October 20, 2008 2:45 PM PDT

Plenty of iPods at the iHotel California

Font size
Print
E-mail
Share
3 comments

(Credit: Runtriz)

Plenty of iPods at the iHotel California: I believe that's how The Eagles would sing their famous song if they composed it today.

The California hotel in question is the Malibu Beach Inn--quite possibly the first hotel in the state, if not the world, to implement an iPhone/iPhone-based system of hotel management.

The system is developed by Runtriz, a software firm based in Hollywood. Its product, called "Hotel Evolution," is an application designed for the iPhone and the iPod Touch that helps bring hotels up to technological speed and even a little further.

When checking in at the hotel, you'll be asked to have the application installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch, if you have one. If you don't (now what's wrong with you?), the hotel will provide you with a 16GB iPod Touch, preloaded with the application, to use during the stay.

After that, everything else is done via the app. You can order food, drinks, spa and concierge service, plus shop and more via touching the device's screen. Runtriz makes money by charging the hotel $10 per room for the service. It's unclear whether hotel guests have to take up the extra charge.

It's also unclear how the app gets installed on your iPhone (I tried looking for it at Apple's App Store, but it's not there).

What's clear though, fortunately, is that the hotel won't make Steve Jobs' traditional attire its dress code, even though chances are you already wear jeans and T-shirts yourself. And it would only be fitting if the hotel equipped its restrooms with iCarta potty iPod holders.

If after the stay, you somehow forget to return the device, your credit card will be charged for its value plus some for the hotel's revenue.

(Via Fashion Funky)

Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong.