Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
LG Electronics, Marriott team up on hotel room technology platform
Don Kwack, right, president and CEO of LG Electronics North America, shakes hands with Drew Pinto, executive vice president and chief revenue and technology officer at Marriott International, in Bethesda, Md., Aug. 25, after signing a memorandum of understanding for a strategic collaboration. Courtesy of LG Electronics
By Nam Hyun-woo
LG Electronics has partnered with Marriott International to develop a cloud-based technology platform to enhance entertainment and digital services in hotel guest rooms.
The two companies announced a long-term strategic collaboration Wednesday, saying Marriott plans to roll out the jointly developed platform at participating hotels across its global portfolio.
The platform will initially focus on in-room entertainment while laying the foundation for centralized device management and connected guest services across Marriott properties.
Under the partnership, Marriott will help shape the platform around guest experience, hotel operations and enterprise integration needs, while LG will provide its connected-device capabilities, device management technology and technical support.
“By combining LG’s connected-device capabilities with Marriott’s hospitality expertise and enterprise platform, we are creating a more seamless, personalized guest room experience while helping hotel teams operate more efficiently,” said Drew Pinto, executive vice president and chief revenue and technology officer at Marriott International.
The platform is designed to turn hotel TVs from standalone entertainment devices into part of a connected guest room experience.
“A prime goal is to make the TV part of a connected guest room experience rather than a standalone device,” said John Won, senior vice president and head of LG Electronics’ U.S. commercial display solutions B2B business.
The system will allow participating Marriott properties to authenticate and manage LG smart hotel TVs and set-top boxes through the cloud, reducing their reliance on traditional on-premises video distribution infrastructure.
It will also give Marriott a centralized system to monitor the health, performance and status of in-room devices across individual rooms, hotels, hotel brands and its broader property portfolio.
The companies said the system could help hotel staff identify technical issues more quickly, update content and applications more efficiently, and gain greater visibility into in-room technology operations.
For guests, the platform will support linear TV, streaming and free ad-supported television channels, with access to more than 40 streaming applications and 250 channels.
The system will also support personalized advertising through LG Channels and client-side ad insertion.
The technology will initially be piloted at 40 locations across the United States and Canada before being rolled out more broadly across Marriott’s global portfolio.
LG and Marriott also plan to explore expanding connected digital experiences and centralized management capabilities to public and shared areas within hotels, potentially creating a broader technology ecosystem across Marriott properties.