Ordering room service could soon be as easy as saying, “Alexa, order me a room service hamburger.”

Wynn Las Vegas today announced a deal with Amazon.com Inc. to equip its hotel rooms with Amazon’s smart home assistant Echo. The deal, claimed to be an industry first, will eventually see 4,748 hotel rooms equipped with an Echo, starting with suites at the hotel this month with a goal to have all rooms featuring an Alexa unit by next summer.

Initially, Echo will allow guests to control room lights, room temperature, drapery and the television, with features such as room service and personal assistant functions to be introduced at a later date. Traditional Echo features such as the ability to answer questions, read the news, set timers and alarms, recite calendars, check sports scores and more will also be available.

“As we have moved through the years, technology has always played an important part in our resorts,” Wynn Resorts Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Wynn said in a statement. “The thing that Amazon has done with Alexa is quite perfect.  If I have ever seen anything in my 49 years of developing resorts that has made our job of delivering a perfect experience to our guests easier and help us get to another level, it is Alexa. The ability to talk to your room is effortlessly convenient.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM7izjVqug

The introduction of Echo into the hotel market is an interesting move that could well see a new battlefront emerging for smart home devices as Amazon, Google and others look for new way to expose these devices to more people.

The smart home device market is predicted to grow as a market from $46.97 billion in 2015 to $121.73 billion by 2022. But many people still don’t know a lot about these devices. As one survey found, only 30 percent of people knew where to buy them. Devices such as Amazon Echo are even newer, meaning that to succeed long-term they need more exposure. Hotel rooms appear to be an obvious way to provide hands-on experience to potential consumers.

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