Cyber hotels will soon be the norm, not the exception

I read with interest and not a little surprise of a new cyber hotel, about to ‘explode into the future’ on the London scene (DW 2 June).

I was surprised because Mance Design & Architecture is already integrating ‘on-demand’ digital services and Internet access to each room within a new 265-room hotel in the City of London, which is due to open later this year. Isn’t every smart hotel doing the same?

On-line booking of facilities is already well established in the hotel trade, which has always been a strongly international, business market. The real difference can be made in how these ‘cyber-facilities’ are integrated into private rooms, along with knowledgeable support services for the benefit of the business client, or affluent leisure users. It is about a ‘natural’ access to the digital river out there.

Digital communications technology is an accepted and essential part of the business traveller’s armoury: laptops, palmtops, WAP, and so on. Time-poor business travellers are working to global schedules. This means that the hospitality/ hotel industry is already integrating the latest communications technology upgrades for new-build projects or refurbishments. If not, they may well find themselves outpaced in the business market.

So where will this ‘shock of the new’ come from? Virtual hotels, perhaps? Surely a ‘cyber life/existence’ is the last thing to promote within a hotel concept – unless the death of business travel is the end game here!

Peter Mance

Managing director

Mance Design & Architecture

Studio 151

Stratford Workshops

London E15