Not surprisingly, most travel management is about understanding big trends and managing the biggest areas of spend. It's no surprise then that changes in the world of hotels often go unnoticed.
But the possible effects of two announcements of innovations in the Chinese hotel market are worth thinking about.
Two global chains have signalled their intention to use technology to further enhance their client-facing and back room hotel operations.
Alibaba and Marriott are going to begin facial recognition check-in trials and IHG will be launching AI-enabled rooms in two Chinese properties.
Marriott's statement is much more specific than IHG's. Last year it entered into a joint venture with Alibaba for the customer-facing element of its business in China to go onto the Chinese digital retail giant's Fliggy travel services platform. The agreement said that Alibaba would "market directly to Alibaba's customer base, provide a link between Marriott's loyalty programs and Alibaba's loyalty program, and support Marriott hotels globally with content, programs and promotions customized for the Chinese traveler."
In two years ago hotel technology has evolved from Hilton's trialling keyless entry for some of its travellers to trials involving facial recognition. This version for hotels is quite different from that being trialled by airports and airlines around the world. In the Marriott-Alibaba trial facial recognition might become another element in the personal profiles held on a retail platform used by a sizeable proportion of the population (think Amazon). It will thus be used for a multitude of purposes including the ability to provide a benefit for those time-poor travellers who have been booked into a property where their own smartphone is insufficient for automated check-in.
If this is the case it will no doubt speed up the process. It will also increase headaches for those worried about duty of care obligations, legislation and the implications for travellers' personal data.
The detail on the specifics of IHG's AI-enabled smart rooms is scant. "From now on, guests staying at InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun and InterContinental Guangzhou Exhibition Centre will be amongst the first to enjoy the AI Smart Rooms...Unlike traditional guest rooms, the newly launched AI Smart Room will fully embrace voice control technology to deliver a more natural human-computer interactive experience. For instance, guests will be able to freely switch settings between work and leisure modes, and enjoy a more convenient and seamless room service experience."
In a world where business and leisure are converging it seems that these rooms will be able to distinguish between them. Does this mean that when a conference call ends the interactive technology automatically starts streaming Netflix? Perhaps it clocks which smartphone usage and F&B expenditure is personal rather than what is allowable on individual company policies.
Both imply closer monitoring of individual behaviour.
This is what powers personalisation. It also causes headaches for those trying to determine where data held on travellers to improve both corporate management and the personal travel experience ends and that which breaches individual privacy begins.
We used to look West to see what might be on the horizon. It's now time to look East.