Apps make luxury hotels even more luxurious

When it comes to luxury at your fingertips, s𝕴ometimes there’s nothing like a smartphone.

A slew of swanky hotels,🍷 including the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton, have launcඣhed mobile apps that enable guests to book rooms, dinner reservations and spa treatments directly from their smart devices.

In New York, is powering apps for trendy venues like the Gansevoort, The Standard and Le Parker Meridien. After downloading the apps, guests can order a bottle of champagne, request extra towels or schedule a wake-up call withou꧅t ever speaking to a staffer.

The hoteliers are going high-tech despite their well-burnished reputations for service with a human touch. Some admit they w🐈ere skeptical at first — but concluded it was simply a case of adapting to guests’ habits.

“There will always be a concierge desk,” said Stephanie Sprayregen, who h﷽eads digital marketing for Gansevoort Hotel Group. “But we’re also cater🌌ing to those who are more tech-savvy and don’t necessarily want to interact with other people.”

Indeed, the most popular feature of the Four Seasons app, wꦑhich the company developed itself, may be its automated check-in and check-out feature, which enables guests to skip the conversations with the concierge altogether.

“It was an alien concept to us — we pride ourselves on being a very high-touch company,” Four Seasons spokeswoman Elizabeth Pizzinato said, noting that the hotel ಌbeg🎉an exploring the app idea three or four years ago.

“People’s personal ꦇneeds have changed,” she said. “They’re much more comfortable doing things for themselves.”

Hotel 🧔apps aren’t just about avoid♍ing the staff, says Alice CEO Alexander Shashou. The service is rolling out a language-translation feature to facilitate spotty communications between international guests and staffers, as well as between staffers.

Indeed, the bigger prize for Alice is to manage back-end♔ operations like maintenance and housekeeping, which hotels typically have conducted with a hodgepodge of antiquated — and costly — software systems.

Alice’s platform enables concierges to track and execute guest requests in real time — a feature that ca🌠n help smal🧜ler, less upscale outfits tighten things, Shashou says.

“We’re unifying all the operati✱ons under one system, wh♌ich allows you to have efficient communication from guest to staff, from staff to staff,” he said. “We want to simplify service, so we’re breaking down the barriers that exist inside the hotel.”