Article

GoBoard digital signs highlight Courtyard lobby retrofits

Large-format touchscreens to inform travelers at 150 Courtyard by Marriott locations by the end of 2009.  

June 10, 2009

Many hotels, casinos and resorts are learning the advantages of digital signage through pilots and single location rollouts, but one national hotel chain is using interactive screens as the keystone for retrofits of hundreds of its lobbies.

"A lot of times at hotels you will see a one-page print off of weather facts and news at the front desk, so when we really started to talk to customers about what was important, it was that relevant, grab-and-go information," said Brian King, vice president, global brand manager, Courtyard by Marriott. "It got us thinking, there has to be a better was to deliver this."

VIDEO: The New Courtyard by Marriott Lobby

Courtyard, which is designed to be a business travel hotel, tapped product development design firm Ideo to assist with the retrofits. The companies performed ethnographic studies to pin down the target audience during the planning process for the GoBoard.

"The Courtyard target customer is very tech-centric and tech-savvy," King said. "They're the early adopters of new technology. The always travel with their laptop and were some of the first to have the iPhone. These are people on the go who are mobile, but also need to be connected and informed all the time."

Marriott partnered with FourWinds Interactive, based in Denver, Colo., which provided the hardware integration, installation and initial setup. Content is driven by USA Today, which stems from an existing newspaper partnership between Marriott and the paper.

VIDEO: Courtyard guest testimonial on the GoBoard

The "local points of interest" feature, powered by Microsoft Virtual Earth, is resonating well with users. Almost identical to online map searches, the GoBoard finds relevant restaurants, events, and attractions for travelers and incorporates a printing functionality so they can take the information with them.

The 57-inch private label screen features a NextWindow optical touch overlay. Content is played back on a small form factor PC running Four Winds' Content Player digital signage software.

The future

Courtyard is also in the works of rolling out an international version of the GoBoard that is bi-lingual, that is, it's in English and the native language of the country in which it's located. In the U.S., it still plans to continue to implement the new "Refreshing Business" lobby concept past 2009.

"It's definitely created a buzz in the hospitality industry," said David Levin, president of Four Winds Interactive. "I think there is a demand for information by the business traveler. Courtyard really recognized digital signage a great medium to deliver that information.