Dec 15, 2016 | By Benedict
A “Hotels of the Future” study conducted by hotels.com predicts that hotels in 2060 will feature crazy amounts of technology, such as advanced 3D printers, touchscreen everything, morphing beds, artificial intelligence, and AR. But will the sheets be clean?
Sleep well? Time to 3D print a new pair of shoes
With additive manufacturing on the rise in so many different sectors, there are now a number of places I expect to see 3D printers—universities, laboratories, libraries, factories, even the occasional toy shop. One place I will not expect to see a 3D printer, however, is my next hotel room. Complimentary shampoo? Check. Bible? Yup. Ultimaker 3? Wait a minute…
The idea of putting a 3D printer in a hotel room seems more-or-less nonsensical. A tiny percentage of the population knows how to use them, and most of that group are incredibly self-reliant, having managed to get this far without Hilton helping them out at all. But according to a new report from hotels.com, that could all change in the future. The website’s “Hotels of the Future” study, put together with the help of Dr James Canton, CEO at Institute for Global Futures, suggests that 3D printers or “3D makers” could become essential to the hotel experience just a few decades from now.
Hotels of the future could utilize RoboButlers
According to the new report, hotels in 2060 could make use of 3D printers in each room in order to fabricate virtually any item needed by a guest. “Taking luggage on holiday will be a thing of the past,” the report states. “3D Printers will transform the travel experience and the in-room experience. 3D Makers will generate in real time items guests desire, such as new shoes, clothes, or even computers and phones. 3D shopping will be available, where consumers download from the cloud retail goods they want to design on demand.”
It all sounds rather lovely, but the images provided by hotels.com make us slightly skeptical. Well, actually, the entire premise makes us a little skeptical. 3D printing a toothbrush? If I check in to a hotel at midnight, I want to get ready for bed and sleep; I don’t want to be fiddling around with CAD software—touchscreen or not—or waiting for my essential items to extrude in front of me before I can use them.
Choose your own dream and shape your next hotel
Still, the optimist inside me does like the idea of 3D printing a nicely fitting pair of hotel slippers to be used in the morning after I sleep, and 2060 is, after all, rather a long time away. Funnily enough though, the forecast of personal hotel room 3D printers is just about the most sensible-sounding item on the report. Scoff at the idea of a 3D printed hairdryer? Well, how does being served dinner by a robot butler sound?
Yes, hotels in 2060 will apparently make use of RoboButlers, autonomous robots that will greet guests, serve food, educate, entertain, and even offer business advice. That’s all well and good, but it forces a difficult decision for guests: how much do you tip? These RoboButlers will be joined by other wild technological innovations, including a “choose your own dream” neuro-dreaming service straight from Inception, flying cars for airport transfers, and even morphing hotels which self-assemble and morph from one design to another based on a consumer voting system.
“Trends in technology, science, energy and entertainment will vastly change the hotel experience for travelers,” explains Canton, a former Apple Computer executive and high-tech entrepreneur. “The emergence of a new travel design science, which is a combination of using big data, artificial intelligence, and predicting travelers’ dreams, will mean the whole travel experience will change.”'
Hotels of the future could use flying cars for easy airport transfers
“The future of travel is really exciting, as we’ll see predictive travel analytics anticipating what consumers want from their experience before booking,” Canton adds. “The hotel booking itself will be helped along by artificial intelligence software agents, using data mining and intuitive computing. The new travel design science will help create highly personalized in-stay experiences. And it doesn’t end when you check out, because new analytics will also ensure lifelong travel fulfillment.”
A 3D printer in every hotel room? It’s hard to envision, but check back with us in 2060 to see if it all pans out.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Good imagination about how 3D printing is going to change the world. It is very interesting article. Nice writing. Keep it up.
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