Ron Swidler, Chief Innovation Officer of the Gettys Group companies

In this episode of the Hotel Design Podcast, we welcome Ron Swidler, who is the Chief Innovation Officer of the Gettys Group companies. Host Glenn Haussman and Ron start by discussing how we're at an interesting intersection in history and how it's created the rare opportunity to reinvent everything we do in hospitality design from scratch. It's the Great Reset; a chance to try new things with less scrutiny than the pre covid era. It's a chance to fail without judgment, an opportunity to push traditional design boundaries of what could be when it comes to the future of hospitality. They talk about the varied facets of the company's Hotel of Tomorrow project, which brings together industry leaders working together to rethink conventional thinking when it comes to hotel design. First, the discuss biophilic design, the notion of bringing in natural elements into a building. Plus, they discuss how this intersects with the notion of activating spaces that appeal to different day parts. For example, Swidler and Glenn discuss how programmable lighting, as well as large format LED displays, are becoming more affordable and available. Another strategy, take parking spots in front of the restaurant to create outdoor dining space.  Also, how LEDs are used to shift lighting within a space throughout the course of the day to better match circadian cycles. This allows hoteliers to create different moods during different day parts that's designed to lead to higher customer engagement, hopefully translating to higher F&B sales. The downtown Minneapolis Rand Tower Hotel is another project design by Gettys. Here, Ron explains how the property has sensors and display screens in the meeting spaces showing the air quality. They quickly move onto a project featured at hotel-of-tomorrow.com, the Robot Alliance. Here they address how to expand F&B offerings beyond the constraints of a restaurant or a bar that might be tucked away in a hotel.  One solution: robots that could have video screens that also serve as televisions as drones accept food order; and delivered by additional rolling robots. Another cool technology discussed is Bed X, Y, Z, a sleep platform that monitors sleep quality whole allowing the gamification of multiple sleep environment elements. Try to achieve a higher sleep score on your next night! Going beyond the hotel's walls, a student group determined that an RV could be serviced and picked up at a hotel. While stopping at the affiliated hotels along the travel route to get housekeeping, get room service, or to use the pool and the amenities of the hotel. Glenn and Swidler also discuss virtual reality and its use as a training tool Not only does this system teach specific job tasks, but also lets others understand how difficult it is to do a specific the job, which leads to a higher appreciation for that staff member. Finally, they summarize the virtual reality experience is a truly remarkable experiment currently being pushed by many Big Tech companies and others. Listen to how this will have wide ranging change on how we interact with each other and built environments. Follow along with some great project visuals on our website - http://hoteldesignpodcast.com/ - and subscribe to our new Youtube page to watch the video interview!