SAN DIEGO, CA—Porter24, a digital advertising company that provides hospitality solutions through a touchscreen concierge, has launched a program to give units to hotels nationwide at no cost.
“We’ve realized there is a very big need for local businesses in the cities we’re targeting to get the word out into the hotel lobbies,” said Daniel Ramirez, VP of Porter24. “On the other end, hotels have a big need to give guests a digital experience, but they have to spend a lot of money to get this digital concierge service. We’ve taken the need of both and made it free for the hotels.”
The program follows a testing period in which Porter 24 worked with four hotels in the San Diego area, including Hilton San Diego. “We initially installed our first touch kiosk at Hilton San Diego; we’ve been working on our technology since then, getting feedback from consumers and our hotel managers there, and also our advertisers,” said Ramirez.
The screen, which updates in real-time, allows users to find local business deals, tourist attractions, check weather, track flights, see additional details on the hotel and take a selfie that can be shared directly to social media. Some key content shared during initial testing included suggestions on a city’s top restaurants, nightlife, attractions, and services, along with exclusive deals with maps and information being sent directly to guest’s phones in hotel branded emails.
Ramirez noted that initially the solution focused on five navigational areas: dining, attractions, shopping, health and beauty. “Our clients are in those segments,” he said. “What we found is our users want to use the screen a bit more. We’re now introducing our selfie button and our flight tracker button.”
Ramirez also noted that the solution is customizable. “A high amount of visitors to San Diego go surfing, so we actually are launching our surf forecast,” he said, noting that it was added because of feedback from guests at the hotel. “We can adjust our software to give guests the experience the hotels want to provide.” For example, he said, for cities and hotels with big ties to sports, Porter24 will add sports scores for major teams.
The driving force behind Porter24’s turnkey solution is the cloud-based software that was developed with hotels in mind, according to the company. The CMS allows hotels to customize and update content in real time.
Porter24’s interactive touchscreens come in various sizes between 50 and 65 in. and custom-builds are also available.