotel lobby, head right for it. Use it. And if it spits out the keys to the wrong room, or otherwise malfunctions, go to the front desk and squawk."
Supposedly, the hotels monitor the kiosks and complaints from guests/fear of alienating top-paying customers should keep the machines working (Bad Robot!)
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by DanielR
This morning we gave you our 
