Hotel chains face a growing challenge in meeting ever-pressing customer demands. And this means automating as much of that customer experience as possible to free up staff for more pressing issues.

Technology continues to assist hotels in these efforts, with smart tech increasingly used in reception, at the door and within the walls of hotel rooms.

But for customers the technology still needs to be accessible, usable and enjoyable for guests of any age. So how are hotels doing in achieving those goals?

Hotels now include business models where a human being is a rare sight, customer service (and food) is non-existent, and garish apps do most of the transactions. But that’s one end of the spectrum, which can then go all the way to the wholly traditional, often serving guests who have visited regularly for decades, and are renowned for their service.

Look a little closer and you can see that neither type (and those that blend the best or worst aspects of both), is using technology to “enhance the customer experience,” as they like to say in their press releases and brochures.

For us visitors, the technology is more visible in some places along the hotel experience, and more subtle in others.

The quest for a seamless check-in

Traditionally, checking into a hotel meant collecting a key and venturing into the maze of corridors. Today, you’re more likely to be given a smart card or key fob for doors, limited to the length of your stay.

In most hotels, gone are the days of waiting in long queues at reception. Many modern hotels offer guests the speed of a mobile check-in via smartphone apps or a kiosk in the lobby.

Some even allow guests to bypass the front desk entirely, using digital key cards stored on their phones to unlock their rooms. And they are only too happy to showcase your loyalty points building up as you stay with them, with tempting offers and other benefits like local events, all visible without struggling with a guide.

That phone app is like a Swiss Army Knife and will guide you to your floor and door, and can even perform tricks like pre-setting the air-conditioning. For older tourists, that might not feel too alien, but inside the room that shift can feel both exciting and unfamiliar. Apps can take over the usual interactive elements, adjusting the lighting to suit your mood, finding your ideal temperature, and accessing the entertainment options.

By mimicking increasingly familiar smart home services, the hotel room becomes more of a playground. This is ideal for tired travellers who don’t want to get out of bed to sort out the basics.

Approaching Star Trek room service at Warp Speed

Okay, we’re not quite at the level where food and drinks can materialise into your hotel room, but the traditions of ordering food have been replaced by a more efficient service. For the hospitality industry that can mean no more printing and replacing menus (and scribbling out the unavailable food options).

The Japanese and their love of robots sees robotic delivery systems delivering guests’ food and beverages, saving poor Manuel from rushing to and from the kitchen all night. Expect these concepts to become more common in Western hotels over time.

Robots can also be used in the cleaning role, maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in rooms in response to air quality and other sensors. And with other smart sensors, energy can be saved by dimming or turning off the lights, and minimising use of water and power when guests are not around.

Your digital concierge lives in your pocket

The concierge is a tradition that lives on among leading high end hotel brands. But this has vanished more widely, leaving us to lug our luggage around and summon a taxi in the pouring rain ourselves. But the modern digital concierge can perform a wide range of other tricks. Primarily summoning that taxi on your behalf while you stay dry.

It can also make dining suggestions, highlight what’s on in town, and make bookings for you. Some have more sass than others. Take Rose for example, the resident “mischief-maker” and digital concierge at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Perhaps in time hopefully more hotels will follow her lead.

Since many experienced 50+ travellers are used to technology at home, these upgrade will not feel scary in the hotel environment. But if you need that human touch, enjoy them while they last or head to premium hotels where tradition trumps technology.

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But what is cuffing, and how can you avoid it? Well, it might sound a bit kinky, but it’s really not. Cuffing is basically where someone single will couple up with another singleton for the colder months. And then move on again once the sun comes out. It’s all about having someone to snuggle up with over the colder months and share the long nights with. But once spring comes around, they head off again, leaving the other person out in the cold, feeling abandoned and used.

This is something that Linda, 56, knows only too well. She’s a cuffing casualty – learning to deal with having her trust betrayed and being left feeling abused and taken for granted.

Read more: Could you be vulnerable to romance fraud?

LINDA MEETS DAVID

“I’d been on a dating website for a while, and if I’m honest, I was really struggling to find people who were good matches,” she confesses. “Loads of them had tons of baggage, or would do stuff like make contact, then drift off without following up. I got ghosted a fair bit.

“I also really had a rough time with a guy who tried to extract money from me. He kept hassling me and then got abusive when I said no. I reported him to the dating site, but I’d really thought I’d had enough, and was going to ditch the dating… and then I met David.”

“Something about him was really easy, right from the start. We got along really well, I didn’t feel any red flags.”

