Las Vegas: a Perfect Testing Ground for Smart City Innovations

Las Vegas, world renowned as a premier hospitality destination for its entertainment ranging from casinos, concerts, and diverse stage productions is far more complex than meets the eye. This mega destination is also quite the innovative hub, home to several pioneering innovations such as the Sphere and the Hyperloop.

However, the true marvel lies in the formulaic genius of hospitality structures that seamlessly cater to large crowds and endless events constantly adapting to high visitor demands. All these extremely unique factors in unison make Las Vegas the perfect case study for smart city innovations.

This innovative approach to city planning holds tremendous potential for space optimization, improved visitor engagement, and overall seamless guest experiences. One of the main challenges facing the hospitality industry in Las Vegas today is adapting to constantly increasing demand, with many event spaces reaching high capacities and having inadequate resources dissuading guests or leaving them dissatisfied and uncomfortable.

Why implement smart city features?
Smart cities are concerned with capturing and providing real-time data on all factors that may influence the guest experience from weather, traffic patterns, or building occupancy with the goal of improving operational strategies, resource efficiency, and increasing guest autonomy and satisfaction. Although Las Vegas has already begun implementing some of these features, primarily regarding traffic control management, the impact on hospitality concepts in terms of efficient allocation of resources and cost management is very promising.

IoT-Enabled Occupancy Flow Management

A central technology to smart city concepts is Internet of Things or IoTs, these are physical devices such as sensors and or cameras that serve to collect and communicate data. For example, motion sensors within casino floors currently detect guest movement and provide live occupancy data which is used for security, analyzing game popularity and generating efficient machine layout for increased interaction. However, in combination with new mobile-enabled features, Las Vegas could learn to maximize the use of these pre-existing IoTs allowing guests to receive notifications on quieter areas or available amenities, giving them greater control over their time and experience (Khan, Zedadra, Guerrieri, & Spezzano, 2024).

Overall, an extension of IoTs to create a network of accessible real-time information across all Las Vegas venues, as well as city conditions like weather and traffic, will enable the evolution of hospitality, operational, and consumer services. By tracking offerings available such as slot machines, gaming tables, and amenities reflecting this data through real-time notifications and wayfinding, guest satisfaction is sure to improve through reduced congestion, shorter wait times, and increased hospitality provider attention.

Using Data and AI for Smooth Operations

Going beyond the city’s current uses of Machine Learning and AI for gathering and analyzing attendee and user data, is predicting consumer trends, creation of gaming floor layouts, and dynamic pricing strategies. AI can further assist in a smart city’s goal of increased efficiency and analysis of real-time occupancy data; AI can support operations helping to handle resource allocation and even predict visitor spikes. More specifically, AI can help tailor operations in terms of staffing, energy use, and space allocation to keep things running smoothly. As presented by McKinsey, AI analytics can reduce supply costs up to 50 percent, and lost sales by 65 percent overall improving business resilience (Amar, Rahimi, Surak, & von Bismarck, 2022).

Cognitive Buildings and Sustainable Operations for a Greener Vegas

The rise of IoT and AI technologies paved the way for the cognitive building concept, a structure equipped to adapt environmental controls such as lighting, HVAC, and ventilation based on real-time occupancy and activity. Beyond energy efficiency, cognitive buildings have the power to improve air quality, support security, and predict maintenance needs, creating a safer and more responsive environment (Khan et al., 2024). In turn, the creation of smart buildings in Las Vegas could offer a sustainable solution for managing the high energy demands of casinos and event spaces anticipating visitor flow and adjusting resources as needed to enhance comfort and reduce waste.

Overall, should Las Vegas decide to become a pioneer in smart city technology not only would the city be a leader in hospitality innovation, but it would drastically improve the already exceedingly impressive operations structure of its hospitality outlets and take a step towards increased sustainability. Being able to provide not only real time updates but solutions, strategies, and alternative entertainment to guests during peak rush hours will not only increase guest mobility and autonomy but tremendously decrease dissatisfaction and the need for service recovery. Through a combination of data analytics, IoT, mobile services, occupancy tracking, and sustainability practices, Las Vegas can redefine the guest journey and set new efficiency standards.

This blog post was awarded Third Place in the Fall 2024 HFTP/MS Global Hospitality Business Graduate Student Blog Competition presented by the HFTP Foundation. Participants are students participating in the Master of Science in Global Hospitality Business, a partnership between the Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and EHL. The blog posts that received the top scores will be published on HFTP Connect. Learn more at HFTP News.

Daniela Gardere is a graduate student of the Master of Science in Global Hospitality Business, a tri-continental program jointly offered by three leading hospitality schools: EHL Hospitality Business School, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management with a minor in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her professional experiences span various facets of the hospitality industry, including project management for boutique hotels, event coordination for global brands, and consulting on operational efficiency for luxury properties across the U.S. and Europe.

References

• Khan, I., Zedadra, O., Guerrieri, A., & Spezzano, G. (2024). Occupancy Prediction in IoT-enabled Smart Buildings: Technologies, Methods, and Future Directions. Sensors, 24(11), 3276.

• Khan, I., Cicirelli, F., Greco, E., Guerrieri, A., Mastroianni, C., Scarcello, L., Spezzano, G., & Vinci, A. (2024). Leveraging Distributed AI for Multi-occupancy Prediction in Cognitive Buildings. Internet of Things, 26, 101181.

• Amar, J., Rahimi, S., Surak, Z., & von Bismarck, N. (2022). AI-driven Operations Forecasting in Data-light Environments. McKinsey & Company. 

Las Vegas smart city hospitality technology IoT EHL University of Houston Hong Kong Polytechnic University