Leave your laptop at home

From...

May 24, 2000
Web posted at: 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT)

by Amy Helen Johnson

(IDG) -- The next time you check in to a hotel during a business trip, don't be surprised if the desk clerk hands you a laptop along with your room key. Hotels that cater to business travelers are installing new network infrastructures and developing new guest programs -- such as offering loaner laptops -- to make their properties more business-user-friendly. The renovations range from wiring for high-speed Internet access to providing full computer, Internet and LAN facilities.

What's driving the technology boom at hotels is the realization that good computer facilities can help capture a larger chunk of the lucrative business travelers' market. A survey that Opinion Research Corp. in Skillman, N.J., recently conducted for Integrated Network Technologies Inc. in Eagan, Minn., found that 66% of the 300 frequent business travelers polled said they would choose a hotel based on its in-room technology services. Seventy-three percent said they wished that available services were better.

Faster, faster, faster

The most common improvement hotels are making is the installation of high-speed Internet access, such as Digital Subscriber Line service, T1 lines and broadband connections. What's making it easy for hotels to offer these alternatives is the emergence of companies, such as Tut Systems Inc., Suite Technology Systems Network and Wayport Inc., that specialize in retrofitting hotels with network access. By relying on Ethernet and Universal Serial Bus connections for now, while developing wireless services for the future, these services let travelers with network-enabled laptops plug into the hotel's LAN through ports in the rooms to reach the Web.

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Hotels are also catering to those who travel without laptops, offering in-room systems such as those provided by Sioux Falls, S.D.-based LodgeNet Entertainment Corp., or supplying loaner laptops, as is the policy at San Francisco's Nob Hill Lambourne. The disadvantages of these types of solutions for business travelers is that they usually offer only Internet access, Post Office Protocol mail services and popular productivity software; using corporate e-mail and specialized applications and data is difficult. In addition, TVs often serve as the monitors for in-room systems, and they suffer from the low resolution of today's TV technology.

But savvy hotel managers recognize that pure Internet access is of limited use to their business traveler guests. The key need of these customers is connecting to headquarters. Virtual private network (VPN) facilities aren't yet common, but they are on the rise. LodgeNet, for example, and DataValet, a service offered by Bell Nexxia (the data communications arm of Bell Canada International Inc.) and joint-venture partners, offer VPN access to laptops hooked into their Internet services.

Hotel help desk

Hotels are also paying attention to the needs of computer users when they're outside their rooms. Some now offer network access in conference rooms -- and even restaurants. The Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel added Internet access ports at tables in the Bistro on Two restaurant so that diners can work or play online while they eat. Seattle's Hotel Elliott, a 424-room facility scheduled to open next April, will offer wireless access throughout the building, enabling travelers to work on laptops in the lobby.

The lobby is also the likely spot for Internet-enabled kiosks that will allow guests to access their own records for tasks such as checkout; to find out about the hotel, such as the location of the fitness center; and to search for nearby restaurants and entertainment.

But the main activity is renovating conference centers, which traditionally have been wired by hand for each group using them, resulting in snaking lines of duct tape pinning cables to the carpet. Hotels now are planning conference rooms that include desks with integrated electrical outlets and network ports, and they're adding videoconferencing facilities and projection technology to match the facilities in modern office buildings.

With the technology at hotels getting more and more sophisticated, visitors are running into connectivity problems. Several hotels have hired help desk staff, sometimes called computer concierges, to unravel any trouble that guests have with their computers or with the hotel's network.

At the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, information technology manager Mike Demir and two other IT staffers are available to guests from about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Demir's main job is to support the hotel's back-office systems, but for the past 18 months, he says, he's been able to help guests with a variety of problems, including fixing a recalcitrant TelePrompTer, lending a laptop power supply, and resetting dial-up properties for the many guests who stumbled over their laptops' modem settings. For less urgent tasks, he directs guests to the hotel's staffed business center. Eventually, the business center will have a full-time IT staffer to take over guest support, he says.

Before you go

These new technology services won't appear at all hotels, even those that are part of a chain. That's because hotel owners often pay for the use of the hotel brand name, and each owner makes individual decisions about amenities at his hotels. Plus, many owners choose to upgrade only a portion of their rooms, based on the theory that not all guests will require the extra services. So before you go, find out what amenities are available in the room you reserve.

Also, check which services are included in the room price. There are three cost models: Some hotels charge an extra flat fee for business-class rooms, such as Chicago-based Hyatt Corp.'s $20 fee to upgrade to the Business Plan; some charge for specific extra services, such as Marriott International's $9.95 daily fee for high-speed Internet access; and some charge a premium room rate, such as Seattle's new Hotel Elliott's anticipated $350 per day rack rate and the Chicago Four Seasons' $450 per day rate for its Technology 2000 suites.

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HP opens E-Center for business travelers
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Establishing company travel policy, perks
January 3, 2000

Travelers to get wireless help
(Computerworld)
Boeing to put Net in the air
(IDG.net)
Travel sites look for human touch
(Computerworld)
Will IT give airline customers more choice?
(Computerworld)
Managing the office hotel
(Computerworld)
The Big Apple in your Palm
(PCWorld.com)
City guide puts nightlife at your fingertips
(The Industry Standard)

LodgeNet Entertainment Corp.
Tut Systems

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