High-tech hospitality

>Book a room at one of the enterprising hotels touting high-speed Internet access.

By Susan Breidenbach
Network World, 3/30/98

Embattled road warriors, take heart: Hotels are beginning to bring high-speed connectivity services one step closer to reality.

With help from Microsoft Corp. and assorted network, cable TV and service providers, the hospitality industry is trying to make it easy for guests to connect to their corporate networks back home.

The industry is clearly taking a shotgun approach. Influenced by partners with a variety of vested interests, a handful of enterprising hotels are spraying the market with a variety of network solutions and are hoping that at least one will hit the mark.

Some initiatives target the one-third of business travelers who carry notebook computers, while others focus on the majority who don't. Solutions are based on what the hotels' partners have to sell, including Ethernet, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable TV, ISDN and wireless. Many schemes entail scary reconfigurations of notebook adapter and device driver settings that could spell trouble when road warriors return to home base.

The bleeding edge

Most hotels are starting from a rather primitive technological base. Many still use proprietary systems, and about half haven't upgraded their wiring infrastructures in at least 25 years.

"The cable TV coax is in fairly good shape, but the telecommunications wiring is mostly Category 3," says Jules Sieburgh, vice president of hotel systems for InterContinental Hotels Corp. and co-chair of the American Hotel & Motel Association's telecommunications and technology committee.

Because hotels avoid investments that don't have a clear return, many are relying on partners such as in-room entertainment companies to install enhanced connectivity amenities. These third parties tend to be consumer- oriented and sometimes don't understand the needs of business travelers.

A few technically sophisticated hotels already provide their guests with Ethernet connectivity. The AT&T Learning Center conference facility and hotel in Basking Ridge, N.J., has wired its 171 guest rooms with Category 5 cable and fiber, although the latter is not being used yet.

"I walked in and my room had Ethernet, ISDN and two [plain old telephone service] lines," said John Morency, vice president of network solutions for Renaissance Worldwide, a consultancy in Newton, Mass. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The facility had all the amenities of the big hotel chains, but all this connectivity, too." Similarly, the Washington Duke Inn, a 164-room hotel on the Duke University campus in Durham, N.C., is an Ethernet-ready facility. Guests can plug their notebooks into the RJ-45 ports in their rooms and get high-speed Internet access.

Both of these solutions assume that the guest arrives with an Ethernet adapter, and they work best if the guest's corporate network has implemented Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Adapters configured with static IP addresses, as many still are, must be manually reconfigured for the hotel network. Guests who check out without resetting their adapters won't be able to connect to their corporate networks when they get home.

This is too much of a hassle for most folks to bother with, even if they know how to do it. One industry executive, Richard Kerr, vice president and general manager of travel and hospitality services for Litton Enterprises Solutions, a systems integrator in Woodland Hills, Calif., concedes, "When I visit our field offices and need to connect back to the corporate network, I don't take the time to connect to the local network if a dial-up phone line is available."

The AT&T Learning Center and the Washington Duke Inn are coping with these support problems, but they are in rarefied environments that serve network-savvy clientele. The more typical hotel offering Ethernet connectivity would probably have to keep a "cybercierge" on duty around the clock - an expensive proposition.

"In most hotels, connectivity must be totally transparent," says Robert Harbison, chief technology officer for StarVox, Inc., a computer telephony start-up in San Jose, Calif. "Until DHCP is fully standardized and fully adopted, this will not be the case with Ethernet adapters."

Ethernet with a twist

While newly constructed buildings have plenty of Category 5 cable, most hotels must figure out ways to make do with less. Microsoft Corp. is partnering with San Diego-based Internet kiosk provider Atcom/Info and CAIS Internet/CGX Corp. to offer guests a high-speed Internet access system that uses existing telephone wires. The service uses CGX's OverVoice technology to link Ethernet data ports to the Internet over the same wire that carries voice calls, bypassing the PBX.

The CGX infrastructure works with Iport software co-developed by Atcom/Info and Microsoft Consulting Services. A Microsoft BackOffice application, Iport provides the user interface and can integrate with the hotel's billing system.

Like other Ethernet solutions, Iport raises the same adapter configuration issues. Currently you need a DHCP-configured adapter to use Iport. However, a static-IP version is in the works. According to Stan Julien, hospitality industry marketing manager for Microsoft, the Iport software can change and then restore the address settings for a notebook's adapter.

