"We want to enhance the quality of life in hotels". Jacques Levy-Bonvin has a clear objective. The marketing manager for hotels at Siemens, Landis & Staefa Division, criticizes the fact that important fundamentals are often disregarded in the hotel branch. "Few people are concerned for the customer's well-being." One frequent observation is that a fax and Internet connection have become the new standard for hotel bedrooms.

Landis & Staefa is a member of the Siemens Building Technologies Group based in Zug, Switzerland. It offers hotels a product that is claimed to be unique in the world and designed to meet their specific requirements. The traditional building management system of the kind normally used for office buildings has been enhanced by a room management system, which takes account of the hotel guest's specific needs.

Hotels have been a lucrative market for building automation for some years now. In comparison with other industries, they have experienced a revival, especially in Western Europe. Hotels are getting ready for the new millennium. With a market volume of CHF 40 million, Germany is number one in Europe. Landis & Staefa has a 15 to 20 per cent market share. The company is competing with traditional building equipment suppliers, like Honeywell or Johnson, which offer conventional building management systems. Then there are a number of small firms, for the most part newcomers or companies which enjoy a short-term influence on the market thanks to a good idea but cannot stand the pace for long.

The hotel as a private sphere
According to Jacques Levy-Bonvin, the fundamental difference between a hotel and a traditional office or administrative building has been disregarded for thirty years. That is why hotel bedrooms are still often equipped with the same technologies as offices today. Hotels also have similar public areas, such as restaurants, lobbies and conference rooms, as office buildings and the same service zones like kitchen and storage spaces. Building management systems are used for these areas. But in a hotel, the private sphere is another important feature, i.e. the guest bedroom in which the customer expects to find personal comfort, security and respect.

Aladin at the reception desk
But this particular area has many shortcomings at present. One third of all complaints concern the room temperature - either the desired temperature cannot be obtained at all or operation of the system is too complex. Noise from the public spaces, adjacent rooms or the street is another source of dissatisfaction, and odours a third. "Not all our conventional competitors have recognized this problem yet", says Jacques Levy-Bonvin who has been working in the branch for thirty years. Often, investors also pay too little attention to these factors - after all, they are not the hotel managers and they are too far away from the dissatisfied guest.

Landis & Staefa wants to create a remedy in the form of a specially targeted system. "Aladin" is the name of the product, which combines a building and room management system, takes account of the guests' special needs and also cuts hotel operating and energy costs. One key factor here is that the central point to which all the other components are connected is not the computer in the technical plant but a PC at the reception desk. If the guest has a complaint, he always turns to the reception in the end - and it is from here that a fast solution must be found. The building operator no longer works in a basement office where he is inaccessible to guests, but directly at the reception desk.

In this system, the magnetic card is not used simply to open the doors. When the guest is in the bedroom, he inserts the magnetic card in a special badge holder. This switches the power supply on. At the same time, the reception is notified that the guest is now in the room. A control panel in the room enables the guest not only to adjust the temperature and lighting: he can also indicate when he does not want to be disturbed or when he would like the room to be made up. These signals are then displayed outside the bedroom in the corridor and notified to the reception desk.

Landis & Staefa claims that its integrated hotel management system is a unique product

According to Jacques Levy-Bonvin, the benefits do not reside solely in greater guest comfort. The hotel is also able to cut its energy costs decisively if it knows exactly whether or not guests are in their rooms. Business travellers - a high percentage of the clientele - spend an average of seven hours a day in their bedrooms and for the rest of the time the power supply can be reduced. Another benefit is the fact that staff themselves have more time to look after their guests. Because they no longer have to take care of putting minor faults right; they can pay greater attention to customer comfort.

Hotel habits worldwide
Five years ago, "Aladin" was first introduced in Italy, where 45 hotels have now chosen the system. For the past three and a half years, Germany has been the second pilot country. In addition to the Adlon Hotel in Berlin, another fourteen hotels are now equipped with the Siemens system. In the past year, Landis & Staefa has extended its marketing efforts to the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Jacques Levy-Bonvin says that American hotel chains, which handle 70 per cent of all international business, are hard to win over as customers. There are several reasons for this. Firstly they want to apply a uniform standard all over the world: a bedroom in Berlin is expected to be identical to a bedroom in New York or Tokyo. Some chains fail to take account of the fact that a guest from Europe has different wishes from his counterpart from the U.S. Without falling into the trap of clichés, the fact is that habits differ and special allowance must be made for them. If there is a draught in a restaurant, an American will take this as evidence that the air conditioning is working. A European guest will ask to be moved to a different table.

Now, however, things are changing in the hotel chains. They are no longer content to have a rudimentary room management system which merely allows the guest to switch the room heating on or off.

Jacques Levy-Bonvin graduated from the School of Engineering in Geneva. He has been working in building automation for more than thirty years. Fifteen years ago, he began to specialize in the hotel branch. As a hotel guest and expert, he has got to know hotels in 85 different countries. When he adds up all his overnight stays, he arrives at a total of seven years spent in hotel rooms. In 1998, he published a book entitled "Technical Hotel Management". Further information will be found on his Internet homepage: www.jlevy.ch

PC hotel office PC reception Badge coder
Room control
Fire alarm
Access control Badge reader Display Door lock Badge holder
Temperature control panel TV-news Window blind control