Hotel

Two 'Hotel' stories April 2012 - November 2014

Starwood CEO says iPads make CEOs more productive than PCs

Tim Cook isn’t the only CEO to favor an iPad over a computer to run a company: Starwood Hotels CEO Frits van Paasschen told the WSJ that he dumped his PC and now does all his work on an iPhone and iPad – with the assistance of a Bluetooth keyboard.

I thought, you know what, I actually don’t use [my PC]. I do all of my work via mobile so essentially my office is wherever I go, and I can be much more productive.

Some of the limitations of a smaller device encouraged changes in behaviour that boosted productivity, he said.

Meetings at Starwood are paperless, emails are shorter, and Mr. van Paasschen won’t open bulky spreadsheets. “When I get the massive file, the first thing I’ll do is send it back and say tell me the key points that I actually need to understand.”

While van Paasschen admits that not all roles can be performed without a PC, one of his senior VPs, Chris Holdren, has followed his example, saying he no longer uses a PC even when working on presentations: “Now I just use my iPad.”

Historic Hotel Bel-Air goes 21st Century with iPads in every room

The lavish Los Angeles Hotel Bel-Air recently reopened with redesigned rooms and made sure to toss out its old, clunky receivers along with the outdated interior design. The 70-year-old hotel replaced the telephones with Apple’s booming iPad, so guests no longer need to use a laminated binder menu and corded handset to order their caviar and wine. Room service now occurs via the iOS tablet included in their room, and the hotel hopes to have 50 percent of orders placed through the new addition.

However, according to USAToday, 75 percent of guests are actually now ordering room service with the iPad:

[…] the 75% statistic is noteworthy because it’s an indication of how rapidly people are embracing newfangled tech offerings in their hotels – especially at a time when more hotels are undergoing renovations and considering installing new customer technology.

Some higher-end hotels already are using the iPads to replace the old-fashioned paper brochures that describe the hotel’s features such as spa offerings, restaurants and local information. A small-but-growing number, however, are taking it further. They’re letting guests conduct hotel business once done over the phone, such as requesting a special pillow or extra towels, making restaurant reservations, booking a spa treatment – and ordering room service.

“People view it as a way to make their life easier,” said Bel-Air General Manager Denise Flanders. “They put down exactly what they want. It’s the luxury of saving time.”