Saturday, June 30, 2018
Hotel ICON HK executive suite and room tech Part 1
Hotel ICON HK executive suite and room tech Part 1
After a 7 hour delay in Beijing Capital International Airport because of a brief rain shower and petulant air traffic controllers (according to a clearly annoyed Australian pilot), I missed my connecting Cathay Pacific flight to Auckland. Tempers ran high at Hong Kong International on my midnight arrival and I was resigned to a long layover. The ground staff, seeing my tired and my slightly deranged facial expression, took pity on me and gave me a voucher for taxi, meals, and a morning-afternoon stay at the exceptional Hotel ICON at Kowloon.
Admittedly, I was still grumpy as the taxi driver zipped through the connecting island bridge. The driver and I switched back and forth between Mandarin and English, and he told me that ICON Tsim Sha Tsui was a good choice, and that I was very lucky (which cheered me a bit) to have one day in Kowloon. As it turned out, the hundreds of passengers delayed at Beijing were also assigned different hotels, though I�m not sure how many of them were stashed in the clearly executive-level 5-star Hotel ICON.
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| View from the 27th floor suite. |
I rarely get to stay in such expensive rooms, so I was somewhat cowed at the Icon 36 City & Harbour Executive Suite I was given on the 27th floor. Still, as exhausted as I was at 1 am, I quickly took a gander at the well-equipped room�s tech gear for professionals.
Here�s a quick rundown of tech which itinerant professionals may find interesting and useful if they ever found themselves lucky enough to spend a night or two at Hotel ICON:
1. Contactless key - The door uses a contactless card, which is accurate enough to unlock the door from at least 10 cm away from the sensor.
2. Automatic coffee machine - Tech marketing sites such as CNET now review coffee machines, and despite being generally happy with instant coffee, I quickly recognised the included mid-range coffee machine by the mini bar. As a technical writer, I appreciate the well-written instructions, but I was too exhausted to take advantage of the different types of coffee capsules available for preparation.
3. Multi-function printer - Most professionals use a tablet and smartphone for their documents, but as a fan of printers and networked MFC machines, I was impressed that the executive room included a networked scanner and printer. If I was staying longer at the ICON, I would have thoroughly tested the device just for the sheer fun of it.
4. Samsung DVD (Blu-Ray) player - Even a decade ago, I�ve always wondered why some hotels include a traditional DVD or even a Blu-Ray player in their rooms. Unless you need to review company marketing material burned to a DVD, I can�t imagine anyone bringing disc movies on their trips, much less in a 5-star hotel with HD digital TV and in a city as attractive as Hong Kong with a robust nightlife.
Note: I�m pretty sure the device was just a DVD player, but considering how swanky the hotel was, and how basic Blu-Ray players are so affordable today, the player could very well have been a Blu-Ray player.
5. Samsung flat panel Smart TV - The display in my room told me my registered name (KA Layover 060717 7), which is used to authenticate access to the Wi-Fi network (they updated my name later on). As someone who hasn�t had a TV or watched television in close to 6 years, I thoroughly enjoyed the networked Samsung SMART TV. I had BBC and NHK World running most of the time during my stay. Unfortunately, HBO and the other movie channels weren�t showing anything interesting.
Continued in Hotel ICON, HK executive suite and room tech Part 2
