Kiosk Use Growing Fast For Hotels And Airlines

"The travel industry's love affair with kiosks continues to grow. This week, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts joined the ranks of major hoteliers that are rolling out the self-service devices, and NCR Corp. subsidiary Kinetics introduced a multiairline check-in kiosk application designed for deployment at offsite locations.

"Toronto-based Fairmont is launching its effort with a 10-week trial at its Fairmont Royal York property in Toronto, after which it will begin deploying the units at its urban business hotels, VP of technology Vineet Gupta says. "First we want to concentrate on where the business traveler goes, because we think that's where the pickup will be fastest," Gupta says. "Business travelers are always in a hurry." About two-thirds of the 45 Fairmont properties are urban business hotels, while the rest are vacation resorts."
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"Elsewhere, the airline industry, which has seen rapid adoption of airport check-in kiosks, is branching out beyond airport borders. In addition to efforts like Air Canada's integration with Fairmont's kiosks, the new kiosk application from Kinetics could make self-service flight check-in ubiquitous at hotels, car-rental stations, cruise-line ports, parking garages, and other locations where travelers congregate."

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