NEWS
New Phone Could Help International Travelers Curb Data Roaming Fees
Source: Tink Labs
Forget the free mini-bar. In our tech thirsty age, international travelers are seeking a way to keep in touch with friends and family back home, plus access the internet without paying extortionate cell phones fees.
Fortunately, Hong Kong-based tech company Tink Labs are re-imagining the way foreign visitors avoid mobile roaming fees with their ‘Handy’ cell phone product.
Handy – a custom made phone – is made available to hotels, who then provide these to hotel guests who get to use Handy’s unlimited international minutes and data.
How handy are we? Free mobile phones now available for all our hotel guests! @Tinklabs #TravelTuesday pic.twitter.com/hOUBNN7U59
— The Mandeville Hotel (@Mandevillehotel) March 14, 2017
The phones are already in 20 cities across Asia and Europe and in the rooms of some of the top hotel chains in the world. Tink Labs reveal they hope to have them in one million hotel rooms by the end of the year, including expanding to the United State.
Hearing tonight from @Tinklabs about its free #smartphone for your hotel room – you'll never need to pay for roaming again! pic.twitter.com/x4JeQZVfqq
— Rob Sinclair (@Rob_Sinclair1) March 30, 2017
The company have relations with mobile phone providers in all the countries they place Handy phones in, to ensure customers receive the best coverage.
For hotels it allows them an edge on their competition and the ability to boost revenue by placing targeted paid services ads on the Android interface.
Handy offers a customized version of Android with selected pre-installed apps, which can then be customized by the hotel offering the service to offer on-the-go concierge service, destination specific content and paid hotel services.
Tink Labs CEO Terence Kwok said that once international travelers have used Handy, they obviously don’t want to go back to racking up large mobile roaming fees.
In a press release Kwok revealed of the service, “Hotel guests enjoy being able to make free calls, while receiving insights that allow them to live like a local. Meanwhile, hoteliers benefit from being able to stay connected to – and improve the experience of – their guests, resulting in increased sales of hotel services.”
