Hotel VIA Opens in San Francisco With Tech-Driven Design

SAN FRANCISCO–Hotel VIA, the first newly-constructed hotel since 2008 in San Francisco, announced that it will open in June 2017. Located in the city’s South Beach neighborhood across from AT&T Park, the 159-room hotel has a design that integrates the latest hospitality technologies and services aimed to appeal to tech-savvy travelers and traditionalists alike.

“We wanted to create a boutique hotel and personalized hospitality experience that seamlessly blends into this modern mold,” says Hotel VIA’s director of sales and marketing, Jerry Leap. “Many of the technological amenities implemented make it easier to connect with guests and are designed to exceed the expectations of those who demand the best technology.”

When guests book a reservation, they are sent a link to download a customized mobile concierge app by KEYPR to determine their needs and plan their stay. The interface offers guests a curated city guide highlighting upcoming events that coincide with their trip, and the opportunity to explore the best of the South Beach neighborhood, order snacks, manage pillow preferences, and more, whether guests are on or off property.

Upon arrival to Hotel VIA, guests will still have the option to check-in with a team member or choose to bypass the standard check-in desk with their mobile device that serves as a digital room key. Echoing the hotel’s design with a minimalistic, modernized appeal, each guest room is outfitted with ASSA ABLOY Hospitality’s new VingCard Essence door lock—a keyless lock system that is compatible with the ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access solution and technology.

Hotel VIA guest rooms will be equipped with a personal seven-inch tablet set up with guest services, promotions, and access to entertainment and news sources, such as the?Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and more. Additional options allow guests to order or schedule room service, discover nearby attractions and events, and more. Guests control room temperature preferences though Honeywell’s INNCOM energy management system, which saves energy and prompts guests’ room preferences to activate when they enter.”

To meet the growing technological demands of both business and leisure travelers, Hotel VIA will offer a?robust wireless systems supported by Comcast Business and Fortinet Security Fabric solutions, including wireless access points and switches secured by FortiGate enterprise firewalls, and unified access management using Fortinet Connect. Hotel VIA has also implemented FiberLAN from DASAN Zhone Solutions to support a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON). The high-speed POL-based Ethernet solution enables guests to connect to the Internet anytime?and?anywhere on the hotel property. With this secure and energy-efficient network solution, Hotel VIA guests will be able to connect an unlimited number of devices and have instant access to high-speed data, voice, and video without compromising network speed.

“We had the unique opportunity to prioritize technology when we built Hotel VIA’s infrastructure from the ground up,” says Leap. “In a city where our technology devices are a part of everyday living, we wanted to tailor technology amenities to be state-of-the-art, relevant, and guest-friendly. Still, these technologies will not replace our fully trained staff ready to provide personalized service.”