The hotel group will be trying out the new initiative across some of their hotels which includes locations such as London, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and Tokyo. If successful the hotel group expects to roll out more tablets across the rest of its locations in the future. Right now the initial target will be 1,000 tablets.
The Surface Pro tablets will feature a customized Windows 8.1 start screen that will provide guests with shortcuts and links to request hotel services, including laundry, housekeeping, and room service. It was not mentioned which generation Surface Pro tablets they would be using, but they did mention that Surface Pro 3 tablets would be part of the mix, so we guess perhaps the Surface Pro 2 or maybe the original Surface Pro could be used as well.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson, “[The program] has been in the works prior to Surface Pro 3’s availability. They will grow the program and it will likely include Surface Pro 3 as they do, but for the time being the devices currently being used in the pilot are Surface Pro.”