PolyU invites Industry Participation in Shaping Future Hotel Rooms

With a view to setting new standards for hotel rooms of the future, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is inviting industry participation in developing prototype guest rooms for its new teaching and research hotel. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the hotel will form a key part of the school’s dedicated premises located in Tsimshatsui East near the PolyU campus.

According to Prof. Kaye Chon, Chair Professor and Director of SHTM, the prototype guest rooms will occupy one of the hotel floors, and they will be purposely built to facilitate researches in areas such as enhancement of hotel guest experience, guestroom design, environmental friendliness, information technology, new products/materials and service concepts development.

The development of the prototype guest rooms will involve collaboration between PolyU and relevant industry partners, which will serve as a platform to innovate, develop and showcase new technologies, hotel designs and business concepts in hotel management. “Through these prototype rooms,” said Prof. Chon, “the school is creating a ‘House of Innovation’ for the global hotel industry, where new products and services can be tested.”

PolyU is now inviting expression of interest in developing the prototype guest rooms from relevant sectors such as hotel suppliers and providers in technology, housekeeping, personal well-being and design.

“Hong Kong is a city of innovation and it has a tradition of introducing innovations in the hotel industry. PolyU’s teaching and research hotel, with its prototype rooms, will be at the forefront of such innovation,” he said.

PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management was ranked fourth among the world’s top hotel and tourism schools based on research and scholarship, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research in 2005. With more than 50 academic staff drawn from 17 countries, the school offers programmes at levels ranging from PhD to Higher Diploma, and is the only training centre in the Education and Training Network in Asia recognized by the World Tourism Organization.

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