In last month's Business Traveller, we looked at what to expect when you check into your hotel room and need to connect to the internet. We found there is still a range of methods of access (wifi or wired), speeds offered, and prices, which vary from free to very expensive.
Not surprisingly, these differences are amplified the further you look into the future. A few years ago, if we used the internet at all for work purposes, it was for email only. Now, as a result of widely available high-speed access, we are becoming more ambitious – and more demanding.
In a UK survey by iBahn, the world's leading provider of secure wired and wireless high-speed internet to the hospitality business, more than half (53 per cent) of the sample of business travellers said they regularly used a secure, high-bandwidth internet connection for applications requiring fast and high-volume data transmission. Video was the most regularly used high-bandwidth application at 16.3 per cent, followed by audio at 9.3 per cent and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) at 7.8 per cent.
Anand Rao, chief information officer for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, confirms this: "What we increasingly find is that the internet is used not just for web browsing and downloading emails but for other things: chatting with family, webcams, and online voice chats. Users used to spend an hour downloading emails, working on them and sending them all back. But connectivity is no longer just a work tool, it's more a lifestyle tool."
So how is this development affecting the service that hotels provide?
Connected at any price
If high-speed internet access is now regarded as an essential part of a business traveller's hotel stay, will it ever be widely available for free? The answer may depend on how fast a connection you need. John Priznik, director of corporate technology at Hyatt Hotels, says: "In order to offer a premium service, there is a cost. As a result, charging for the service may change from the current flat fee to something more flexible. Effectively, you would be paying to guarantee a level of service, with an extremely high bandwidth at the top."
It's a model that Kempinski Hotels sees itself adopting, as Wibecke Vinke, senior vice-president for information technology at Kempinski, explains: "My view has been that we should provide a base level of internet access free to all guests, especially since there are no variable costs, such as providing extra staff, and the basic infrastructure is there. Then we will offer the option of higher bandwidth at a premium."
Some hotels are offering high-speed access for free, such as Radisson SAS and, in the UK, Malmaison and City Inn, but it is a move resisted by most brands. Nick Price, chief technology officer for Mandarin Oriental, says it is illogical for his company to give away a product it has invested significantly in, and for which there is high demand. "As long as it is cheaper than room-service breakfast, it's a bargain," he says. "It will entertain you, inform you, keep you in touch, and it will be the primary communication vehicle – for video and voice worldwide – all for a very reasonable sum."
Roger Binks, director of marketing communications for Marriott, agrees: "We would rather deliver a really good service that we could guarantee in terms of speed, and capacity in terms of bandwidth, rather than opening it up to every person in the hotel to sit there and download movies. In that situation, every room would be on maximum bandwidth and it would clog up the whole system. I think there's a difference between offering free and [offering something] good."
A hotel's willingness to offer free access depends on several criteria: whether it can afford to absorb the cost in the room rate, whether it is thought a good marketing point for customers, and also the cost of installing the system. As you would expect, a top-end service is expensive. "Speed, or bandwidth, and security are two areas often overlooked, particularly when it comes to wifi, yet they are both crucial," says Price. "In our hotels, we provide wired, wireless and internet through the TV, with a wired connection of never less than 10MB. To get good speeds for wireless, you can't just put in access points along the corridors; you need a five-bar signal in the places where people want to work, typically near the curtain walls or a window. Our favourite is a new, distributed antenna system, whereby we put in a dedicated coaxial in the ceiling of every floor that emits a continuous signal."
This is a high-end, high-quality – and costly – solution, but many hotels believe it is worth it to provide a good-quality, managed service. According to Price, the rationale for a system that might cost up to £200,000 is that it can be used for staff rapid response, or to locate a member of staff and confirm they have completed a task. He emphasises that reliability and speed are all-important for guests. "We all travel more than we used to. Perhaps you are used to saying goodnight to your daughter, and if you have your laptop with you and have a video connection, you can do that. But if it doesn't work, you would resent that. That is the world into which we are moving. It's not, 'My email is slow today', it's that I can't say goodnight to my daughter, or I couldn't contact my broker, so I missed that trade."
He adds: "Our strategy is to provide a capability that allows you to be you. The modern lifestyle is very different from 10 or 15 years ago and luxury is about allowing you to be you in the short period of time you have – say, the 30 minutes before you go out for a business meal. It's your time, and people who live on the road value that time immensely and want to use it in a personal way. You might want access to your entire music collection, or use Slingbox to watch the home TV. We want our guests to leave our hotel saying they had a wonderful experience and had never expected to see that in a hotel. But it's so obvious, why doesn't everyone do that?"
As a result, many hotels now bundle the connectivity package with the entertainment package in the room, allowing 24-hour internet access along with films through the in-room entertainment system.
Yet this may not be the way things are heading in the longer term. John Priznik of Hyatt says: "In-room entertainment is already redundant. What people are increasingly doing is 'place-shifting'." This means bringing your own means of entertainment, whether data, music or video. Priznik adds: "They will use our infrastructure to enjoy that entertainment in the guestroom, so you'll see wifi speakers in the rooms, for instance."
Place-shifting is increasing with new technology such as Slingbox, which plugs into a digital device at home (your digital TV box, for instance) and allows you to watch your choice of home TV channels while away from home, using your laptop or an enabled connected device. Of course, such technologies are not widespread, and Peter Gowers of Intercontinental, cautions against following the crowd. "For me, the future is not about technology for the sake of technology. It's about what customers actually want. And whatever happens, we have to keep moving. However, research is vital. Think of all the people who installed the TV keyboards in every hotel room and now, no one uses them. So how do you place your bets?"
