The "it" Factor

As I sit in the lobby of my hotel, the Residence Inn by Marriott Beverly Hills, looking for inspiration as to what to write about in my very first post for my very first blog, “it” hit me again.  The “it” I am referring to is the constant advances in Information Technology (IT) and how it affects almost every aspect of our personal and professional lives.

Just take this blog and blogging as an example.  I am sure many of you at one point in your lives started or kept a journal of your daily experiences.  Or maybe you had a diary of your deepest personal thoughts.  Of course, if you are as old as me, your journal or diary was a paper-paged notebook and you wrote in it with a blue Bic pen in long hand. And it was not meant to be shared with anyone, let alone the possibility of millions of strangers on something called the World Wide Web!  There again is that “it.”  Technology has advanced so much that I cant remember the last time I even saw a blue Bic ink pen and my young nieces learned how to type on a computer before they mastered how to write long hand!  Having gone to a Catholic grade school, I can imagine the horror on the face of Sister Priscilla, one of the Sister of Mercy nuns who painstakingly taught me penmanship.

I remember the day in 1976 when I was thirteen, my parents bought us the Atari Super Pong video game that we hooked up to our 19” black and white RCA TV in our basement. If you are too young to remember, these were the TV’s that you had to turn the channel and volume dials manually (imagine no remotes or clickers) and they had the big rabbit ear antennas that my father always wrapped in aluminum foil so the TV got better reception. Well, Atari Super Pong was a huge technological hit back then. It was one game with one green blib (ball) that two players hit back and forth on an empty lifeless black screen.  Nonetheless, my brother Joey and I played that game daily for hours. By today’s standards, XBox and Wii make Atari Super Pong look like something that is 2000 years old found during an archeological dig.  There again is that “it.”

The hotel business too has come a long way with technology since I started at my first Marriott Hotel, fresh out of college in Pittsburgh, PA.  One of my first jobs at the hotel was to install mini-bars in every room and train the mini-bar staff on inventorying every mini-bar each day and restocking if the guest drank or ate one of the way over priced items stocked in the mini-bar. Then they had to physically go to the Front Desk to make sure the charge was added to the guest’s bill.  Today much has changed. Outside of the mini-bar items still being way over priced, today any item taken out of the mini-bar triggers a charge automatically on the guest’s bill and alerts the mini-bar attendant of what room needs what item so you are only going into a guest room that needs to be re-stocked. Other advances are we went from cordless in-room telephones to wireless high speed Internet access everywhere in the hotel. From cheap Panasonic AM/FM alarm clocks to Apple iHome/iPod docking stations. From manual thermostats to state of the art digital and motion detection energy systems.  The list is long, but there again is that “it.”

I am sure that the “it” will continue to change and advance. But as I sit here and listen to my staff interact with our guests at the Front Desk and at our evening social hour, I suddenly feel so grateful for working in a hotel where “hospitality” really is the essence of our business. Sure, I welcome the efficiencies and comforts of the IT advances, but they can never replace or adequately imitate the good old-fashioned interpersonal interactions I witness every day.  A warm greeting by name, a friendly handshake and even the ability to look your guests in the eye when interacting with them.  “it” can never replace that.

More to come.   Be well,