"I'm very skeptical about that - I'll believe it when I see it," says InterContinental's Sieburgh, expressing a sentiment many network administrators seem to share.

"If this could be done cleanly, it is a very exciting development for business travelers," says Sandra Lieb-Gieger, manager of end-user support and operations for Andersen Consulting, Inc., in New York. "But the idea of software that actually modifies a notebook's configuration makes me very nervous, both from a network administration and technical support standpoint.

"A lot of our customers are not highly technical, and a warning that using this service will change their configurations may not worry them. When they get to the next office and can't connect to the network, they will blame us," Lieb-Gieger says.

Microsoft, Atcom/Info and CGX have begun commercial trials of Iport in several hotels around the country (see graphic). General release is scheduled for midyear.

Another in-room access solution eliminates wiring altogether. CommUnique, Inc. plans to ship CommUnique Wireless Internet Access in the third quarter. The box will sit on a desk in the hotel room and provide 38.4K bit/sec Internet access. It includes a floppy disk with the necessary device driver, as well as an RS-232 cable that connects to the notebook's serial port.

"It's an unmetered solution, but if the hotel can bump the room rate up $5 when the boxes are installed, it will generate net revenue in the first month," says John Velie, vice president of marketing and sales for CommUnique, in Alameda, Calif.

The Four Seasons Hotel, in Austin, Texas, uses wireless technology to link Ethernet segments on guest floors to a T-1 Internet connection. Aironet Wireless Communications, Inc.'s ARLAN 3000 LAN modules form a wireless backbone. There are wireless transmitters on every other floor, in restaurants and meeting rooms, and on patios.

Traveling light

But network solutions aren't much use to the majority of business travelers who still don't bring notebooks with them. Some hotels are catering to this segment by putting PCs, network computers or dumb terminals in rooms, or by using the television as an Internet display.

Veicon Technology, of Beaverton, Ore., offers hotels a thin-client Wyse Technology, Inc. terminal to install in guest rooms, conference centers and meeting rooms. This competes with cable TV solutions from companies such as On Command Corp., the leading provider of in-room entertainment systems.

On Command's solution employs a wireless infrared keyboard that guests can use to control the TV display. Hotels can cache and organize popular Web sites into a menu interface so guests can access them more quickly. On Command also is developing a cable modem add-on that will work with notebook users' Ethernet adapters. You can try the service at Hilton Hotels Corp. properties in San Jose, Calif., East Brunswick, N.J., and McLean, Va.

Sprint Corp. and Vail Resorts, Inc.'s on-mountain business center in the Eagle's Nest Lodge at Vail Mountain, in Colo., makes it easy to place that deal-making conference call or critical fax after you schuss down the ski slopes. The facility in-cludes six PCs and a videoconferencing station, Bloomberg terminal, printer, fax machine and phones, and an Internet connection via a T-1 link. Usage is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Paying up

Count on opening your wallet to pay for enhanced connectivity services, unless hotels can figure out another way to generate revenue from them. The San Jose Hyatt puts a PC and a Hewlett-Packard Co. OfficeJet printer/fax/ copier in its rooms along with a notebook connection. Guests can pay 20 cents per minute or a flat rate of $6.95 per day. About 10% to 15% of the hotel's guests use the service.

The Claremont Resort, in Oakland, Calif., has Wyse terminals in 50 of its rooms. Guests have to pay $10 per day to use them. About 10% to 20% of the guests utilize the capability. The hotel charges up to $600 per day for T-1 service to its state-of-the-art conference rooms, which are very popular with Silicon Valley companies holding off-site meetings.

Other hotels simply hope that enhanced connectivity will help win your business. San Fran-cisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Inc. operates a chain of boutique hotels on the West Coast. The company stocks its minibars with diskettes and other computer supplies and is rolling out the Iport solution in several locations.

"The majority of our business is corporate, and technology is now a necessity for the corporate traveler," says Stephen Pinetti, vice president of sales and marketing for Kimpton. "We make money by getting people to come back because they love our facility and services, and the Iport service has already generated additional measurable business." He estimates that 4% to 5% of the guests who check into the Iport-equipped hotels come specifically because of the new service.

Clearly, hotels are grasping at straws as they try to move into cyberspace. But their efforts are motivated by more than guest demands for better network connections. A more pressing concern is the ever-increasing volume of data calls that are going through their PBXes and tying up voice lines.

