By Misty Harris, Canwest News ServiceMay 24, 2009
If E.T. wants to phone home in the future, he’d best not check into a hotel.
According to technology futurists, in-room land lines in hotels will soon be obsolete thanks to the ubiquity of mobile technology.
Not only will guests rely on their personal cellphones to call out, they’ll use them as electronic “keys” that offer a contactless way in. A simple intercom system will allow guests to contact the front desk.
Also in the tea leaves, according to experts at Asia’s largest hotel and food service trade show this month, are digital door-viewers (think oversized peepholes with LCD screens), disc-less Wii gaming systems, art that adjusts to your mood, closets that generate their own “green” energy when the door is opened, and six-way charging pods for all your gadgets ? including the cellphone you’ll need to communicate.
For frequent flyers like Gregory Skinner, the latter is just fine.
“You only need to get burned once to stop using the hotel phone,” says Skinner, a Toronto man who travels twice a month on business. “The only time you’d use that thing is with an 800 number, where you’re paying a nominal fee for the phone but no other charges.”
The 42-year-old is also intrigued by the mattress-less “beds of the future” ? which use a system of rods and plastic domes that adjust to the curves of your body, and reduce the likelihood of bed bugs ? as well as a new detection system that alerts hotel staff to room-service trays in the hall.