LodgeNet Turns TV into Guest Service Portal
LodgeNet Interactive Corporation, a provider of media and connectivity solutions to hospitality and healthcare businesses, has launched its new Envision high-definition, interactive platform. The cloud-connected TV solution presents guests with the content and information they need for a productive and relaxing trip. Envision is also designed to help hoteliers to drive their bottom line and the overall guest experience.
A key attraction of Envision for both hoteliers and guests is the evolving suite of iTV applications, which deliver web-enabled content to the television, many provided by leading e-content companies. Envision apps currently being offered include:
- eCompendium, a suite of informational apps conveying hotel specific information and promotions that traditionally have been communicated to guests through an in-room guide. By utilizing the LodgeNet PowerPortal (a rights-managed, Web-based authoring tool), authorized hotel staff can create, edit and distribute content for guests to access interactively on the TV. Because this content can be updated as often as necessary and in real time, hoteliers can offer their guests significantly more relevant and up-to-date information than with print materials, while eliminating associated reprint costs and housekeeping labor.
- eConcierge, which empowers guests to communicate directly to appropriate hotel staff for services such as housekeeping and maintenance, or to browse in-room dining options and order directly through the television. eConcierge services are powered by the LodgeNet Integration Engine, which interfaces the hotel’s third-party systems, applications and Envision.
- Flight Info, which lists the status of more than 25,000 domestic arrivals and departures every day. The information is updated every five minutes and can be searched by city, airline or flight number (delivered in association with Flyte Systems).
- City Info, which helps travelers get the most out of their time away by providing in-the-know editorial recommendations and candid user comments for more than 18 million local businesses across 75,000 locations (delivered in association with Citysearch).
During the first quarter, LodgeNet installed its first Envision system at the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency O’Hare in suburban Chicago. Envision is enhancing the guest room experience there and transforming how the hotel entertains, informs and communicates with their guests. All of the Hyatt Regency’s information can now be interactively accessed by their guests via the Envision system, and the hotel will be implementing LodgeNet’s interactive breakfast ordering app in the second quarter. Envision will also help the hotel reduce its marketing costs as well as its environmental footprint.
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