It Was Just Me & Alexa in a Hotel Room! And I Played It Smart

Hotels are now offering smart rooms to customers. Is AI is a good roomie? Find out.

A date with Alexa! Finally!

(Photo: The Quint)

The AI (articificial intelligence) revolution is here! Slowly and steadily, technology has pervaded into territory we couldn’t have imagined in our wildest dreams.

From smartphones to cars to even microwaves, most of the tech that we see around us today is being driven by some form of AI.

It’s no surprise that people have moved to the next step of home automation by using AI and this is where our story begins.

I took a trip to a hotel in New Delhi to test out how Amazon’s Alexa has been integrated into the hotel’s system helping customers interact with the different services just by using voice commands! Yes! It was a date with Alexa!

Many hotels around the world are transforming themselves by offering customers a ‘smarter’ experience. I was invited by the Park Inn Hotel in IP Extension, New Delhi to experience their own smart hotel room.

Though it might sound complicated, the hotel has adopted a very economical yet effective way of going through with this. They’re using standard lights, TV and air conditioning coupled with smart electrification.

The circuit boards have been installed with smart switches which have been connected with the single Alexa Echo Dot device that’s placed on the ceiling.

There was a specific list of commands that I had to follow to interact with the tech in the room. From setting the AC temperature, to drawing the curtains, Alexa was at the helm of it all.

In addition to this, the hotel also offers laundry and room cleaning services along with fetching a bottle of water via voice commands.

During my test I did have some technical issues as my bottle of water took more than 30 minutes in coming as their servers were acting up. Testament that the system is still not fool-proof and have areas that need attention.

Home automation isn’t an expensive deal these days as startups like Oakter and IFFIHomes are offering this technology at very convenient prices. At this rate, I won’t be surprised if this technology is sitting comfortably in many homes in the future.