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London hotels go high tech to serve businessmen

"This type of system is at the leading edge of hotel room technology."

Alex Lristou, a partner with the Travel Services Group

Business travelers tired of lugging their laptops around should come here to get a glimpse of a less cumbersome future.

All over the world, in response to demand for the high-technology amenities that their guests enjoy in their homes and offices, hotels are racing to install high-speed Internet access, e-mail and a variety of wireless and digital services. The Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York, owned by Hartz Mountain Industries, for instance, has in-room broadband Internet access and wireless keyboards so that customers can surf the Net from bed. Each room at the Sandy Lane Resort Hotel in Barbados has a 107cm Panasonic plasma TV screen on which guests can roam the Web.

And the Plaza Hotel in New York, part of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain, equips each room with a stand-alone personal computer. By the end of July, all of the Fairmont's 38 properties will offer wireless Internet access in public spaces, enabling guests to check their e-mail messages while having cocktails in the bar, for instance.

Now, several hotels in London have moved to the forefront of this trend by combining fully equipped personal computers, high-speed Internet access, and digital movies and music on demand in one unit, industry specialists say. The systems are often paired with flat-screen television sets that provide all the clarity of a PC without the problem of reformatting pages to fit traditional Web-TV services.

Designed by Neos Interactive, a privately held British company that bought the technology in 1999 from a group of researchers at Trinity College Dublin, these all-in-one systems combine, in the space of a traditional television cabinet, a computer, scanner, printer and fax machine. Using a wireless keyboard, guests can collect e-mail messages, surf the Internet, download digital movies and music on demand, and even listen to local radio stations from cities around the world.

The Lanesborough, part of St. Regis Hotels and Resorts, became the first hotel in London to install the system two years ago in each of its 95 rooms. Now, the Dorchester, managed by the Dorchester Group, which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, is installing the same system in all of the hotel's 250 rooms as part of a broader refurbishment. Fourteen rooms have the system, with 40 expected to be up and running by the end of July and the rest in September.

"This type of system is at the leading edge of hotel room technology," said Alex Lristou, a partner with the Travel Services Group of the consulting firm Accenture.

Lesley Ashplant, a consultant with Ernst & Young, said it was becoming the norm for high-end hotels to offer high-speed Internet access and videos on demand. "But," she added, "actually providing a PC and having it all integrated in one unit is quite unusual."

Since the systems are custom-designed, hotels choose the hardware separately. The Dorchester, for instance, is installing NEC 107cm plasma screens in 90 rooms and 71cm Loewe sets in the others. Rooms will have a Compaq computer with a Pentium4 processor complete with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. No top-notch entertainment system is viable today without broadband, and so the Dorchester and the Lanesborough installed fiber-optic cables that provide a high-speed Internet connection. Guests pay a flat fee of ?15, or US$22.83, for access over a 24-hour period, rather than higher local phone rates.

Executives who are able to eke out a few moments of leisure can choose from 60 movies on demand for ?10 each, or US$15.22, for unlimited access over a 24-hour period. Those in need of a little background music while they work can download up to 5,000 tracks (?3.50 over 24 hours), or tune into local radio stations over the Internet.

New Yorker Robert Bradford, who is a regular guest at the Dorchester, was impressed. "I've never seen anything like this in a hotel. You get local radio stations. I've been listening to TMPC in Los Angeles, and getting New York weather and the latest stock quotes from Bloomberg Radio."
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