How a Portland-Based Hotel Saved $11k by Replacing Traditional Legacy In-Room Devices
Completed in June 2018, the Jupiter NEXT hotel is a 67 room property in the Burnside neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Built as a sister property to the long-standing Jupiter hotel across the street, Jupiter NEXT carries Jupiter’s emphasis on service and focus on connecting guests to Portland’s vibrant urban life.
The original Jupiter Hotel adopted an early version of Roxy, a speech enabled device that provides fully customizable in-room concierge services, in 2016. The devices enable guests to get instant access to information and services offered by the hotel simply by using voice commands. Just by saying ‘Okay Roxy’ guests can get information about the nearest dive bar, the checkout time or call down to the front desk, all without lifting a finger.
In 2017, Jupiter began construction on its sister property Jupiter NEXT. At the same time, Roxy was in the process of integrating built-in phone functionality. Jupiter NEXT chose to leverage Roxy’s phone capability, eliminating the need for dedicated in-room phones. Premium hotel phones like the ones Jupiter NEXT was considering before Roxy generally cost in the range of $80 - $100 per device. Add in alarm clocks, charging ports and speakers and these in-room devices can add up to $165 or more. For a 67 room property like Jupiter NEXT that’s a total of $11,055 in legacy in-room devices.
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A video of Roxy in action can be seen here!
“‘When it came to budgeting for in-room equipment like phones and alarm clocks, the integration of Roxy was an easy choice.” writes Nick Pearson, General Manager at Jupiter NEXT.
“In addition to cutting costs in the room, replacing legacy equipment with Roxy reduces significant clutter. Clearing the desk complements our aesthetic at NEXT and makes for less equipment to manage.”
Because Roxy runs over Wi-Fi new properties are also able to avoid running ethernet to every room. One hotel internet installer, Bridge Cable (src), quotes $125 per cable drop for ethernet installation. In a property with 67 rooms like Jupiter NEXT that would be a cost of $8,375 for wiring up each room with ethernet.
But Roxy isn’t only for new hotels. Any hotel seeking to update its technology strategy can benefit from the adoption of Roxy devices. Roxy reduces service recovery scenarios by automating task dispatch and ensuring proper routing of guest requests. In June, Jupiter NEXT’s Roxy devices handled 910 service requests for guests. In addition to standard e-mail and SMS dispatching, Roxy can be configured to integrate with a wide array of ticketing and PMS systems.
With Roxy handling guests’ questions about towels, how to access WiFi or how to check out, Jupiter NEXT staff are able to be more hands-on and provide exceptional experiences for their guests. In June, Roxy saved Jupiter NEXT more than 42 hours of staff time[1].
Jupiter NEXT has also leveraged the unique layer of data and analytics provided by Roxy to fine-tune its operations.
“Roxy’s analytics have illuminated a number of operational improvements, from predicting checkout times to optimizing the hours of our cleaning staff.” states Nick Pearson, assistant general manager at Jupiter NEXT.
By providing guests with instant access to information as well as providing hotels with detailed reports on guest requests, hotels are able to fine-tune their operations to best serve guests in ways not previously possible. According to Hospitality Technology's 2018 Lodging Technology Study (src), 70% of hotels project that AI and speech-enabled devices have the greatest potential to affect change on the hospitality industry out of all emerging hospitality technologies. By analyzing guest request history and identifying trends hoteliers can optimize staffing, zero-in on maintenance issues and ensure their properties are operating as efficiently as possible.
By utilizing Roxy devices instead of traditional in-room technology devices, Jupiter NEXT spent substantially less and enabled guests to have instant access to hotel information and amenities. In total the hotel would have spent $19,430 on in-room devices and ethernet wiring for its 67 rooms. Roxy also provides Jupiter NEXT with actionable analytics which have enabled them to make a number of operational optimizations. Jupiter NEXT has found that Roxy devices are exactly what a modern hotel needs.
[1] (2568 staff-oriented queries) * (~1 minute per query) = 2568 minutes, or 42.8 hours of staff time saved