As a lifelong student of hospitality, former hotelier, and now cofounder in a hotel startup, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever see hotels letting travelers pick their own rooms. This would be a logistical nightmare with preparing rooms, early checkins, late checkouts, stayovers, etc. In Vegas forget about it; there are days when a hotel will turn over 1000+ rooms and it would be impossible to do so in an orderly manner. First to checkout are the first cleaned and the first available to whomever is at the front desk. Plain and simple.
Inventory in other hotels can get tricky with numerous bed types, room types, room view upgrades, etc. It sounds like a great idea for travelers, but a nightmare for hotels who would have to deal with irate guests if they didn't get their desired room.
Commodification is a thing right now with hotels (think of all those upsells on planes like extra leg room; a company called Nor1 - http://www.nor1.com/ - is working on streamlining hotel related upgrades) and the 24 hour stay (not so much technology behind this one, it's built into their property management systems). So if you check in at 6pm the first day you have to be out by 6pm the next day (or whatever time you checked in). If the 24 hour thing works, pre-checkin room selection might stand a chance and get built in to as a part of the upgrade process (I'd imagine it'd encourage you pick a better view or room type and for a fee).
Great article! I've encountered some of the same insights as I embarked on my journey to find the nearest competition for my idea. Many are close, but none on point. Finding competition definitely makes you refine your approach and your differentiator. In hindsight, it is probably the best thing that has happened to me thusfar.
To sdizdars point, your customers absolutely define who is the competition.
So glad for having read "Differentiate or Die!" by Trout in college to know the necessity of that great differentiator.
However, Room 77 just recently announced a licensing deal with Google that indicates somewhat of a pivot to mobile with a portion of their team joining Google (http://skift.com/2014/04/07/room-77-taps-google-for-an-exit-...).
As a lifelong student of hospitality, former hotelier, and now cofounder in a hotel startup, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever see hotels letting travelers pick their own rooms. This would be a logistical nightmare with preparing rooms, early checkins, late checkouts, stayovers, etc. In Vegas forget about it; there are days when a hotel will turn over 1000+ rooms and it would be impossible to do so in an orderly manner. First to checkout are the first cleaned and the first available to whomever is at the front desk. Plain and simple.
Inventory in other hotels can get tricky with numerous bed types, room types, room view upgrades, etc. It sounds like a great idea for travelers, but a nightmare for hotels who would have to deal with irate guests if they didn't get their desired room.
Commodification is a thing right now with hotels (think of all those upsells on planes like extra leg room; a company called Nor1 - http://www.nor1.com/ - is working on streamlining hotel related upgrades) and the 24 hour stay (not so much technology behind this one, it's built into their property management systems). So if you check in at 6pm the first day you have to be out by 6pm the next day (or whatever time you checked in). If the 24 hour thing works, pre-checkin room selection might stand a chance and get built in to as a part of the upgrade process (I'd imagine it'd encourage you pick a better view or room type and for a fee).