Yet more developments are also on the horizon. At Jumeirah properties in Dubai, the mix of corporate and leisure customers has powered a drive to become the first hotel group to spread wireless capability throughout the hotels. "My objective is to provide guests with the ability to roam within the network, which in our case means in other Jumeirah hotels within Dubai," says chief technology officer Joe Tesfai. "So if you stay in the Emirates Towers, for example, and pay for 24-hour access, when you visit the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, say, and you have your laptop with you, you can use it and be authenticated. That should be in place by early next year. The technology is there now, it's just a matter of the software being able to check that you have paid for the service."
Intercontinental Hotel Group is introducing a new service called Hotel Bills in the US, whereby its Priority Club members will be able to access and pay their bill online by typing in their membership number, thus bypassing reception when they leave. In which case, it won't only be the business centres that face extinction, but reception desks too. "We want to make travelling easier and more convenient," says Steve Sickel, the group's senior vice-president of multibrand and relationship marketing, "and that includes details such as the hotel bill and checkout process." Eventually it will be rolled out across the UK.
Raising the bar
Hotel brands are clearly striving to adapt to the needs of their customers, but consider their dilemma when planning new hotels. Hotel chains need to fund and install an infrastructure that can respond to change over a long period of time, yet in general, they do not want to invest large amounts of money in hidden infrastructure – especially when it could be spent instead on a conspicuous, super-stylish lobby. Price describes his job as looking at a small fraction of his guests who are at the leading edge. These are the "early adopters", and they are likely to be mostly business travellers. "Providing I cater for them, I am moving the bar for everyone," he says.
Once the world becomes wimax (with wifi provided over a large area) the technological possibilities will spread far and wide. Roger Binks of Marriott explains: "Then there's the opportunity to offer a hotel guest a wifi-capable phone, so they can roam about the city. I could see that having strong appeal to international travellers who might not have that technology with them."
Finn Schulz, vice-president of IT for Radisson SAS, which offers free internet access to all guests, says: "We are closer than ever to the merging of phone, TV and PC. In the future I see some sort of in-built media centre in the room at which you will be able to dock your iPod, access the internet and watch your home TV channels, as well as controlling your air-conditioning, etc, all from a central processor. The challenge is that the hardware has to be stable and not cost too much in maintenance."
When nothing works
What about help when things go wrong? At Shangri-La, this is where the technology butler steps in. "All our hotels have a technology butler," says Anand Rao. "In fact, there are two kinds: one deals with the rooms, the other with MICE business, because their needs are slightly different."
It's not a path every five-star brand has decided to follow. "We resist the term 'butlers'," says Nick Price of Mandarin Oriental. "I want someone who can do more than serve tea. They are highly skilled, highly trained technologists wearing a suit. They have degrees in computer science or similar, they are good communicators and they need to address the significant diversity of technology challenges they face every day. With a 500-room hotel, 25 per cent of it might be using some form of device, and as a result, a whole host of problems arise that will increase as the diversity of use increases."
Power-happy
If you pack light, the one thing that will annoy you is the various plugs and adapters you have to take with you to power all these devices. Vinke of Kempinski says: "In our newer hotels, we have multi-plugs on the desks that are hidden from view, usually on the side of the desk that can easily be reached. It works for now, but in future, it would be good for some cost-effective, easy- to-use and adaptable solution that works to all the international standards."
At Mandarin Oriental hotels, Price says the latest idea is to provide a USB cable and a USB socket next to a power socket that can supply 5 volts. Meanwhile, Priznik of Hyatt, says: "There are really exciting things happening in power, where you put your phone or iPod on top of a device and, through a coil-recharging process, you can keep them all running."
Yet with all this technology, the most important bit of equipment is the one we most often forget to take – a security cable. All the back-up in the world won't help us if the laptop is stolen when we're out of the room, and while a few far-sighted companies now have laptop-sized safes, complete with a charging plug in the back, many hotels have yet to upgrade the old room safes (some still don't have any safes at all). In such cases, a simple security wire, costing £15, may be the best purchase you have ever made. Not particularly high-tech, but a reliable way of making sure you don't drop that valuable connection.
BUSINESS CENTRES RIP?
As a result of all the work being done in guestrooms, business centres are being used less and less. So will they disappear altogether?
Peter Gowers of Intercontinental Hotel Group: "In the past, business centres used to be absolutely packed on a Thursday night. In the last five years, that has changed." Brian Pratt of Sheraton agrees: "I do not believe business centres will be there in five years. Instead, there will be a device allowing people to print in their rooms, and most PDAs will allow people to look at documents and print."
John Priznik of Hyatt: "My personal opinion is that the business centre will change significantly, and we'll see more product enablement in the guestroom itself."
Not everyone believes they are redundant, however. "We still believe there is demand for business centres," says Finn Schulz of Radisson SAS. "Or at least a couple of terminals in the lobby area, connected to a printer, with a USB port so that guests can access Microsoft applications and use memory sticks if they want to."
The function of a business centre has changed, Anand Rao of Shangri-La says: "The business centre has changed its character – people don't go there in the same way as before, but they still want to print business cards, or burn something on a CD-rom or print documents and photos onto a DVD."
BREAKING THE LAW
Using the high-speed internet connection provided in your hotel room in theory you will be able to download video content and watch your home television. However, certain countries monitor, and block, these attempts. In countries where public information is restricted, regular travellers will already have come across the restrictions – when trying to get Skype internet phones to work in certain regions, for instance, or receiving encrypted emails only to find that the service grinds to a halt. As well as governments blocking certain traffic, hotels play their part. At present, most chains block illegal uses (for instance, in Germany the Kempinski chain blocks internet sites with Nazi content, because of the law of that country). In the UAE, adult content is illegal, so hotels do not offer it as part of their in-room entertainment. Attempts to download it on your browser would likewise be unsuccessful.
