Check in to the future

Imagine waking up in your hotel room in Rio de Janeiro and finding a printed copy of the same morning's Gulf News hanging outside on the doorknob. The concept may not be too far away, if a major worldwide hotel chain's plans come to fruition.

The newspaper would be downloaded from its website and re-printed under licence on the hotel premises. It could apply to any newspaper, from anywhere in the world.

This is just one of the features designers hope to build into the Future Room being built in a Paris hotel and due to open this summer. It is a high-tech lifestyle room that the huge Accor group hope to introduce to their worldwide five-star Sofitel brand - including their Dubai property, the Sofitel City Centre.

The smart room will also do away with one of the most annoying features of hotel life... the intruding chambermaid.

We've all been there. Right in the middle of something important, and there is a knock at the door. "Shall I do your room now, Sir?" Alright, so you should have hung the "do not disturb" sign outside. But who ever remembers to do that? In more relaxed days, there was a crusty old desk clerk who monitored the room keys to keep a tally of who was in or out. But in these days of card-in-the-slot door opening, that has disappeared.

The Future Room solves the problem by using sensors, like the kind used in burglar alarms, to detect when anyone is in the room, and warn the chambermaids and other staff to steer clear.

Another annoyance: Having to disturb your partner by putting on the light if you have to get out of bed in the dark for any reason. Up until now, the option was to blind-man's-buff your way across the room, stubbing your toe on the dressing table on the way.

The Future Room has borrowed aerospace technology to solve this very earthy problem. As soon as your foot touches the carpet, discreet lights woven into the fabric guide you to the bathroom or other strategic points in the room, flashing to point the right direction in the same way that passengers in a smoke-filled airliner cabin are evacuated.

The Future Room is the brainchild of Guy Rameau, the dynamic manager of the plush Sofitel Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He already has a prototype "Concept Room" up and running at the hotel. Room 217 is already taking guests, who keep coming back for more of the high technology.

Says Rameau: "It is an interactive lifestyle room that you can mould to your own taste. At the touch of a button by the bed, you can create the lighting effect of sunrise as you wake, fill the air with the scent of jasmine, and drink your coffee to the sound of birdsong.

"On the touch sensitive control panel you can call up a variety of original fragrances to enhance your mood...a bracing sea breeze... jasmine... an anti-tobacco odour... anti-humidity... and more exotic fragrances. All in the centre of the city."

The revolutionary aromatherapy system soundlessly diffuses scented micro-molecules, invisible to the naked eye, filling the room without the risk of staining fabrics.

The room has no curtains. Instead, shades made from braided pear tree wood swivel round to give the room a complete blackout if needed.

The touch panel also controls surround sound from the radio, DVD player and television in the bedroom and bathroom. The glass on the bathroom mirror is also a TV screen that allows you to watch programmes as you shave or take a bath.

In the bedroom, a giant TV screen flush in the wall swivels out to give a view from anywhere in the room. Guests can connect their laptop to it and even work from an infra-red keyboard while still in bed.

Rameau now has another idea to incorporate in the lifestyle room. The TV screen will show the face of whoever knocks at the room door.

But he freely admits: "I can't claim this idea as my own - I stole it from your Burj Al Arab!"