Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi | Business Case Study

Industry

Hotel

Purpose of Implementation

Improved productivity, Improved service, Enhanced image

Implemented product

Electronic paper display “ePoster”

EP-C070 (7.3 inch) × 3 units

Installed in August 2023. Two units of ePoster’s four-color, double-sided model were installed at the main building’s front desk and one at the annex’s front desk to show the air conditioner mode of guest room air conditioning.

Customer

Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi

Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
Opened in 1984 as the original piece of the Hearton Hotel chain, which now operates six hotels nationwide. Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi has 302 guest rooms (202 in the main building and 100 in the annex). Conveniently located in the heart of Osaka’s Minami district, it is always bustling with business travelers and overseas tourists.

This is what we realized.

Challenges before implementation

Our hotel is equipped with centralized air-conditioning that serves all rooms. To inform guests of the current air-conditioning mode, we handed out paper notices indicating the mode in four languages or placed display panels at our front desks. However, changing these notices each time the air-conditioning mode was switched from cooling to fan to heating and back again was burdensome for the already busy front desk staff.

The dedicated app makes it easy to switch the notice via Bluetooth, reducing the time and effort required by staff.
The product conserves battery life as it does not use electricity to maintain the display. This makes it more environment-friendly.
The advanced display and simple design enhance the front desk’s look.

Background of implementation

Informing guests of the air-conditioning’s mode of operation by paper or display panels.
Frequent mode changes can be burdensome for the front desk staff.

Our entire hotel is centrally air-conditioned, so we let our guests know which operating mode our air-conditioning is in at the front desk. In the past, we did this by handing out pieces of paper or placing display panels with the words “cooling,” “fan,” or “heating” written in four languages. However, when temperatures vary widely in spring and fall, we switch the air-conditioning mode several times a day. And each time, we also had to change the paper or panels, which burdened our already busy front desk staff. This situation led us to explore ways to make providing the information easier.

Takashi Sano
General Manager
Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi

Reasons for selection

Quick and easy switching between displays.
No cables for placement anywhere.

Sharp suggested that we use ePoster. When we were given a demon-stration at a showroom, the first thing that struck us was the fact that the display can be switched quickly and easily. It is battery-operated (two AAA batteries) and does not require a power outlet. And because the display is changed via Bluetooth, it requires no cables at all. These features allow us to place it anywhere on our front desks. We have many female staff at the front desk, so the product’s lightweight and easy-to-move features offer quite an advantage.

Displayed information can be changed easily with the dedicated app.

Effect after implementation

The double-sided feature further reduces the effort required for display changes.
No electricity is used to maintain the display, making ePoster environmentally friendly.

Two units in the main building and one in the annex show the air-conditioning’s operating mode 24 hours a day. The display can be switched simply by sending data via Bluetooth from the dedicated app installed on a smartphone or tablet. Furthermore, since ePoster is double-sided, we can change the operating mode display on the front and back sides and rotate it, reducing the time and effort required to change the displayed information. And its advanced display and simple design enhance the look of our front desks. Since it requires no electricity to maintain the display, its battery lasts longer and is environmentally friendly.

The advanced display and simple design enhance the front desk’s look.

Future prospects

Expanding use to include drinking water and breakfast information.
Exploring ways of using ePoster for other information boards in the hotel.

Since our air-conditioning system is only used for cooling and heating in summer and winter, we plan to use our ePoster devices in ways that go beyond providing notices of air-conditioning operating modes. For example, we would like to use them to provide information on free drinking water and breakfast services to enhance guest convenience and reduce our staff’s workload. In the future, we want to install ePoster devices wherever possible in the hotel and use them to provide various kinds of information while switching their displays as necessary.

Sharp Corporation has applied for registration of “ePoster” as a trademark.

Front-back display capability expands the range of applications.