A digital valet at your service

President and Co-Founder of DigiValet, Rachana Salgia spoke to the Sunday Observer about the latest digital fad in the hospitality industry, a special App, rated the best Hotel App on Trip Advisor, and the company's desire to enter the Sri Lankan market.

Salgia referred to efforts to take luxury and service standards to a 'different orbit' through DigiValet, the pioneer in creating this guest experience technology, installed in over 7,000 guest rooms across the globe.

Q: What is the concept behind DigiValet?

A: DigiValet is about creating convenience, ease of use and a terrific guest experience.

All over the world, in their quest to become sophisticated and luxurious - hotel rooms are adding layers of electronics and gadgets. At the end of the day, this makes life in a hotel guest room even more complex. A simple task of even switching off the lights can become a challenge - in trying to look for the switches and turning off multiple switches.

Having stayed at scores of hotels, I always felt that in looking for a differentiator, hotels often become a different place all together. Even to switch on the TV and watch one's favourite program can be a tedious process involving flicking through a list of channels. The same goes for ordering food.

DigiValet is a sensitive response to the inconveniences guests face in luxury hotel rooms - an effort to make it convenient and delightful. The DigiValet 'mantra' is to make life uncomplicated for hotel guests.

Considered highly intuitive in a hotel room - it mirrors the mind and provides a seamless user experience. Each functionality is there on the tablet - a complete digital compendium or the 'assistant to your life, while in a hotel room.'

Q: What special features makes this tablet unique?

A: The guest experience. The fact that guests love it.

DigiValet makes it convenient to use hotel amenities and services - be it setting the right temperature, selecting TV channels, ordering food, booking a spa or reserving a table. Everything is convenient and tablet-based. It is a way to have your 'wish list' realised.

Importantly, it remembers guests' preferences and offers a highly personalised experience during subsequent stays. The information is captured, stored and retrieved - each time the guest returns to the hotel or stays in another hotel of the same chain. The information flows through seamlessly - creating a ubiquitous experience.

Q: What specific technology is involved in your iPad-based guest service?

A: The room iPad or the 'guest's own smart phone' becomes the primary interface for any feature/service, the customer would like to use during a hotel stay.

The guest may tap on a light button 'Dining,' to set a dining ambiance in the room. Or, the guest can glide his finger on the temperature dial to adjust the temperature setting of the air-conditioning. A guest is able to make his or her own choice for a meal and send the request directly to the kitchen. Guests receive acknowledgements and messages from the hotel team about events and offers.

It's a seamless process of two-way communications. The guest accesses service through the tablet device - which communicates with a central Controller Box that is fixed behind every room. The Controller Box channelises the commands appropriately - either to the room electronics or to a set of different interfacing servers that farm out to connect to guest services of the hotel.

The information is processed and the preferences get stored at the back-end of the hotel's Property Management System (PMS). We have invested heavily in research and development to create these interfaces and integration that makes the communication protocol so seamless.

One of the hallmarks of the service is the latency time for any command given by a guest from the tablet or device - to its execution: A matter of mere seconds. It makes the whole experience unique because there is an instant result and gratification of a guest request. Our guests love this response level and hotels like it because it tells the operations team - how to serve guests in the best possible personalised manner.

Q: Does the integrated system contribute to streamlining of hotel operations?

A: A hotel is like several small factories integrated and running simultaneously at the back end to deliver services and comfort to guests. It has multiple guests carrying out various activities, all unique in nature and simultaneous.

While creating conveniences of a 'single place for all guest service features in one place' - either on a guest room-located tablet or on the guests' own device - at the back end, it allows the hotel to understand the activities of a guest. There are extremely tightly-coupled integration with various guest departments that are built-in, a powerful Content Management System (CMS) and interfaces with a multitude of external services that helps the hotel staff to understand guests' needs, behaviour and how personalised the customer delivery process should be. There are dashboards that are generated at the back end from the DigiValet system that provide a multitude of information, allowing hotels to optimise their various services and departments.

The combined play of the CMS, the dashboards and channelising of guests' requests efficiently and through the shortest possible interfaces create unparalleled levels of efficiency. It allows every hotel chain to serve guests in a dramatically better way - reflected in the guest satisfaction surveys of hotels where DigiValet is installed.

DigiValet is the best rated Hotel App on Trip Advisor. It takes luxury and service standards to a different orbit.

Q: Which global properties currently use DigiValet?

A: DigiValet has already found a 'Place of Pride' in some of the best hotels of the world - known for service standards and sophistication.

DigiValet was the pioneer in creating this guest experience technology on the tablet or on the guests' own device. We now have the largest number of guest rooms where DigiValet is installed. Some of the leading hotels using our technology include the Armani Hotel, Dubai - Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, the Address Hotels in Dubai, The Oberoi in Bangalore, The ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, The ITC Maurya in New Delhi, the Andaz in Shanghai, and The Corinthia in London.

Our installed base covers over 7,000 guest rooms and is fast growing.

Q: Have you any plans to extend services to Sri Lanka?

A: DigiValet would love to extend its services and add to its portfolio of customers, hotels in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is known for its natural beauty, the warmth and hospitality of its people and for some excellent hotels in breathtaking locales. These hotels already have very high service standards. Through the adoption of our technology - which adds to the efficiency levels of the hotel operations teams - the guest experience can be further enhanced.

My team is working hard to introduce this technology and create better guest experiences in the Emerald Isle. We hope that the hotel community lends us the support to see this technology proliferating in some of the best hotels in Sri Lanka, in the near future.

Q: Are you talking about any particular properties in Colombo?

A: It is still early days. We are trying to understand the Sri Lankan market - what do the luxury hotels wish to offer guests, how do they compare with other hotels in Asia and the world and what unique differentiators are found in Sri Lanka.

We would then incorporate all these into DigiValet, to enable us address the specific needs and create something unique for the luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. We have started dialogues in that direction.

Q: What is DigiValet's involvement in the THINC Sri Lanka Forum, held in Colombo this week?

A: Our objective is to participate and understand the market, showcase our technology to the hospitality business community and take back key learnings on how we can customise our offering to create beach-heads in this market. A senior colleague will also speak at the Forum.