The Evolution of the Hotel Alarm Clock - Part 4
Full transparency - when we wrote the series “The Evolution of the Hotel Alarm Clock” we never expected there would be a part 4.
If you recall, part 3 was all about what we saw as the future of the hotel alarm clock, and more specifically, what kind of features Nonstop would be adding to future products. The main focus of that post was on things like IoT and Voice Assistant. We envisioned a future where guests would wake up, tell the built in voice assistant in the bedside clock to “start the coffee”, the “smart” coffee maker would receive a command from the “smart” clock and boom, your morning caffeine is brewing without having to get out of bed.
We still believe this is where things are headed, but the events of 2020 have brought something much more pressing into the spotlight - health and cleanliness. As the Pandemic unfolded and hotels and other businesses began to close their doors, the team at Nonstop was thinking hard about what kind of products would fit best with this “new normal.”
We knew it had to be health and cleanliness related. There’s all sorts of demand for sanitation products such as wipes, masks, foggers and more. Hotels are in the process of rolling out various programs on new cleanliness measures - including performing temperature checks, retraining staff, installing keyless entry and much more.
Out of all the different solutions that were thrust into the spotlight, one technology seemed to stand out from the rest - UV-C cleaning technology.
If you haven’t read up on UV-C technology, there’s a bunch of helpful links at the bottom and check out our recent blog post on what it means for the hotel industry.
The more we studied up on UV-C, the more clear the benefits became, but with all the different UV-C applications that exist, what would make ours different?
From the beginning, Nonstop has focused on solutions that put the mobile phone at the forefront - wireless charging stations, bluetooth speakers, etc. And with all the news coming out about how our phones are breeding grounds for germs, we saw this as a natural progression for our product line. What we landed on is a UV-C Sanitation and Charging Station - which uses UV-C technology to eliminate 99.999% of germs on high touch items like mobile phones, remotes, and much more.
Of course with all that’s going on, cleanliness is the main focus. But one of the great things about UV Station is it turns clean into an amenity by including both Wireless and USB charging. As soon as a guest arrives in their room, they can sanitize their phone and set it on the wireless charger. This added functionality creates long lasting value for a product class that *may* become less of a focus as we get to the other side of the Pandemic.
The benefits for the guest is they can take ownership of ensuring their devices, as well as other objects such as the remote control - which are not only incredibly dirty, but are also one of the hardest things to effectively clean - are up to their cleanliness standards. The benefits for the hotel, and the housekeeping staff specifically, is they now have a simple, reliable and effective way to clean remote controls. By empowering both the hotel staff and guests to have control over keeping these high touch items clean, UV Station acts as an ideal ambassador for a hotel's clean strategy. Because if you haven’t heard it enough this year, we’re all in this together.
Introducing UV Station
Conclusion
6 months ago, we had no plans to incorporate UV-C cleaning technology into our products. Our focus was on IoT, voice, and other technologies deemed to be the future. But as is life, things quickly changed and we knew we had to change with it. While we don’t know what the next year holds, we are exciting to be releasing a product that solves a fundamental problem while delighting guests.