Linda had been ready to chuck it in after a string of false starts, but she says, “Something about him was really easy, right from the start. We got along really well, I didn’t feel any red flags.”

She ended up meeting him properly in September last year, and they clicked. She was thrilled – it felt like the start of something real and tangible.

“We met up and he was really keen,” she says. “We went on a few more dates, really nice things like dinner and the theatre. Went to see a comedy show, and he even took me to a Christmas fair in Amsterdam in December, but his favourite thing to do was to snuggle up in front of my lovely open fire and watch silly old films, which I loved too. I really thought I’d found someone I could be with long term. We used to just hang out together all the time, and order in Indian food or pizza. It was lovely.”

NAVIGATING CHRISTMAS

“When Christmas came around, I wasn’t sure what to do,” says Linda. “It’s about sharing time with loved ones, isn’t it? But someone I’d only met in September felt like someone quite new. Nobody tells you what the etiquette is around Christmas, so I ended up over-compensating because I felt awkward.

“I bought him a really expensive watch, and then felt it was an inappropriate gift – and in fact he only bought me a token present, so that was weird; I felt silly. But he was really sweet about it, and seemed genuinely pleased so I passed it off.

“…maybe that should have been a warning bell – after all, having nowhere to go on Christmas Day when you’re only 58 seems unusual.”

“We ended up not seeing each other on Christmas Day as I have family, but we got together in the days afterwards, and I felt bad because he’d been on his own. You don’t really know how to do Christmas with someone you haven’t been with for very long, do you? And maybe that should have been a warning bell – after all, having nowhere to go on Christmas Day when you’re only 58 seems unusual. But we settled into snuggling in front of the fire again, eating Christmas leftovers. I didn’t want to press him about it – it seemed unkind.”

Linda was excited about the year ahead. She and David spent a quiet night in on New Year’s Eve, ditching parties for the opportunity to relax over a meal and snuggle up in front of Jools Holland. She thought it was an idyllic start to the new year.

THEN THINGS CHANGED

It was just about the end of January that she noticed a difference. David seemed less keen to spend time together and cited work as the reason.

“He has a business that he’s been building for years so I just went with it,” says Linda. “He cancelled plans and basically used work as an excuse each time, saying how the end of the business year was coming and he needed to focus.

“I would go days not hearing back from him… He just disappeared, this man I’d been so close to, so intimate with.”

“What happened then is pretty much the same as ghosting, but it just took a bit longer. I would go days not hearing back from him, to the point I stopped getting in touch. And finally it just fizzled out. He just disappeared, this man I’d been so close to, so intimate with.”

Linda was bewildered. And angry. She’d truly believed that there was a future for her and David, so much so that she ended up going to his house and confronting him.

“He was quite cold to me,” she says sadly. “But at least he was honest, which is something. He said that the winter months often make him feel down, particularly Christmas as he doesn’t have any family, and that sharing that time with someone else makes him feel better. But once the ‘silly season’ is over, he finds the constraints of a relationship unbearable and can’t face being together any more.”

LETTING GO

In the end Linda unhappily had to conceded defeat but felt baffled and betrayed. They’d got on so well and had rubbed along with very little difficulty. “It seems weird that he can’t just give himself up to that on an ongoing basis,” she says. “No wonder he’s alone”.

She identifies that it’s likely he’ll do the same again this season but says it won’t be her he’s returning to.

SCIENCE AND THE FACTS

The Inner Circle has identified that although many people are worried about cuffing, in the real world there’s a very small chance of it being real. Although their study found that 12% of people had experience of cuffing, only 5% of people say they prefer to settle down in the autumn and winter months. So if someone is keen on you in autumn or winter, chances are that they’re genuine.

There may be something to the science of autumn attraction though. A 2008 study from the University of Wroclaw in Poland showed that men found women’s bodies most attractive in the winter. And much less so in spring or summer.

Studies have also shown that testosterone production peaks around October and November.

As for women, there is no greater time for pressure and expectation to have a partner than Christmas – and so many feel obliged to have a ‘significant other’ to attend parties and family events with.

And finally – whilst this might sounds daft – women are far more likely to feel the cold than men. A 2015 study by Dutch scientists found that women are comfortable at a temperature 2.5C warmer than men. Could this be a contributory factor to the need to have someone to cuddle?!

HOW TO SPOT A CUFFING CULPRIT

A bit like your typical ghoster, there are signs.

