Sheraton Hotels introduce Microsoft Surface (with video)

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and Microsoft Corp. are introducing a new hotel guest experience with its debut of Microsoft Surface, Microsoft’s first commercially available surface computer.

Featuring an easy-to-use technology and a natural way of accessing information, Surface units will be placed in the lobbies of select Sheraton hotels (Sheraton Boston Hotel, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel and Sheraton Seattle Hotel).

Microsoft Surface provides simple and instant access to information and entertainment. Sheraton will be the first hotel to offer Microsoft Surface, saying this wll create a new Sheraton brand experience that will bring interaction, connectivity and a social setting to the lobby, providing guests with an entirely new way to explore local tourist highlights and enhance their hotel stay.

Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a tablelike form factor that several guests can use simultaneously. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information in a more natural and familiar way, by using their hands and gestures.

With each unit, Sheraton is offering a customized version of the Microsoft Surface developed suite of applications to provide entertainment and information about local attractions. Surface, and these unique applications, are designed to serve the needs of the brand’s core guests who are social individuals seeking to share the travel experience with one another.

Three highlighted applications are CityTips, Sounds of Sheraton and Sheraton snapshots.

The Sounds of Sheraton serves as a lobby-based digital jukebox, enabling guests to create personal music playlists by choosing selections from Sheraton’s exclusive offering of Sony BMG artists, including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill.