“Innovation is the name of the game,” is a phrase that stuck out when I recently read a piece on Global Tech Trends in Hotels in HotelNewsNow.com (http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=1632), in which thought leaders in the hospitality industry and hoteliers were asked what the most important innovation in guest rooms will look like in the next 18 months.

The article got me thinking and I asked some of my colleagues what they thought would be important hotel innovations and trends that will emerge by the end of 2010. One of the most intriguing answers was catering technology to business travells that are female.

Female business travellers are a growing segment of the hotel business. According to Harvard Business School (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4611.html), 40% of business travellers are women. Despite their numbers as a growing force in the marketplace, women business travelers still represent a valuable untapped market. Not only are female business travellers a significant part of the industry, but they also make the majority of decisions for their families' personal trips (Source: HBS). Therefore, they tend to demand better technology, amenities and in-room entertainment than their male counterpart.
Hoteliers have started to notice the wants and needs of women business travellers and have started to cater to that segment. Our belief is that in the next year hotels are going to target designing special rooms that will attract female travellers.

Along the same lines, Acentic also believes that the younger demographic of business travellers both female and male is going to be a huge market and Hoteliers are going to need to recognise that they want technical service and agility. Guest rooms and hotel lobby innovations will soon allow these guests to lie on the bed to work via wireless connectivity or sit in the hotel lobby with WiFi. By this, I mean serious ubiquitous WiFi bandwidth at realistic costs.

If you would like to know more about our ‘WiFi to the max 2010’ send us your questions to john.waters@acentic.com