A 10-to-one guest-to-line ratio at hotels is common. While the average voice call is 15 minutes, the typical data call lasts 40 to 60 minutes. This growing burden is coming at a time when telephone credit cards are squeezing hotel revenues from phone charges. Some hotels are installing more trunks and using a concept called threshold billing, in which guests are charged for calls that exceed a certain time limit.

Power to the people

Business travelers are quick to point to the obvious - high-speed network connections don't do any good without a power source for your notebook. Hotel rooms often hide electrical outlets behind heavy headboards on beds, or place them where only housekeeping finds them of much use.

"I never travel without a 25-foot electrical extension cord," says one marketing executive who logs more than 200,000 miles of business travel each year. "Then I never have to crawl under a bed more than twice. But I forget them in hotel rooms so often that I buy them by the dozen."

Electrical outlets are extremely scarce in airport gates where business travelers spend a lot of time waiting for flights. One per gate is not an uncommon ratio, and road warriers fight over who gets to sit on the floor and use them. With some airlines, you will have better luck onboard the plane.

More than a year ago, American Airlines, Inc. started installing 12-volt power ports in first-class and business-class seats on air-craft used on long-haul flights. The company is making outlets available in coach, too, but it will take several years to get to the entire fleet.

Although in-flight power outlets may be fairly common in a few years, don't expect Internet connections to follow any time soon. You'll still need to get out your credit card and use the data ports in onboard pay phones.

But airlines are trying to make frequent-flyer lounges and airport gate waiting areas more conducive to computing. American Airlines is partnering with HP to put business centers in all of American's domestic Admirals Clubs. The first 29 centers have already opened and offer HP computers, printers and copiers, as well as diskettes and other supplies. The centers are available free to club members on a first-come, first-served basis.

GTE Corp. is working with American and other airlines to install Internet kiosks in airport lounges and terminals. These cyberbooths offer one or two self-contained access stations that provide 128K bit/sec Internet connections for 33 cents per minute. Some of the units offer enhanced telephones with data ports.

According to a study based on 10 cyberbooths at the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, there were 25,420 paid uses of the Internet access stations during an eight-month period ending June 30, 1997. One-fourth of the uses were repeat business, indicating a high level of customer satisfaction.

"Usage continues to increase," a GTE spokesman says. "Each unit is used two to three hours per day now, and the average user spends 10 to 12 minutes online."

Missing the mark

Many of the proposals that connectivity-solution providers are cooking up for the hospitality industry assume that business travelers want dedicated high-speed Internet access. At the moment, that may not be the case. "I'm doing e-mail and file transfers, not videoconferencing," says Richard Close, senior director of Interliant, Inc.'s Education Services division in Houston and a veteran road warrior who logs more than 100,000 miles of business travel each year. "Even doing Lotus Notes replication over modem connections, speed is not an issue." To accommodate occasional guest requirements for high-speed connections, Close suggests that hotels provide a few high-speed stations in a central location that is open 24 hours.

But providers are clinging tenaciously to the belief that supply will create demand. "My impression is that enhanced connectivity is more important to the companies that want to install sophisticated technology in hotel rooms than it is to the business travelers who are using these rooms," says Carlo Wolff, technology editor for Lodging Hospitality magazine, in Cleveland.

"We don't see a lot of demand for it yet," agrees Litton's Kerr. "Business travelers very rarely access the Internet for surfing. They want a separate data line, and if they have one they can connect to the Internet or anywhere else. It's an acceptable solution, and for the moment, it's free."

Although Internet virtual private networks (VPN) are becoming a popular way to connect remote employees to the corporate network, many businesses are sticking to more private and secure remote access methods. And companies that do run VPNs may not benefit from high access speeds.

"DSL speeds in my hotel room don't do me any good when I'm going through routers on the Internet that are throttling me down," says StarVox's Harbison. "Until we get quality-of-service levels on the Internet backbone - determinate routing, determinate latency, determinate bandwidth - 56K bit/sec modems are all we need."

"The big wave won't be this year or next," says Geoff Griswold, director of information technology for Chervenak, Keane & Co., a New York-based consultancy specializing in technology usage in the hospitality industry. "The technology is available, but the hotels aren't going to invest in it that quickly. However, in five years Internet access in guest rooms will be as common as TV is today," he predicts.