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Tag: marriott

  • Marriott Using Salesforce Einstein to Reinvent the Hotel Experience

    Marriott Using Salesforce Einstein to Reinvent the Hotel Experience

    Salesforce Co-founder & CEO Marc Benioff announced at the Dreamforce conference a new partnership with Marriott that is going to bring the power of artificial intelligence into the hotel room via a phone app. This new Marriott app will connect directly with a Salesforce Einstein powered customer database that knows the customer’s preferences and will be accessible via Siri and other voice recognition platforms.

    Marc Benioff provided some interesting details of the Marriott and Apple partnership and in a discussion with CNBC’s Jim Cramer at the Dreamforce conference:

    Marriott Using Salesforce Technology to Reinvent the Hotel Experience

    Every company has to rethink who they are in the fourth industrial revolution. This includes Marriott, that’s why Arne Sorenson is here, the CEO of Marriott, and you are going to see in the keynote a whole new vision for the future of Marriott. All the technology, everything they need to do to connect with their customer in a whole new way via Salesforce.

    That includes the ability to check into a Marriott with your digital key right on your phone, and then the ability to talk to Siri and order your favorite sandwich. In the Salesforce customer database, we will know you want a turkey sandwich and we are going to bring it to your room. Then if you tell Siri to lower the lights and put the room temperature to 67 degrees the lights go down and the temperature adjusts.

    Salesforce Einstein Radically Empowering the Customer

    How does it know, where does it get all the data, how does it have the customer background, it comes from Salesforce, we’re the backend. This is what the conference is about, helping these incredible people, our trailblazers, know how to build these systems. We had to build something amazing first. This isn’t voice recognition that we did. We had to build something called Salesforce Einstein, the number one artificial intelligence platform in enterprise applications. We now are doing billions of Einstein transactions every day giving the ability for our customers to radically use artificial intelligence to make them more productive and smarter about their customers.

    We are connecting Einstein to Siri or Einstein to any other voice platform, then we take that voice recognition and we are able to move it to the database. Don’t forget, when I say I want my favorite sandwich, Siri knows what I’m saying with my voice, but then we have to take that and retrieve it or insert into the customer database. That’s the magic, that’s Einstein Voice, it is the glue, the middleware that links all the voice systems that you are using in your home and your phone with the number one CRM in the world Salesforce.

    Marc Benioff Say the Economy is Ripping

    The economy is ripping. There is incredible demand from customers to rebuild their systems, they’re benefitting from the tax breaks, they are benefitting from a huge economy that is growing at rates they’ve never seen before. Even here in San Francisco, our unemployment now is below 3 percent. That’s amazing!

  • Netflix Makes Hotel Room Deal With Marriott

    Netflix Makes Hotel Room Deal With Marriott

    Netflix has partnered with Marriott International to enable Marriott Hotels guests to subscribe to or sign into Netflix by using the Netflix app on the rooms’ internet-connected TVs. While Netflix has partnered with various pay-TV operators, this is the first time it’s made such a deal with a hotel chain.

    While many have turned to their mobile devices and laptops to view Netflix in their hotel rooms while traveling, many will no doubt find the Netflix-ready TV a nice perk. Hotels and motels have long tried to entice guests with free HBO, guests with queues of content already saved on their Netflix accounts will find this to be an added benefit.

    “Our collaboration with Netflix responds to changing consumer preferences in the way our guests access and watch content, while recognizing the leading role Netflix is playing in driving this transformation,” said Matthew Carroll, vice president brand management at Marriott Hotels. “Because consumers are choosing to take their streaming content with them when they travel, Marriott Hotels is making the industry’s first rollout of Netflix a priority.”

    “Our members tell us they want to watch Netflix anytime, in any place where they have an Internet connection,” said Bill Holmes, global head of business development at Netflix. “Through our partnership with Marriott, they’ll get to watch their favorite movies, TV shows and Netflix originals on big screens just like they do at home.”

    The service is already available at six properties with six more coming this summer. By the end of the year, it should be available at 100 locations, and in nearly all of its locations in the U.S. by the end of next year. It’s currently available at: New York Marriott East Side, San Jose Marriott, Princeton Marriott, Newport Marriott, Dallas/Fort Worth Marriott Solana, and Bethesda Marriott Suites.

    Next up are: Marriott Marquis Washington, DC, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Dayton Marriott, San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, and Anaheim Marriott.

    The service is also available in over two dozen U.S. hotels representing other Marriott brands, and will expand more broadly to the other brands in the future.

    Later this year, Netflix itself will launch in three new international markets: Spain, Italy, and Portugal.

    Image via Netflix

  • FCC to Businesses: Blocking Wi-Fi Is 100% Illegal

    FCC to Businesses: Blocking Wi-Fi Is 100% Illegal

    The Federal Communications Commission has stated, unequivocally, that businesses which interfere with consumers’ Wi-Fi are in direct violation of the law.

