Room 114 of the Courtyard by Marriott Newark-University of Delaware is a hotel room unlike any other.

Behind its door is a different kind of place. With room 114 the hotel’s managemen t is taking steps to stop talking about the future guestroom and to start testing it in the real-world.

Room 114 is called the X Room, short for experimental g uestroom of the future. It is an actual working guestroom where business travelers and families checking into the hotel stay. Inside they find many of the same technologies found in the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professional’s Guestroom 2010 (the inspiration for the X Room), except this not a display, it is a real working room designed to find out just how these technologies can be utilized now and how they will be accepted by guests.

“I saw Guestroom 2010 and had the idea of starting that in our hotel,” says Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu, Ph.D., associate professor of hospitality information technology at the University of Delaware and creator of the X Room, “the difference is Guestroom 2010 is only a prototype. People can go and see it, but nobody can actually use it to see if it really makes any impact on their operation or staff efficiency.”

Cobanoglu wanted to find out. He thinks using the idea of Guestroom 2010 in a real-world environment can help the industry collect data and determine if the future, as discussed, will really be the future in reality. “We are so excited to replicate Guestroom 2010 in a real environment,” he says.

The Courtyard by Marriott on the University of Delaware campus was the perfect location, particularly since the hotel serves as a training ground for students in the university’s hospitality program. Cobanoglu says that Marriott’s Managing Director Bill Sullivan and the property’s owner/operator State College, Pa.-based Shaner Hotels were glad to host the room. “We’re excited to work with visionary partners like Marriott and Shaner Hotels,” he says.

Approximately eight months ago, the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at the university began working on the project with initial help from Nintendo and its popular Wii console. From there, Cobanoglu sought help from other vendors he’d seen in the Guestroom 2010 display. “I told them we are doing an actual hotel room that’s going to be used by real guests,” he says. The X Room opened in September.

What is a stay in the X Room actually like? The majority of the hotel’s guests are business travelers and people connected to the University, so it is a well-traveled bunch. Unlike their stays in other hotel rooms, an X Room guest gets the benefit of emerging technologies.

A user-friendly touchscreen panel sits bedside to enable guests to automatically adjust the temperature of their room. It also lets them have the lights switch themselves off, once sensors detect they have left the room.

The room keeps itself clean as well. A robotic vacuum cleaner keeps the eco-friendly carpet tidy. Meanwhile a computerized alarm clock on wheels makes sure guests wake up on time, and if aren’t ready to start their day just yet, the alarm clock hides itself until later.

Also, a digital video camera makes the peephole a hightech product. It’s one technology that Cobanoglu says early feedback indicates may be becoming a favorite of female travelers because it provides a safer feeling. The camera instantly shows who’s outside the door on an LCD screen inside the room.

The technologies aren’t all about safety and energy management. Some just provide a more efficient ambiance. For example, guests can set the mood of the room with flameless candles or stay in shape with a virtual workout on the in-room Nintendo Wii.

One side is empty so they can store their own beverages.”

Cobanoglu, an internationally regarded expert on the strategic integration of new technology within the lodging industry, didn’t set out to simply create a cool hotel room. The X Room has a significant purpose. “The goal is to have real guests use it,” he says.

“When guests come to our hotel we ask them if they would like to stay in our experimental guestroom. If they say yes, we’re not going to charge them extra for the room. Then, we’ll ask them to fill out a survey that has questions about each one of the technologies.”

The idea of the experiment is to make it as real as possible. Cobanoglu and his students assisting with the project, in particular graduate student Jane Sullivan (no relation to Bill Sullivan), have taken measures to ensure the study’s realism. For example, most of the guests who stay in the room are not given training on the technologies.

At the end of the stay, the survey is designed to find out how many of the technologies available they have used.

“We’ll also ask them the level of impact of the technologies on their stay satisfaction,” Cobanoglu says.

One of the things the experiment looks for is whether or not the new technologies cause frustration for guests.

Since the study is only three months old, it’s still too early to reveal official data on what guest think. But, both Cobanoglu and Bill Sullivan say that some unofficial feedback has revealed trends.

“The experiment is still new and some new technologies are yet to come,” Cobanoglu says. “For that reason we don’t have anything official yet to report.” He does say, however, that some of the guests have reported that they love some of the technologies and some get very frustrated.

“In the room, you have four different remote controls. For some it’s been difficult to figure what’s inside the room.” Cobanoglu is quick to point out that those opinions are in no way indicative of any results at this point in the experiment and that much of the feedback has been extremely positive.

Bill Sullivan also says the guests have offered a lot of positive feedback to the technologies. “It’s been well-received by the people who’ve been in the room. We’ve had some great comments,” he says. “People say, ‘Wow, this is really neat.’ With the things we put in there, we tried to be as guest service focused as possible.” n