We often emphasize the importance of technology in delighting our ever-connected hotel guests of the 21st century.
We’ve discussed it here, for instance: 8 Hotel Technology Trends Guests Want at Their Fingertips
And here: 4 Hospitality Design/Management Failures to Avoid in 2018
Oh, and here: Hotel Design Trends: The Future of Casegoods Furniture
But sometimes guests truly want to disconnect, to get away, to retreat into a Zen-like haven far from the stressors of daily life. There’s a huge hospitality market for that. This is what it looks like.
The Disconnected End of the Tech Spectrum in Luxury Hospitality
Picture entering a hospitality world free of pockets buzzing from Facebook notifications, emails, text messages, and funny GIFs.
A Digital Detox
The phrase digital detox was added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2013. Think of it like a cleansing diet. But instead of guests purging themselves of toxins, chemicals, and bad vibes, they rid themselves of the endless social media barrage and the powerful urge to respond immediately to digital communication.
One luxury hotel in Germany offers an optional “internet kill switch” in guestrooms to block WiFi signals. Some destinations with rural nature retreats encourage or even mandate that guests either turn off their devices or leave them behind.
Enhancing Mindfulness
In the ideal disconnected retreat, hotel guests will want to reconnect with their most inward thoughts and everything that makes them human. Depending on their preferences, they may enjoy:
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Nature walks
- Other mindfulness exercises
There’s a lot a hotel can do to enhance these experiences. Guestroom designs can include aesthetically pleasing LED mood lighting among other creative inclusions. Ideally, optimized lighting should accomplish both “warm” tones for cognitive function and activity as well as “cool” tones for supreme relaxation and natural sleep promotion.
What’s more, you could also easily provide yoga mats, exercise balls, resistance bands, and multifunctional furniture (for exercise) to help guests accomplish both their mental wellness and physical fitness goals. And of course, do everything in your power to ensure your hotel meets ADA requirements to benefit all guests.
Allow Your Hotel Guests to ‘Get Away from it All’
So much in hospitality today is about creating those “Instagrammable moments” (oh, believe us, we know how much they do to boost your marketing efforts). But guests stressed out from their daily lives will certainly appreciate the invitation to temporarily set down their devices.
“The Viaggio” multifunctional furniture unit by Artone includes, among numerous other capacities, a slide-out drawer safe so guests can quite literally lock their devices away for a brief time. They’ll thank you for the peace of mind.
Allowing your guests peace and quiet can be the ultimate extra-mile in luxury hospitality. Let us help you adopt these practices and features into your hospitality features!
