Best Western Hotel Ohm by HappyCulture is a three-star boutique hotel in Paris’s exclusive 16th arrondissement. Located near the Seine, the Eiffel Tower and Roland Garros, it is popular with business and leisure travelers. To differentiate itself among category rivals and keep up with customer demand for the latest technology in hotel rooms, this traditional hotel transformed itself with a complete renovation. The hotel’s refined and vintage design, together with the installation of connected features in the rooms, make it a true high-tech cocoon.
The Challenge
Best Western Hotel Ohm needed an easy-to-use lighting control solution to enhance the guest experience and create a high-tech feel in all 51 rooms. The renovation also incorporated integrated overhead TV projectors, smartphone speakers, charging points and other technologies. But the budget was a key consideration too, not only the upfront cost of the control system, but also the cost of installation and the ongoing energy and maintenance costs.
The Solution
Hotel Ohm chose to use Lutron’s myRoom prime intelligent room control solution and Pico wireless controls to deliver superior design and performance.
The lighting controls are designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible. When guests enter the room, the lights immediately switch on to a “welcome” scene. A control near the door or at the bedside then lets guests select one of two lighting scenes: “work” or “relax”.
The light fittings in the room can also be dimmed up and down individually, and to further enhance the lighting atmosphere, the curtains, featuring the Lutron’s “pull-to-start” Alena drapery track system, automatically open and close as part of the lighting scene. They can also be individually adjusted using the same controls.
When the room is empty, the lights turn off, but sockets remain powered so guests can still charge their phones and laptops.
myRoom prime uses a combination of technologies to identify when a guest is in the room and enable control the lighting. These include a sensor on the door, occupancy sensors in the room, and the ability for an occupant to manually press the controller buttons, any of which alerts the system that someone is present.
Because the Pico controls work wirelessly, they’re ideal for retrofit projects where adding new wiring can be difficult. This also makes them a great choice for hotels with budgets restrictions or that don’t have lighting or electrical experts in-house.
Results
Installation of the wireless system at Best Western Hotel Ohm was quick and easy, taking just half an hour per room. Property manager Anna Brittnacher says: “When guests enter the room they see the various light scenes with different ambiences. People are surprised—they are not used to seeing this kind of digital equipment in three-star hotels. So it makes us stand out and it makes it special for the guests.”
Ease of use is also vital, says Brittnacher. “We don’t want to have a tablet or something that is difficult for the guest to understand. We want it to be easy-to-use and effective, and that’s what this system is.”
The system also saves energy for the hotel by turning lights off when guests are not in the room—a more reliable and elegant alternative to the typical key card system. As a result, the technical dimension of the solution is invisible to guests. Energy savings are made possible for the hotel facilities manager without the guest having to think about it.
All Lutron products are thoroughly tested and carry an eight-year limited warranty, and the Lutron local teams are ready to respond quickly to any problems.
The success of this project shows that it’s not only top-end hotels that can benefit from intelligent control of lighting—Lutron has a solution for every budget.
The HappyCulture management group behind Best Western Hotel Ohm is now looking into introducing similar Lutron control solutions to more of its hotels with the added opportunity to control temperature using the same system.
PHOTOS: Lutron