New Zealand’s first fully “smart” hotel recently opened its doors in the heart of Queenstown. Founded by Mipad Holdings this a next generation, energy-conscious hotel experience for the smart traveller is the ultimate marriage of technology, sustainability, comfort and convenience.

While Mia – the ‘smart’ manager is there to sort all your hospitality needs, hotel manager Kylie Hogan with her 20 years’ of experience in international resort management will make sure Queenstown’s first smart hotel has a lot to offer. She sheds a thought or two on technology, hospitality and all things ”smart”.

TD: What is a smart hotel?

KH: A smart hotel uses technology to talk to room controls and allow you to communicate through your own personal device.

“Allowing guests to use their phone to control their stay”

mi-pad is a new generation hotel allowing guests to use their phone to control their stay. With a downloadable app, you can access your room key, your lighting and heating and chat with the team for any requests, all from your phone.

mi-pad has integrated the latest technology to create a seamless conversation between the guest staying and the physical hotel functions and allows a communication pathway previously not available, one where language is not imperative but an intuitive environment is.

The hotel also forges a unique relationship between technology and sustainability.

TD: How will it benefit millennial guests? Or is it for everyone?

KH: The smart hotel is for everyone that has ever used a smartphone. If you can text and navigate your way around a touch screen on any device, then you can use the mi-pad app.

“Technology will never take away the need for personal interaction in hospitality”

TD: What’s your take on the role of technology in hospitality?

KH: My personal take is that it is inevitable that we start to turn to our devices – not just from the booking process in finding the right hotel, but to pay for the room and on from that, hold the key in your hand and be enabled to communicate with your room and the hotel staff.

Technology will never take away the need for personal interaction in hospitality, it will just increase it.

TD: The social wall sounds interesting. What is it?

It was designed to ignite an engaging centre point for the hotel. It is a moving wall featuring moving slides from local information, hotel visuals to local social media posts, all centred around our local community being Queenstown.

The purpose of the wall was to have guests engage with the visuals and become curious, to talk about them and to be apart of them. Mi-pad is about your stay, your way, so it made sense to find a way to make the guest a part of the space, the visual and ultimately the story.

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