• Is it autumn!? Most cuffers kick off in October.
• Things move really quickly – do you feel fast-tracked into a relationship with all the activities you’d do a year into it, rather than leisurely dating and getting to know each other?
• Do they have a varied relationship history with short liaisons/patches of singledom?
• Do you talk about firm plans for next year? If not, perhaps your partner isn’t thinking long term.
• Do they seem especially keen to spend time cosying up?
• Have you met any of their friends or family?

ADVICE FOR THE CUFFER

In all honesty, cuffing for the winter season isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se. After all, if you prefer your freedom, but the long dark nights are more fun with someone else, fair play. But just be honest with the other person.

Cuffing season can mean you charge full pelt into a relationship and skip straight to intimate activities you’d normally expect much later down the line, like having short breaks away, or spending loads of time together snuggled up.

If you’re a cuffer, be honest with the other person. Who knows, you might meet a fellow cuffer. We’ve yet to see a dating app or site dedicated to seasonal liaisons, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come clean! Cuff, or don’t cuff. But don’t lie.

Sam Harrington-Lowe

Sam is Silver’s founder and editor-in-chief. She’s largely responsible for organising all the things, but still finds time to do the odd bit of writing. Not enough though. Send help.

The post What is cuffing, and how can you avoid it? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Whether you’ve recently become single, or have single friends and family in your life, you’ll probably know that the dating scene has changed a lot over the years. Whereas in the past, people mainly relied on connections through friends or colleagues to meet a potential partner, nowadays tech-based solutions like dating apps are increasingly the norm.

Previously this may have had some stigma attached to it, attitudes are now changing. And why not? Dating apps allow users to connect with a much wider range of people than they might otherwise come across in their everyday life. It also means they can filter who they interact with, to ensure common habits and interests too.

If you’re new to the online dating world, it’s good to have some tips to hand to ensure you can keep yourself safe while exploring new connections.

While most people are genuine, it’s good to know how you can mitigate risks and keep clear of any ‘catfish’ – people who create fake profiles on dating sites to deceive others into thinking they’re someone else – who may be lurking.

Whilst our app has photo verification methods to stay catfish-free, there’s other obstacles to avoid, so here’s my top advice…

Trust your instincts

By all means, be open to getting to know your potential love interest inside and out, but trust your instincts and follow the rule that if something seems off, then it probably is.

For example, a red flag would be if the person you’re talking to is asking questions that could link to your banking details or address. Inevitably, the more you talk to someone online, the more inclined you may be to share personal information. Think about what they’re asking you.

When the time is right, and you decide to maybe meet up, be aware that sharing further information, such as pictures or old school details, might also give too much away to the wrong person.

…if the person asks you for money, or constantly makes excuses as to why they can’t meet you, something is probably awry

Most importantly, if the person asks you for money, or constantly makes excuses as to why they can’t meet you, something is probably awry. Fraudsters are experts in coercion, and while most people will be sincere, it’s good to stay alert.

Stay in control

The great thing about most dating apps are the built-in safety features. Not only can you use filters to determine exactly what you’re looking for in a potential partner, most apps have safety elements working to eliminate fraudsters.

By talking on the app before meeting in person, you remain in control, giving you time to build up your relationship, safe in the knowledge that the person you are speaking to is the real deal.

It’s always a good idea to communicate on the app for as long as possible before moving to text or WhatsApp, where you will have to give out your phone number and may have more difficulty blocking someone if things don’t work out.

Dating apps give you control to block or report suspicious activity and allow you to make a measured judgement before progressing to the next stage of your relationship. If someone is keen to lure you away from the dating app quickly, be vigilant. One you’re communicating direct it’s harder to monitor or trace fraudulent behaviour.

The first date

If you’ve been having great conversations with someone and are ready to arrange your first date, be sure to choose a public place to meet, such as a bar or restaurant. This will help ease you into the date and relieve any concerns about being vulnerable.

By meeting in public, you are in control and can leave if the date starts to turn sour or your date isn’t quite who you expected them to be. In general, it’s also a good idea to keep an eye on your drinks and belongings as you would in a bar with friends, for example, and avoid leaving them unattended.

Finally, keep a friend or relative updated before and after the date, so that you can relax knowing someone is also looking out for you – and hopefully to tell them after about your fantastic date! 

STAY SAFE ONLINE

With technology playing an increasingly important role in our everyday lives, it’s no surprise that it’s now helping us in our love lives too. There are tons of couples who’ve met thanks to dating apps; using these safety tips will ensure you’re prepared for the best possible dating experience with them too.  

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The post Online dating. Red flags, instincts, and staying safe appeared first on Silver Magazine.