Inn-teresting technologies

On-site health clubs and fluffy robes don't cut it anymore. For the first time in recent years, upscale hotels are pumping resources into technology to attract discerning travelers.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers and reported in The Wall Street Journal, the hotel industry spent a record $300 million during the past two years outfitting rooms and common areas with high-tech gadgets. Some of the high-tech amenities may speak more of novelty than necessity, but hotels see these innovations as must-haves for attracting customers, especially business travelers.

Guests might appreciate smart fax machines that keep quiet when they sense the absence of room light or transmitters throughout hotel grounds that allow wireless Internet access–even poolside. Other useful amenities include phone systems that simultaneously ring your room’s phone and your cell phone and high-speed T1 Internet connections in every room. But how many repeat customers do the hotels expect from bathroom phones that muffle background noise or waterproof, remote-controlled bathtub televisions?

Photo © 2001 PhotoDisc.

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