    “In the 21st Century, Wi-Fi, represents an essential on-ramp to the internet. Personal Wi-Fi networks, or “hot spots,” are an important way that consumers connect to the Internet. Willful or malicious interference with Wi-Fi hot spots is illegal,” says the FCC in a new Enforcement Advisory.

    “Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, as amended. The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises. As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.”

    The FCC’s notice comes in response to a recent case involving the Marriott hotel chain. The company was fined $600,000 for blocking customers’ personal Wi-Fi hotspots at a Nashville, Tennessee location.

    The FCC refers to the case specifically, saying,

    “In 2014, the Enforcement Bureau conducted an investigation, culminating with a Consent Decree, into this kind of unlawful activity by the operator of a resort hotel and convention center.2In that case, Marriott International, Inc. deployed a Wi-Fi deauthentication protocol to deliberately block consumers who sought to connect to the Internet using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots. Marriott admitted that the customers it blocked did not pose a security threat to the Marriott network and agreed to settle the investigation by paying a civil penalty of $600,000.”

    And according to the FCC, it’s been getting more and more complaints regarding Wi-Fi blocking in other businesses across the country.

    The FCC makes it pretty clear what’s illegal:

    No hotel, convention center, or other commercial establishment or the network operator providing services at such establishments may intentionally block or disrupt personal Wi-Fi hot spots on such premises, including as part of an effort to force consumers to purchase access to the property owner’s Wi-Fi network. Such action is illegal and violations could lead to the assessment of substantial monetary penalties.

    So, for now, this is definitive. If you think your Wi-Fi is being jammed – complain.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Netflix in Hotels? Marriott Tests New TV Service

    Netflix in Hotels? Marriott Tests New TV Service

    Vacancy. Indoor Pool. Free … Netflix?

    The Marriott hotel chain is testing new video offerings in a handful of locations. The new TV service apparently allows guests to stream Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora in their rooms.

    “We have invited leading technology companies and content providers to work with us to design the next wave in in-room entertainment focusing on on-demand programming,” Marriott spokesman John Wolf told Bloomberg. “We are currently offering guests in eight test hotels the opportunity to stream their content through our high-definition TVs whether it is Netflix, Hulu or Pandora.”

    According to some Twitter users who have seen the new system in action, it looks like you have to log in with your own Netflix or Hulu account. Marriott just provides the interface on its in-room TVs.

    Of course, as long as you have your laptop/iPad and Wi-Fi, you could just stream Netflix yourself – without Marriott’s help. But this new system allows you to stream Netflix in all its HD, big-screen glory. Plus, access to reliable Wi-Fi is not a guarantee – especially when we’re talking about Marriott.

    This is just a test and it’s possible that the structure of the service could shift. Instead of letting people log-in to their own Netflix accounts, hotels could provide generic access. It could be built into the cost of the room, or Netflix access could be a separate add-on. Netflix could get a piece of that action.

    It’s easy to imagine a future where hotels tout Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime as premium offerings to attract guests. And if you’re Netflix, why wouldn’t you want to be inside millions of hotel rooms across the world?

    It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Marriott expands this “test” and if other hotel chains jump on board. I’m guessing the answers to those questions are very, and you bet.

    Image via Greg Turner, Flickr Creative Commons

  • FCC Says Marriott Jammed Guests’ Wi-Fi, Will Pay $600K Fine

    FCC Says Marriott Jammed Guests’ Wi-Fi, Will Pay $600K Fine

    The FCC and Marriott have come to an agreement on allegations that the hotel chain puprosefully jammed its customers’ Wi-Fi. The civil penalty will amount to $600,000 for the largest hotel company in the world.

    The whole thing started with a complaint, which the FCC received in March of 2013. The complainant, who had recently stayed at Marriott’s Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, said that Marriott was “jamming mobile hotspots so that you can’t use them in the convention space.”

    Marriott admitted to (how’s this for clever wording) using “containment features of a Wi-Fi monitoring system”, which prevented many guests from using their own Wi-Fi networks – either through a personal hotspot or third-party device. Because of course they did.

    At the Gaylord Opryland hotel, Wi-Fi is included in your $18-per-night resort fee, but you can upgrade to “enhanced high speed” internet for just $6.99 a day. Because of course you can.

    And from GigaOm:

    Marriott also offers services like custom private networks for its business customers, which can cost anywhere from $250 to $1000 per wireless access point.

    Because of course they do. Shucks, sure would be a shame is something were to happen to your hotspot…oh damn, there it goes.

    Despite being a dick move, this is also illegal. From the FCC:

    “Section 333 of the Communications Act provides that ‘No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized by or under this Act or operated by the United States Government.’ The Bureau previously has indicated that the use of jammers to interfere with Wi-Fi transmissions violates Section 333.3.”

    Long story short, if you notice your hotspot isn’t working in a hotel, you might not want to chalk it up to coincidence. If you think that Marriott were the only ones doing this, well, I envy your optimism.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons