Hyatt tests high-tech innovations on real guests at ‘hotel labs’

Hyatt is taking some fascinating initiatives to cater to a modern, high-tech audience—most notably, setting up eight properties as "lab hotels" throughout the world. Four of the hotels are in the U.S. and the rest are in cities like Dehli, Hong Kong and London. And it as at these hotels where John Prusnick, director of IT innovation and strategy, leads major IT experiments and initiatives, ComputerWorld recently reported.

At any time, there are seven to nine unique projects under way at the lab hotels, and IT spends no more than 90 days on any one idea. The projects that don't make the big time are chalked up to "return on experience" rather than ROI, Prusnick explains.