Hawaii's hotels and restaurants are always looking for the next big thing to enhance business.
It could come by way of the iPad.
At the Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality, and Foodservice Expo, restaurants and hotels are invited to try out the latest food products. A company called Incentient provides nothing for the menu, but changes the menu completely by replacing it with the iPad.
"Patrons can scroll the menu, read about it, tap on the wine list, learn a little more about it," said Linda Jameson, Incentient Sales Director.
Incentient's Smart Touch and Smart Cellar technology is a proprietary software made specifically for the hotel and restaurant industry. Jameson says an Ipad menu gives customers a lot more information, which helps the business.
"All of our customers have come back and asked for more Ipads and the concept is pretty much it pays for itself within the first week of every month," Jameson says.
The company is based in New York and opened an office on Oahu three months ago. Longhi's Restaurant on Maui has already started using the software. Alan Wong's plans to launch it later this month. There's a push to get the major hotels to start using it to enhance the experience of the visitors and because it's green.
"This is green technology at its best, this allows from a management perspective to reduce their paper flow in what they normally would put on menus or collateral material throughout the hotel," said Mufi Hannemann of the Hawaii Hotel and Lodging Association.
Hotel guests provided with the iPads can also order room service or arrange for spa services. The software allows the guests to choose from different languages. Hannemann says it's a pretty big initial investment but should pay off in the long run, especially with the APEC Summit meeting coming up in November.
"We can show off, if you will, this kind of technology and hopefully they'll be able to take it back and recognize that they were able to embrace this when they were in Hawaii," Hannemann said.
It could be the wave of the future and it's a matter of whether the industry is ready to ride it.
