Wynn Las Vegas to put Echos in Every Room

The Wynn Las Vegas hotel has unveiled plans to equip all its 4,748 rooms with an Amazon Echo. The roll-out will start this month with Echos installed in suites at the hotel. It will be in all guest rooms by summer 2017.

Guests will be able to control a variety of room features with a series of voice commands via the device. Initially, this will include lights, room temperature, drapery and the television. As the project evolves, future features such as personal assistant functions will be introduced. In the US, there are currently 6,000 ‘skills’ (functions) available for Alexa, the brain behind the Echo, including one of the most recent additions, the ability to order a pizza from Pizza Hut.

“As we have moved through the years, technology has always played an important part in our resorts,” said Wynn Resorts chairman and CEO, Steve Wynn. “The thing that Amazon has done with Alexa is quite perfect. If I have ever seen anything in my 49 years of developing resorts that has made our job of delivering a perfect experience to our guests easier and help us get to another level, it is Alexa.

“The ability to talk to your room is effortlessly convenient. In partnership with Amazon, becoming the first resort in the world in which guests can verbally control every aspect of lighting, temperature and the audio-visual components of a hotel room is yet another example of our leadership in the world of technology for the benefit of all of our guests.”

While the move is a great marketing gambit for Amazon, enabling hotel guests to experience Echo and Alexa for themselves, some commentators are nervous about the device’s ability to listen in on conversations and even potentially upload them to its servers. “Alexa, forget everything you just heard…”