MileNorth Hotel is located in downtown Chicago, Ill., just steps away from the city’s Magnificent Mile, a district known for upscale restaurants, department stores, banks and commercial and residential buildings catering to the affluent. The hotel recently commissioned Keywest Technology to conceptualize, create and manage an advanced, interactive and cloud-based ‘digital concierge’ project in co-operation with RB Industries Identity Systems, which crafts custom signage and wayfinding programs for hospitality and gaming venues.

The hotel’s managers also worked with Keywest and RB to develop the interactive sign. A pair of 1.4-m (55-in.) liquid crystal displays (LCDs), backlit by light-emitting diodes (LEDs), are protected within a free-standing, portrait-view housing. They both offer 1,080-pixel resolution.

The system uses Keywest’s Breeze digital signage software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. On one side of the housing, the sign displays only promotional messages. On the other side, it offers a fully interactive interface, whereby guests can look up hotel information, amenities, meeting rooms, airport flight updates and local stores, restaurants, sports events and other attractions with Quick Response (QR) codes.

In addition to these touch-navigated features, the digital concierge displays the date, time and weather conditions. An interactive ‘widget’ provides the local weather conditions, including a five-day forecast, which is very important for visitors, given the city’s position next to one of the world’s largest and windiest lakes.

“The digital concierge operates on so many levels for individual guests, it has truly become part of the hospitality service process, enhancing the quality of the guest experience,” says Sam Ruggles, Keywest’s hospitality solutions manager.