Monday, March 19, 2012

LodgeNet Mobile App - Very promising

UPDATE 3/21: I've been in contact with the team at LodgeNet Mobile. A+ for responsiveness and problem resolution. They got in contact with the hotel, made sure the service was enabled and modified the Menu screen so that Go Mobile was not only there but clearly visible to the guest. And my compliments to them for having an active social marketing response team. They are clearly involved with their online customers.

The remote control in your hotel room is perhaps the dirtiest thing in the room.  For that reason alone, I carry alcohol pads in my briefcase to wipe down the remote when I get to the room, everytime.  I also find the hotel TV remote to often have dead batteries.  So when I saw that there was an app that turned my smartphone into a TV remote, I was encouraged to try something new and useful.

The free app is called LodgeNet Mobile, available for iPhone and Android.  Installation went smoothly, the app looks good.  Tonight I arrived at my first hotel room (Four Points, Pleasanton, CA) since downloading the app and it was a LodgeNet system so it was "showtime". The instructions are simple enough.
  • Turn on the TV.
  • Press "Menu" on the TV remote and select Go Mobile.
  • Enter the Connect Code from screen, press Connect.
Well there was a Menu button on the remote, but the TV screen displayed nothing like "Go Mobile".  I searched and I'm a pretty intuitive guy, but nothing offered up the Connect Code.  Fortunately, the app had a support phone number.  After being on hold for 11 mins, I was finally connected.  The tech said the hotel has the service and it should be active, but it was not.  He tried restarting the system remotely, but it made no difference.

What started as a great idea was a poor user experience.  When something like this fails the first time, you wonder if this is the exception or if poor execution is widespread. I expect the app works but I'm sure it is not easy to coordinate a service like this with so many independent hotels.   Luckily I have more alcohol pads in my bag.
Posted by at
Reactions: 

3 comments:

  1. My guess is that you were at a hotel that has not yet been enabled for the mobile app.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. As it turns out, I also tweated this post to LodgeNet Mobile who replied to me very quickly. The hotel had been set up but it was not turned on for guests. It was fixed an hour later. I was already checked out but will be back to that hotel and will retry it then.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)