When one of the world’s leading home design and furnishings companies decided to launch its new hospitality concept, it knew it had to provide a first-of-its-kind digital experience to accompany it.
Already known as a high-end luxury brand, it was imperative that this translated to the hotel experience, from the interior decor to the in-room amenities.
But as the first hotel’s opening date slowly approached, there was still one crucial component in flux—the digital experience. The customized out-of-the-box solution provided by their prior partner left a lot to be desired.
HFC was brought in to take over and drive this critical project. The team’s deadline: two months. The Internet of Things (IoT) app had to be architected, built, tested, and fully functioning for guests by opening day.
The challenge
To create a truly immersive space where guests could customize their in-room experience to be as comfortable as possible during their stay, HFC needed to design and build an iPad app from scratch that could control all of these elements and more. That meant building out a variety of integrations for each of those functions and developing custom APIs to ensure seamless communication between the app and the hotel's many systems, such as room management and dining services.
The client chose HFC to help them:
- Take over a critical digital project. The client needed HFC to step in and lead the development of an essential IoT app after the original vendor failed to deliver.
- Conduct extensive on-site testing for this unique environment.
- Deliver an exceptional on-brand guest experience. As a premium lifestyle brand, design and aesthetics were a key consideration. HFC was tasked with creating a seamless, luxury-focused app that would control everything from check-in to room customization, ensuring a flawless experience for their guests.
HFC’s approach
By analyzing what the previous vendor had tried to build and the pain points that surfaced as we were testing the app, we were able to quickly determine potential improvements that could be made and identify technical gaps that were hindering the app’s performance, scalability, and overall user experience.
This allowed HFC to create a clear roadmap and conduct rapid prototyping to keep stakeholders—including the client’s C-Suite team—aligned, while prioritizing the most critical integrations. These included:
Control of each guest room’s lights, thermostat, motorized shades, and even exterior privacy lights.
Guests could set the temperature for either side of the advanced thermoregulated beds in each room.
For dine-in service,HFC built the CMS (content management system) for the restaurant menu in Contentful, which communicates with the Oracle restaurant system the client uses, Micros. Guests can place orders on the iPad app, which then print out tickets in the restaurant for the chefs. The system also tracks and updates inventory in real time.
Guests can turn on the TV and music through the app’s AV integration.
The app also integrates with the client’s hotel management system Opera to tell managers if guests are checked in, whether a room is occupied, and so on.
Besides these integrations, HFC also built other concierge features into the app to enhance the guest experience, such as the message hold function that lets guests send a message to the front desk and receive a response later via text message or via the app.
Once the app was completed, the final step was to conduct extensive on-site testing in each guest room.
The results: A luxurious digital hospitality experience, delivered on time
In the end, HFC not only met the ambitious two-month deadline, but also delivered an IoT app that transformed the guest experience, seamlessly integrating with the hotel’s core systems.
The iPad app became a key element of the brand’s pioneering hospitality experience. It allowed guests to easily control every aspect of their stay, and also gave the client back full control and transparency.
By stepping up at a critical moment and leveraging the team’s deep technical expertise and flexibility, HFC helped the client successfully launch its hospitality business, ensuring that the digital experience matched the same high standards as its luxury home furnishings brand.
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