[video_popup width="805" height="454" video_link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR_1BX3y7QI" video_image_link="https://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ushiauia-DJ.jpg"]
A small Spanish island in the Mediterranean is perhaps not where you expect to find a battleground taking place in the industry - but Ibiza hotels are gearing up for one.
The famed Ushuaia Beach Hotel has spent a few years at the centre of attention - and generally applauded for its efforts - for the way it has married technology, social media and in-resort activities.
The combination of dance music and social media-hungry visitors with its hipster-ish hotel has seen it labelled as a benchmark of sorts as the industry tries to capture the lifestyles of guests with modern technology.
Marketing-wise, integrating an RFID payment and social check-in system (via Facebook) has been an enormous success for the brand, with new features added each year (last year's partnership with Microsoft saw Xbox consoles put in guest rooms).
Whilst the concept hasn't been rolled out to many other hotels on the planet (Ibiza is a relatively unique destination, after all), other brands on the island are starting to wake up to what the Ushuaia has been up to.
And the summer of 2014 looks like being the year when other hotels start to claw back some attention - or at least try.
Plenty of chatter in the corridors at the FITUR event in Madrid, Spain, centred on perhaps the first significant challenger to the Ushuaia's dominance as arguably the coolest resort venue on the island.
Although part of the same global chain, Palladium Hotel Group's Hard Rock brand is opening its, you guessed it, Hard Rock Hotel on the island in May this year.
It is to the credit of the group and its strategy to have the chains under its belt actively compete with each other that many at the event talked about the arrival of Hard Rock as a threat to Ushuaia.
And so Hard Rock is now touting its "ground-breaking" tech-led amenities ahead of the official opening (with a music festival, no less) in a few months.
Guests will get personal playlist (curated by music pros and celebs), in-room jamming sessions with amps and the ability to mix music on iPads.
Palladium's strategy is a good one, seizing on the experience of a stay (music, similar to some efforts in the ski sector) with technology to hopefully boost the profile of its brands.
Still, such is Ushuaia's existing profile in the sector (and the entertainment industry) that it can attract a large audience to a session where it demonstrated some of its own technology... and finish it all off by rolling out one of Europe's most popular up-and-coming young DJs, Uner, to spin a few tunes for delegates.
Not using turntables, inevitably, but a slip piece of glass with his software beamed onto it.
Needless to say, Uner's appearance triggered all manner of a scrum from various press photographers and plenty of the, err, younger delegates keen to catch a glimpse of the star.
Here is a rough and ready clip:
NB: Disclosure – Flights and accommodation for the author’s participation on a panel at the event was supported by FITUR.