Hasta La Creative!

Steps away from the horse-drawn carriages of Columbus Circle sits the Hudson Hotel, a fashionable Manhattan dwelling stylized with the requisite eclecticism: a massive chandelier, ivy-covered skylight, hand-carved wooden chairs and ’70s Memphis power pop piping through lobby speakers. This temporary home to tourists boasts another modern feature that’s less apparent to guests: Its WiFi access links the hotel to its visitors’ social data.

The eventual idea is for Morgans Hotel Group guests — whether residing in one of its properties or merely stopping by the bar to log into its WiFi system through a social account of their choice such as Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. The hotel group currently is testing the WiFi logins at the Hudson Hotel only.

The system could help Morgans counteract the loss of customer data otherwise intercepted by room-booking middlemen such as Hotels.com and Priceline. Travel sites help hotels sell rooms they wouldn’t otherwise, but without the traditional direct transaction with guests, hotels lose out on customer information. That makes keeping in contact, making targeted offers and building loyalty a challenge.

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