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I’ve never been a gamer – it’s just never been a thing I have connected with. During my childhood, years before ‘hotels’ and the ‘metaverse’ were used in the same sentence, the physical act of falling from a tree, mastering the ability to ride a unicycle I got for Christmas one year, or hitting a new skill in gymnastics was much more appealing and exhilarating than levelling up in Crash Bandicoot – no offence to die-hard fans of the game!
The thought, then, of ‘plugging in’ to a virtual world to explore a new era of hospitality – an industry that has forever grown and developed from people interacting in a very real world – isn’t something that naturally excites me. Everything I have read and learned over the years of editing these pages has taught me that we should tread very carefully when it comes to injecting technology into the hotel experience; whatever we invent next needs to be accessible to both a digital and analogue world. Then again, they said the same about ‘online-only publications’, and look how far we have come!
When I was asked recently to moderate a panel discussion, at HIX, to explore this concept in a new light, I’ll be honest, I felt unqualified. Joining me on the panel was interior designer Pallavi Dean, who has bought four properties in Decentraland; Timothy Griffin, who has just launched a new hotel in the metaverse; and Emma Chiu, Gobal Director, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, whose research in this area is refreshing, extensive and forward-looking.
Image caption: citizenM was one of the first hotel brands to buy property in the metaverse. | Image credit: citizenM
Knowing my position – and the limits I have set on how far I think technology should go in the hotel design and hospitality arena – I couldn’t help but feel like I was intruding on a conversation that many tech experts would jump at the opportunity to be a part of. Perhaps it was my hesitation – and natural curiosity – that led me to accept…
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