Future Narrative #17 - Team Netz
In 2022, TravelTech for Scotland hosted a Hotel Futures Workshop with 50 participants from the American Hotel and Lodging Association. On the first day of that conference we invited participants to explore the future of hotel and technology in 2032. A cost of living crisis pricing people out of not only living in, but visiting, London is creating challenges for this particular hotel group, and they consider other touchpoints as well as sustainability to bring delight back into a trip to London in 2032.
Illustrated by Esme MacIntyre and written by Máire Ryan.
Team Netz - Illustrated by Esme MacIntyre
In the boardroom of NETZ, London’s premier affordable green hotel for eco-conscious travellers, there was a definite whiff of tension in the air. One could be forgiven for assuming the smell was the many wildflowers the hotel’s designer had coaxed out of the walls. One could be further reprieved for failing to detect any tension at all: with an actually babbling brook running around the circumference of the room’s edge, the effect was something more akin to a luxury spa than a chapel for Big Business.
Sadly, there was tension, which we know because our main man (Mr. Carruthers) looked tense. Vein popping out of his left temple, tense. Hands tightly clutching the back of his executive (mushroom) leather chair, tense. He very much felt tense. His last meeting with the Investors had revealed some alarming inconsistencies with the quality of services–promises of which had scored NETZ many, many millions in their A and B funding rounds–they were supposed to be providing. As his C-Level Board filed in, they could definitely sense Mr. Carruthers’s coiled temper: some through years of familiarity with his ways, some through one look at the boss guy’s face. It was a very visible vein.
Mr. Carruthers began speaking from the moment all sustainably-sourced designer bottoms were planted on chairs: everyone had to do better. Puzzled stares darted across the reconstituted oak table. Stocks were high. Visitors were streaming in. The recent replacement of human night staff with highly intuitive robots was really upping productivity. The day staff were considering unionising: weren’t all signs pointing to a whoppingly successful endeavour?
As silence prevailed and these mental checklists were reviewed, Mr. Carruthers ominously applied pressure to his AI handset, and the sensors began screening his chosen image. In front of each board member, a graph came into sharp and unimpeached view. He explained the data: the Investors had recently collaborated with a (somewhat ersatz, in his opinion) bespoke outfit who specialised in travel resonance. Using the masses of tourist-generated data available post-trip, they had been quantifying how enduring guest satisfaction, for those who had stayed at NETZ, actually was. The numbers were in. Their number was up. The bars on the graph were undeniably low.
Uproar in the boardroom. Something in the adamant rage emitted by the NETZ Board–angered by the sneaky side-moves of their Investors–eased Mr. Carruthers. As often occurred (he was the main man, after all), an idea began to glow promisingly in his always-active mind.
Using handset and i-Lens to quickly flick to the appropriate file, his spare hand making do calm down motions at his furious team, he wiped the offending graph from their screens. He immediately replaced this with a single image. Intuiting the need for a change in mood, the AI began to gently pipe classical music of a hopeful bent through the meeting’s speakers. He began his pitch: NETZ was the best of the best, he intoned, no one could doubt that. It was the door-to-door journey that let them down. The things that happened outside the premises. If they wanted to reach the next level of eco-tech-hospitality, which he assumed everyone in the room must (a sharp glare around set heads a-nodding), they would have to conquer all aspects of their guests’ stay. It would be easier than they could ever imagine.
Mr. Carruthers introduced his (now somewhat dishevelled, sweaty, but nonetheless focused) Board to the Martinez family: a working class, two-child owning couple from Barcelona. Mum was a nurse, dad was a plumber. The CTO rolled his eyes. He felt a sob story coming on. Mr. Carruthers flicked his handset, and another family photo (including two little kids with gap-toothed grins) demonstrated the family’s values. They were all gathered around an electric van–Mr. Martinez’s work van, in fact–emblazoned upon which was the proud statement (helpfully translated from Spanish) The Green Machine: Eco-Conscious Plumbing Solutions. The VP of Sales (invited only because he was usually good at laughing at people’s jokes) furrowed his brow, and took the biggest risk of his career. Sure, he reasoned, the family’s values clearly made them NETZ-worthy. If they’d scrimped and saved, they could probably afford an Econ-Eco Suite. But this was London. By now, the most expensive city of the world by miles. It was a ghost town just for the haves; the have-nots had been priced out decades ago. They could barely afford to take a walk here, surely?
The Board experienced a collective intake of breath. They watched for the vein. Mr. Carruthers stared the VP out for a moment, and broke into a smile (and, exhale). That was exactly the point, as it turned out. To be world-leading, NETZ had to actually include the whole world. How? By forging partnerships in the metropolis, using the data they’d receive as standard from the family to curate the best and/or cheapest sides of London accessible to the Martinez’s measly price point. What’s more, with so many, many businesses starting-up within London’s eco-tech scene–due to the societal paradigm shift resultant of the National Maximum Carbon Spend Cap (NMSC or “numsk”)–they’d score deal upon deal, upon deal. Everyone was after the big fish, when millions of little fish were slipping the net!
The CFO was beginning to smile. This was rare and sort of fascinating. Like seeing an alligator reach out for a cuddle. He’d twigged it: this wouldn’t just increase the long-term satisfaction resonance the Investors were whining about. It would also bring NETZ to the next level of hospitality domination. Where a less discerning person might idly daydream of a hammock by the ocean, branding opportunities and referral-based partnerships began to float through the CFO’s mind. He gave his nod to Mr. Carruthers. This was feasible. This was happening.
And so, the Martinez four, a working-class case study from Madrid, were the unknowing pioneers of an even newer new age in carbon and pocket-friendly luxury travel. The investment they made in their Suite–convinced, as they were, by a well-placed and specifically tailored series of ads across the family–was returned to them in the experiences they amassed in the city of London. Exploring London's sustainable attractions, the family admired the Thames' Glass Tunnel Tour, made possible by a cleaner river (sponsored by ThamesLite). They visited museums, enjoyed a dip at a wellness spot (thanks, Eco-Very), and experienced the Tate Modern's 24-hour 5-D exhibition (courtesy of SmArt: putting beauty in your synapses). Their emissions were in check through NETZ’s driverless electric shuttle service (they didn’t need to know it the only shuttle, at this point). NETZ played a crucial role in promoting local and sustainable experiences, reopening the gates to the more economically challenged masses, and were rewarded with a case study where the lines went up, and up, and up. As their model caught on, London had become a viable destination once again, with sustainability as the norm.
All of this is what Mr. Carruthers, ex-CEO of NETZ, explained to the Investors. They had received alarming reports that the company was haemorrhaging capital through a series of eco-conscious investments which had not been rubber stamped for the five-month pipeline. While all agreed that Carruthers’s mid-life climate crisis was noble, his expenditure couldn’t be justified. He had flown far, far too close to the Sun on this one, and he had to go. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
Provocation Questions
What are today's travel providers doing to impact traveler satisfaction outside of their traditional offerings?
What ideas do you have to make specific phases of travel more enjoyable and more sustainable?