A new hotel in the Garment Center is all dressed up in the latest digital fashion.
Appropriately “hemmed in” on a busy block in the Garment District, Marriott’s towering flagship Renaissance brand property is poised to open in late March as a "living" hotel.
"We feel that we're really positioned to be on the cutting edge of the technology that are going into hotels these days,” says David DiFalco, General Manager at Renaissance Midtown Hotel.
The Renaissance New York Midtown has an eye toward attracting a game-changing new generation with help of the design firm Realizations Inc. Montreal.
"We have a lot of interaction there,” DiFalco says. “We really feel that it's going to spread via social media and hopefully drive some great stories to be able to tell."
Some of the digital imagery include an interior wall “tapestry" of ambient artwork designed to move when you move. Another, a partnership with Time Out New York - a so-called “Discovery Portal” - puts the city, literally, at your feet.
"If you stand inside of that bucket, nine different pieces of content will appear on the screen that are attractions within a 10-minute walk,” DiFalco explains. “If you are interested in receiving more information on one of those, you simply need to point with your hand at the tile, it will explode on the screen into a much larger format, and it will give you great information about that attraction."
And here’s a heads up on how to get a cheap drink.
"If you walk up to the wall and you cover your eye with your hand as an eye patch, which is their iconic symbol for their brand, the screen will take a picture of you, it will blow up in front of you with that picture, it will give you a password to deliver to the bartender upstairs at the bar,” DiFalco says.
From digital deals to digital elevator doors, this hotel hopes to have the millennial market all buttoned up.