Virtual reality / Augmented reality experience in hotels

Please find above an example of a hotel using Virtual Reality. Actually, this is the hotel the Valamar Dubrovnik President hotel in Croatia.
The fact of using this king of digital tool may help clients to discover hotel in another way and maybe from their home so they can have a previous point of view before coming to the hotel.






Holiday Inn hotel is using Augmented reality, actually they have been sponsored by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Guests are able to see it in virtual action at the Front Desk or in the Lobby. 

Explain the difference between  AR + VR as a customer experience.

Augmented reality consists of integrating some digital information with the environment, and everything in real time. This is quite different from Virtual reality because Virtual reality create a totally artificial environment. Augmented reality is using the actual environment and then integrate some new informations. They are both experiencing a 3D high definition audio and video. 

In Virtual reality people think that they are experiencing a totally different environment that the actual one, in fact they are totally immersed in a simulated and artificial environment.  

Augmented reality provide an "overlay to the real world" so it is different in the fact that Virtual reality provide a digital recreation of a real life setting. 

As a customer experience it is different in the sense that with AR people only need their smartphone or tablet but for VR they need a special headset. So AR is more accessible for everyone rather than VR but they are quite different because they do not provide the same simulation. Concerning AR they are experiencing new digital informations in a real environment whereas VR clients are experiencing the whole real world so they can have access to everything in real time. 

AR is less immersive than VR because people have still a step in real life so they know where they are and we just add digital information. They can have a better impression from an hospitality point of view because they are still in the real environment of the hotel but with some adding. 

What type of businesses/organization can best benefit from AR or VR - for what purpose?

I think that AR and VR can best benefit for travel and tourism industry. Actually, this is really useful for hotels for example because people may discover in real time the hotel in which they will stay. Moreover thanks to AR they can have more information for example about how to use the technologies in the room or even some advices concerning what guests should see during their stay. 

It is also really useful for GPS because it can help tourists to find routes and directions, the AR can also translate some signs of the street and give them some information about what they should see in town. It may also help us to get information about cultural sightseeing and also advices about what to see, museums, monuments, etc. Tourists may get more information in museums for example concerning a painting or a culture. 

Your opinion based on your research - Fad or real tool? Be prepared to support your position.

To my mind, this is a real tool because we can get nowadays so much information about everything. People could become more cultivated thanks to VR and AR because they could get more information instantaneously so they will not need to make research which make them bored (for example museums they could have real time information about culture that may be they will not have search by themselves) 

For hotels this is a real advantages because they may attract more clients and convince them about their concept and what they could bring to clients. VR is a way to escape from reality so people may spend real good time by discovering other places through VR headset. 

AR is interesting in the fact that it may develop the senses of people because they would be more connected and will have more informations about things. 

People may win a lot of time and in real time.