DREISECHSNULL, the business client magazine of Telekom and Lindner Hotels & Resorts, is searching for an innovative idea for a new hotel concept.

DREISECHSNULL provides inspiration and advice for small to medium-sized companies. Written in a journalistic style, it shows the potential of trends and innovations for small and medium-sized companies and offers pragmatic tips and inspiring ideas to help the readers make their own businesses secure for the future and their everyday work more efficient.
Online at www.telekom.de/dreisechsnull/ideenwettbewerb DREISECHSNULL will report on this contest as a case study for Open Innovation as a tool for small to medium-sized businesses and also in the quarterly published print magazine.

Lindner Hotels & Resorts is a family-managed hotel chain based in Duesseldorf. It has more than 34 city and resort hotels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain.

With the planned “me and all hotels” Lindner is creating an absolutely new hotel and lounge concept that networks the hotel guests both with each other, and with the city they are in and its inhabitants. The locations of the “me and all hotels” will be the inner cities of German business and lifestyle metropolises.

The “me and all hotels” will stand out for the fact that they not only appeal to external guests, but also local target groups and communities from the city and connect them with state-of-the-art, high-end communication technology. At the focus of the new hotel concept is the Community Lounge, the meeting point for the guests from the hotel and from the city and with five themed zones (checking in, working, meeting, relaxing, communicating) enables them to undertake several activities at the same time (working, chilling, relaxing, accessing information, communicating and eating). The guests can individually (me) tailor their stays to meet their needs, without having the feeling that they’re alone (all). You can find more information about this in an interview with Andreas Krökel from the Lindner Executive Board.
    
For the technical realization of its innovative hotel concept Lindner Hotels AG is joining forces with Deutsche Telekom. Together, the two companies have already, for example, implemented the live conferencing solution “TelePresence” in a series of Lindner Hotels, (link to DSN online article), which enables hotel guests to partake in realistic video conferences with business partners at other locations. The cooperation with the two brands is now being extended with the new “me and all hotels” hotel concept. Further innovative communication possibilities will be on offer in the hotels.

Aim:
The technological potential of our era should be exhausted in order to appeal to and network (business) travelers and the communities from the city. The additional services are an important component of the innovative hotel concept and help to make the “me and all hotels” unique and attractive.

Develop ideas for digital services to network the guests of the “me and all hotels”, both with one another and with the city they are in.

Develop your ideas on the one hand for the existing technical infrastructure
a) the personal devices of the hotel visitors (smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.)
b) the planned technical equipment of the “me and all hotels”, in particular a media wall, touch tables for group work and workstations for individual work (cf. illustrations).
On the other hand you can complement your idea with new devices to connect hotel guests with “urban locals”. Ideally, it will be possible to tie your service into a “me and all” app.

Important aspects in the development of your idea are

• the networking of the hotel guests amongst one another
• the networking of the hotel guests with the city (where can I find what?)
• the networking of the hotel guests with the urban locals and, vice-versa, the networking of the urban locals with the hotel guests (where can I find who?)

As well as the hotel rooms, possible places for networking in the hotel include:

• the community lounge (with video wall, multi-touch tables and individual workspaces)
• the breakfast area and the bar
• the meeting rooms
• and perhaps even the gym and underground car park

In the development of your idea you should also consider the temporal aspects:
Which services should “me and all hotels” offer its guests BEFORE, DURING and AFTER their hotel visit?

The benefits for the creatives
The prize money of 28.940 € is made up of the following components:

Community Prize: 10.750 €
1st rank: 3.000 €
2nd rank: 2.500 €
3rd rank: 1.250 €
4th rank: 1.000 €
5.-8. rank: 750 €

10 iPads worth 6.690 €
rank 9 to 18

10 Hotel Voucher for Lindner Hotels & Resorts worth 5.500 €
rank 19 to 28

Following the contest, the jury will decide which ideas suite the “me and all hotels” concept best and give three jury awards to outstanding ideas:

1st Jury Award: 3.000 €
2nd Jury Award: 2.000 €
3rd Jury Award: 1.000 €

Your idea has to impress different target groups:

• The management of the “me and all hotels”.
• Telekom as the technological partner of “me and all hotels”.
• The future visitors of “me and all hotels”, mainly young (business) travelers (between 29 and 49 years old).
• The “urban locals”, i.e. (business) people from the local surroundings who make use of the benefits and services offered by the community hotel.

The hotels and lounges under the “me and all hotels” brand are characterized by their high quality standards, reflected in superior materials (stone, woods, leather) and a high level of technical equipment.

The feeling that the “me and all hotels” embody can be described as trendy, fresh, light, communicative and authentic.

Three areas with accompanying technical equipment, which should be integrated into your idea (vgl. Abbildungen), have already been planned for the lounge area of the “me and all hotels”. They are:

1. The wall – a giant, interactive multi-user wall
2. Touch tables – where guests can work together in groups
3. Individual workspaces – where guests can work individually and uninterrupted

Ideally, there will also be a corresponding “me and all” app for your service
In your design you are obliged to adhere to the corporate design guidelines of “me and all hotels”.
This contest is primarily about really good IDEAS, either in the form of ideas mapped out in a rough draft or purely in written form.

The following structure will help you to describe your idea precisely:

• Which problem does your idea solve?
• How does your idea solve the problem?
• Which value will your solution have for the visitors of the “me and all hotels”?

Useful links:

• me and all hotels
• DREISECHSNULL

Click on the following links and download logos, cooperate communication material or any additional information related to the project

• me and all hotels LOGO

• Renderings

• Grundriss/ Ground Plan