Futuristic hotel vision takes students to Singapore
Imagining a hotel that guests can customise has taken a team of AUT hospitality students into the final round of an international hotel design competition, to be held in Singapore later this month.
‘Kiwi DIY’ (Bachelor of International Hospitality Management students Ashlee Li, Anya Suchkova and Rose Johnstone), is the only Australasian team to make it to the finals of the Accor ‘Take Off’ competition. In Singapore they will compete against teams from Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and India for the grand prize of an international holiday.
100 teams, including five teams from AUT, entered the challenge, which required them to create a concept for a Novotel hotel in the year 2020. In the early rounds teams presented their concepts online through photo montages and video.
On 27 November finalists will present their concepts to Accor executives from the Asia Pacific region before answering questions from the panel.
With a concept that focuses on customisation, the AUT team has envisioned a hotel where guests can design their rooms, choose how to check in, give digital feedback on service and order food using interactive digital menus. Watch the ‘Kiwi DIY’ vision video.
AUT senior lecturer in hospitality David Williamson says he is extremely proud of the students’ accomplishment so far, especially because the competition was an ‘added extra’, not part of their AUT coursework.
“The competition has been a huge learning curve for the team. They have had to distil, synthesise and apply theory from service management, marketing and hospitality management papers, as well as learn new technologies in order to present their work in an innovative way. This is the best sort of ‘real world’ challenge that brings together all the competencies of our students and shows that they have the all-round excellence to cope with tight deadlines and shine on an international stage."
David says the team is grateful for the expert assistance that was provided by AUT's Centre for Learning and Teaching (CFlat); Reza Yari (multimedia production assistant), Natalia Spreys (multimedia student assistant) and Jin Hong (multimedia producer) oversaw production of the team’s video entry.