Hotels Upgrading Internet Access

Culture

from the sounds-great dept

The last few trips I’ve had to take have been annoying for the difficulty I’ve had in finding readily available broadband (preferably wireless) access at hotels. Back in March I spent an entire morning calling many hotels in the Washington DC area with no luck. It seems that (finally!) hotels are beginning to realize that they need to offer such features if they want to attract business travelers. The NY Times (registration, blah blah) has an article about what some hotels are doing. There are some that are even installing computers in every room. However, the most impressive (and which the article focuses on) are some hotels in London that are installing a complete system that includes a plasma flat panel display that acts as both a TV and a monitor. It comes with broadband access and a wireless keyboard (perfect for surfing from bed). The systems include some basic applications like Microsoft Office. And, of course, they tie into a video-on-demand system so people can order up whatever movie they’d like. Sounds fairly impressive. Of course, I’d just settle for decent WiFi access in hotels before I start hunting down those with such a fancy setup.