The Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel certainly made the industry sit and listen for a bit when it launched a project in 2011 to allow its clubbing-crazed guests to interact with Facebook via RFID wristbands.
Guests (and visitors to its on-site mega-club) were given the option to wear a RFID tech-based wristband throughout their stay, a devise which was then synchronised to their Facebook profile.
Sensors were installed throughout the hotel (pool, bars, restaurants, etc) so that users could swipe their wristband to upload pictures, update status and check-in using Facebook Places.
All content captured using the hotel’s swipe machines was also collected on the hotel’s own Facebook page.
It worked well in its first year, with a massive jump in Facebook fans (4,000 to around 70,000), heaps of content and an instant marketing database of customers.
This year it installed payment machines around the venue so that users could pay for drinks and other services using their fingerprints.
Not resting on its laurels, bosses have already started talking about what the clubbing season in 2013 will look like – abandoning the RFID tags entirely and the fingerprint technology not only being used for payments but also how visitors will access their Facebook accounts.
As well as the existing mobile payment units used in bars, etc, screens will be installed around the hotel so that guests can quickly log-in to their Facebook pages, select pre-scripted status updates and upload photos from the picture booths.
Bosses are already predicting that the hotel’s Facebook page will pass the 180,000 fans barrier by the end of the year now the most recent clubbing season has come to a close.
They also reckon the ROI for the entire project, in terms of the original outlay in the technology, against repeat bookings and the opportunity to market to a growing database is in the region of 2.5 times the investment.
In early bookings alone, some Euro 80,000 can be directly attributed to the activity, says marketing director of the Palladium Hotel Group (parent company of the Ushuaia), Alfonso Giménez.
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About Kevin May
The thing that gets me about Ushuaia is that they spend all this money on technology but you go there on the busiest night of the year and the queue at the bar will be 10 people deep because there’s only 2 people serving drinks. If they really want to increase their ROI they should hire a few more staff!
Thats not new, it does not really make any change how you get the interaction triggered, if it is via BARCODE, RFID, NFC, FINGERPRINT, EYE SCAN, DNA SCAN basically any form of unique identification you like you should check out http://blog.reallifeconnect.com and get in touch
This does sound hip and cool, but what happens when some one hacks into this system and the private data of all the guests is compromised. I’d love to see what kind of security do they use to prevent such things.
Clearly a gimmick – its way too early for broader adoption. If you can control the entire environment then this sort of thing is possible. But…
Cast your mind into the next stage of what could be some places where secure ID is required, Airports for example. Then this type of biometric application starts to make sense. What is clear is that we really need to do something about the bottlenecks at customer interaction points. Airports, theme parks, baggage, other forms of secure entry or payment before entry all candidates. But just dont abandon all human interaction. Think carefully.
And check out what Sydney airport is doing to make the entire airport a tracking zone.
Cheers
Timothy
This is the stupidest thing ever and smacks of the world order that wants to keep tabs on you.
The law has changed here in Europe relating to permissions surrounding collection of biometric data to attempt to halt the widespread training of the populous.
If it’s a gimmick you really want, use animal tags embedded under the skin or if you want real high tec, use DNA so you could spit on facebook to check-in
Actually, that sounds like a better idea….spitting at facebook :0)