A luxury hotel in Germany has come up with a revolutionary idea to help guests disconnect from WiFi for deeper relaxation. However, the hotel is not completely denying access to the internet.
Guests will instead have one silver switch in their room to kill the internet when desired.
Villa Stéphanie, located in Baden-Baden, has a silver switch in each room next to the bed. Upon activation, the switch blocks all WiFi signals pumping through their veins. Copper grids are installed in the rooms for the purpose. The walls of the hotel have a special coating that blocks out almost 96 per cent of WiFi signals.
According to Frank Marrenbach, the CEO of Oetker Collection, which also runs the Villa Stéphanie, “It is like a light switch.” An estimated 50 per cent guests choose to use the switch.
Marrenbach adds that it is not “smart” to constantly keep checking for incoming messages. What is smart is to have devoted time for it. This is the goal that Villa Stéphanie seeks to fulfill through its unique internet kill switch feature.
According to a Kingston Business School research, obsessive email checking is harmful for health. The solution is also not as simple as just switching off all devices.
Work-life balance author, Chris Baréz-Brown, says, “We are not very good at managing our behavior.” He also says that it only takes one look at cigarettes, alcohol, sugary drinks, or television for giving in to temptation.
Marrenbach says that if a guest switches off WiFi signals then it does not matter whether the neighbor is doing so or not. He adds that this feature will become common across luxury homes within the next five years.
Villa Stéphanie is the only hotel so far to have gone to such an extreme to help its guests relax more. Other key players in the hotel industry, like the Crowne Plaza hotel chain, offer aromatherapy sessions to relax. Podcasts by trained sleep experts are also on offer.
Marrenbach says that many of his hotel guests have not "switched off" in years. He also says that using WiFi in today's times is almost like how smoking was in the 1950s. Nobody felt bothered by it back in those days because everyone was doing it. But now we consider smoking almost "vulgar."
"Digital detox" should become more mainstream in the time to come.
