This hotel is 'high tech': enjoy your stay (if you can)
Hotels and technology , a helpful binomial that can be the starting point of a dream, a nightmare or both at the same time. We are not going to lie to you, traveler friend: control every detail of the room with your mobile , from the TV to the jacuzzi going through that refrigerator full of babys that you are afraid to touch, is attractive; but it also opens a Pandora's box in terms of computer security that is not exactly easy to close.
let's start this route through the accommodation techie visiting the dream hotels that already use technology in a thousand and one ways to take the stay to another level. We traveled first to San Francisco, and spent the geekiest night of our lives at the Zetta Hotel , included by the British version of Traveler in its compilation of the best hotels of 2014.
The walls of every room seem to scream "tech" with that vintage portrait of a woman based on floppy disks **3 ½ (the mythical floppy disk) **. The old Atari console and a turntable finish off this return to the past in the middle of the 12th century. The technology G-Link Obsessed , present in other hotels that look to the future, takes care of the contrast: thanks to it, the client will be able to send videos and songs from their smartphone or tablet to a 46-inch (attention) television.
**Our next stop is in Las Vegas**, specifically at Aria , a casino resort that has made radio frequency identification (RFID) your password . Never better said because, precisely, the RFID It is one of those technologies that are postulated as the key to the homes and hotels of the future, with the permission of biometrics (that of the iris scanners either fingerprint that appears in the movies).
Video mapping and 3D projection welcome us when we decide to spend the next night in Chicago, at theWit hotel. On its roof terrace we can enjoy a luxury cocktail while we delight ourselves with the impressive technique that the most contemporary and geeky art has borrowed from architecture . If you don't know what it consists of, click on this fun link that explains it 'from behind' or spend a few minutes watching the making of on the hotel terrace.
You are starting to feel tired, we know, but come with us on one last thrilling ride before heading home . We're going to New York, to spend the penultimate night of our techie route at Yotel, the world's smartest accommodation (in the artificial sense of the word). Almost everything is automated in this robotic hotel , from check-in to check-out. You will feel like the goofy human in a sci-fi movie.
Yes back to Spain we feel like resting a couple of days on the coast, the hotel Sun Wave House It can be a fantastic option despite being in the controversial town of Magaluf. There we can stay in one of the #twitterpartysuit , which are more or less normal rooms for four people with one peculiarity: you can order anything from room service through a tweet.
Establishments with smartphones and tablets in every room (there are dozens of them in large Asian cities) complete the list of technological dream accommodations. Now , wake up drenched in sweat! What seemed utopian, as you will soon see, looks rather like a nightmare.
A first scare: the price of Wi-Fi
Vint Cerf , one of those gentlemen who invented the communications network that would give rise to the Internet, lived in Madrid an experience that perfectly portrays the contradiction suffered by hotels in the 21st century.
The year was 2009 and this father of the Network of networks dropped by the capital to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. His host, Andreu Veà, accompanied him to the five-star hotel with an asterisk (the highest rating) where he would spend the night. After registering, Cerf asked the receptionist if I could connect to the internet from the room n.
No problem. I would just have to pay the 12 euros that the luxurious hotel in Madrid charged customers who wanted to use its Wi-Fi. Veà explained to the young lady what was happening: he was about to put a real saber into the man to whom we owe his existence for the internet connection. Didn't help: the American took the card from him and proceeded to pay off the debt.
The world of accommodation is turned upside down: the big hotels charge for Wi-Fi and the hostels give it away for free. Now do you see the paradox?
Andreu Veà
The real nightmare: cyber attacks
If the story of Vint Cerf in the five-star hotel seems watered down to you, don't close your eyes yet because now comes the real nightmare. The so-called internet of things has opened the Pandora's box of cybersecurity with still unpredictable consequences. If the lighting, temperature and even the taps in your room are controlled via a tablet, what prevents an attacker with the right knowledge from playing tricks on you?
Let's go back to 2014. Now the stage it is a five star hotel in shenzhen , the Chinese city where, in all probability, the smartphone you have in your pocket (whether it is an iPhone or an Android terminal) was manufactured. The establishment occupies the top 28 floors of a 100-story skyscraper.
Shenzhen St Regis
The protagonist of the story is Jesus Molina , security expert (a good hacker) who works as a consultant for a company based in San Francisco. During his stay at the St. Regis early last year, this Spaniard figured out how to remotely control every detail of hotel rooms.
He did the test with the famous poster of 'Do not disturb' , which is bright there and is controlled from the tablet, but could have modified any characteristic of the room (temperature, lights, television and even the blinds) not only from the hotel itself, but also from outside or even from another country.
Do you understand now why the combination of technology and hotels can be a dream or a nightmare?
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