Moments after stepping from the taxi in front of the Andaz hotel in West Hollywood, Elise Faur settled into a padded leather chair, a thick rug beneath her feet.
"I'm so relaxed right now," said Faur, a regional manager for Jordan Vineyard & Winery in Healdsburg, Calif.
A hotel "host" delivered a bottle of water and knelt at her side, swiftly tapping on a hand-held computer no bigger than a stenographer's notebook. Quickly, the host used the device to confirm her reservation information, swipe her credit card and activate her guest room keys.
What? No front desk? Has check-in become obsolete? No, hotel experts say, but the ritual is certainly changing.
Faur never stood in line, never waited for a clerk to retype her reservation information and never was ignored so the clerk could answer the phone.
Andaz, a new, hip hotel brand from Hyatt, has no lobby telephones or agents behind imposing counters. A communal table set with jars of candy, bowls of fruit and a selection of wine is as close as you'll get to the front desk of old.
Andaz is one of the first U.S. hotels to do away with a front desk. Elsewhere, automated kiosks allow some travelers to confirm their reservations at airport terminals or in hotel lobbies. At the new Aloft chain, which has a hotel in Rancho Cucamonga, guests can use a lobby kiosk to check in and obtain keys, or consult with a nearby human to complete the process.
Hoteliers are closely watching the West Hollywood Andaz as they consider how to streamline and improve their service.
"The reliance on the front desk is going to diminish greatly because technology will allow it," says Laurence Barron, chief information officer for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. in Orlando, Fla.
"Online reservations have come around to the point where that process does most of the information gathering. At the front desk, you're just validating the credit card and confirming that the person who made the reservation is the person showing up."
Now the front desk functions less like an administrative center, Barron says, and "more like a concierge desk." "Now the clerks can ask, 'While you're here, will you be going to the spa? Would you like dinner reservations? What else can we help you with?' "
Many luxury hotels have ushered in the idea of a speedier check-in process but used old-fashioned hand-holding. Many developed pre-registration processes that helped gather guest information ahead of arrival. Even as technology now performs many of the same functions, luxury hoteliers know they can't give up individual attention.
