awayIgo

rylan

Sorry, don't want some device listening in my hotel room, especially when it can be hacked, or inadvertently send messages and audio to somebody because it interpreted voice the wrong way.

How about Marriott fix their piece if crap website first? And bring customer service levels back to what they used to be? Email responsiveness is a joke now... taking weeks for anything.

MSPeconomist

pinniped

Even in moments where I'm not paranoid that Marriott is spying on me, this seems like an expensive way to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

If it's for dinner reservations, I have a smartphone and Opentable for that. (Maybe Marriott needs to put their own restaurants on Opentable and make sure guests are aware of it.)
If it's for music, just deliver that through the TV - either a smart TV with Pandora or by letting me connect my phone. A hotel that wants to provide a little better audio quality can make some decent Bluetooth speakers available. Even ones that cost about what an Echo does usually sound good enough in a small quiet room.
If it's for Amazon, I already have that on my phone.
If I really want something else that Alexa does, I can use my own.

By providing it everywhere, even with the guest needing to take some action to turn it on, I have to think that Marriott is setting itself up for a lot of unintended consequences, a lot of requests for support from people who haven't used Alexa, lots of unfounded accusations of spying when Marriott isn't doing anything malicious, and guests who just end up unhappy with how limited Alexa actually is.

Hilton's approach makes more sense to me. I'll decide how connected I want to be via my own phone. And I'm one who likes Alexa and would probably use it for music in a hotel room if it was easy to do.

RogerD408

Are they going to create a new market for a noise generator that defeats Alexa/Home being able to hear what's going on? Just like the phone companies did with caller ID where you paid to see caller ID and paid to block giving it out! How long until laws are established to restrict these devices in public spaces.?

pinniped

I can see the EU potentially restricting/limiting/banning them.

The U.S. will do whatever corporations want, so I suspect they'll become more common as long as firms think they can gain value from the data.

rylan

Oh but don't you know, Marriott is marketing and actively catering to millennials, who share everything they do on social media.

pinniped

They should put Alexa at Moxy then. Make sure she's waterproof so she can go right next to the locker-room soap and shampoo dispensers.

EuropeanPete

The always-on nature of Alexa's listening (and occasional surprises in AI) makes it incompatible for when I am working or for when I am having personal time. Sooo.. yeah. Not going to work for me.

tvtd

It'll go on my list for sure.

*opens door*
*checks for bugs*
*incapacitates Alexa*

One month later I start seeing pest control products on the internet ads that evade my blockers.

sdsearch

The article said you'd be able to choose rooms without Alexa. What it didn't explain: Will it cost more to get a room with Alexa or a room without Alexa?

Plus how? On the ever-broken Marriott website?

EricH

I am willing to pick up a phone to speak with the desk, concierge, or whatever. I am less happy about having to remove this crap from my room.

RogerD408

I am having a tough time figuring the payback... Placing the units to begin with will not be cheap (although maybe subsidized by Amazon doing subliminal advertising while we sleep), tracking when they are disabled (just like phone systems will report when you pull the plug thinking the line was cut), replacing units that "disappear" along with the towels and all, and the pure frustration from users that don't know what's happening when room service shows up after leaving the TV on loud while watching a food program! I'm thinking someone is/was trying to make a name for themself.

KRSW

I have three Alexas and a Google Home...and I DO NOT want them as standard in my hotel rooms! If I want it, I'll bring it along, and have on occasion.

I'm one of the paid voice models for Google's Assistant and it even gets my requests wrong more often than it should. I can't imagine how it'd react to all of the travelers' voices.

Also, with as screwed up as Marriott's IT department is, these things will likely deliver my pizza to the wrong hotel, in a different country. C'mon, this is the same Marriott IT which can't even get the website to show my name instead of someone else's!

bennos

I'm all in on "let's have more privacy", but for those worried about the world spying on them, let's divide you all into two categories.

1. Spies, government agents, and others who really should be paranoid that someone is spying on them. Well, Alexa doesn't really change the equation that much for you. You should still be following best practices when staying in hotels.
2. Everyone else. Let's face it, nobody is interested in what you're saying. Indeed, if you understand how Alexa (and Google Home) actually work, they only listen locally (meaning no data is sent off the device) until the "hot word" ("Alexa" or "OK Google") is said. A more detailed explanation, including background about the "omgz alexa was secretly recording one couple in portland" incident, is available here.

Of course, there is already at least one microphone (that omg could be secretly recording everything you say!!!) in every hotel room you're staying in... in the telephone. Just like Alexa, it doesn't do anything meaningful until you take an action to make it do something.

Do I need Alexa to call room service? Probably not. But voice assistants do make a class of tasks easier ("what's the weather?" "pause netflix" "play npr"), and I'd probably use them for that.