With more wireless infrastructures being added, hotel guestrooms, lobbies and business centers have been undergoing rapid design shifts. Instead of lofty, stark designs, some lobbies are being shaped with intimately scaled seating areas and plenty of plug-in spots to gather around the laptop. Front desks have shrunk from yards-long impositions to become more approachable, one-person pods augmented by self-check-in kiosks and electronic information-boards. In guestrooms, less-bulky equipment has contributed to clean, less-cluttered interiors where high-definition LCD TVs double as art frames, and connectivity panels allow guests to view/hear data from laptops, iPods and MP3 players on the TV. As well, cutting-edge business centers are no longer sterile white spaces, but colorfully creative idea-hatcheries with unconventional seating, lighting and video screen capabilities.

Operators leading the high-tech hotel charge include MTM Luxury Lodging, The Peninsula Hotels and Marriott International, among others. All have been busy “future-proofing” properties—installing wireless infrastructures that can support high-tech capabilities and devices for now, and that will adapt as technologies evolve and emerge in the future.

As they put new infrastructures in place, hoteliers also have been asking hard questions about just which devices should be added. Does providing Zunes and Xboxes with a room become redundant, given the gadgets guests tote along on their travels? “How much tech gadgetry is too much?” asks Ed Goldman, vice president of information resources technology and operations planning for Marriott International. “There really needs to be a business case for each device provided.”

Ease-of-use is also a tech-design issue. “We are very conscious that we need to come up with tech solutions that are easily understood by the guest,” says James Simkins, executive vice president for MTM. Using video screens on telephones to provide concierge services and other features, for example, proved challenging for guests at MTM’s Hotel 1000 in Seattle. “People aren’t used to interacting with the phone that way,” Simkins says. As a result, the company plans to move the concierge services and other room-control functions to the television in future properties. “People are much more comfortable navigating with the television remote,” he says.

In Chicago, Hotel Sax has a technology butler to answer questions at The Studio gaming room and computer lounge. But the hotel is still tweaking aids to help guests navigate all of the techie features in its just-opened, US$5,000-a-night Chairman Suite. “There is a lot for the guest to figure out,” says Director of Marketing Adam Kaplan. “It will be a while before we know how guests are interacting with the technology so that we can configure it for ease of use.”

Meanwhile, Marriott, which dramatically redesigned its Courtyard lobbies to fit guests’ desire for more places to gather with laptops, seeks to “enable” guests’ natural techie inclinations, says Brian King, vice president and global brand manager for Courtyard. Stand-up computer stations dedicated for printing boarding passes signal that these computers are not meant to be lingered over. Semi-circular media booths with big chairs, individual flat-screen TVs and lots of electrical outlets give privacy and encourage longer stays. The space speaks a language understood by all. “Technology is a great barrier buster,” King says. “It enables common behaviors around the globe.”

Sheraton

Sheraton

“The Link @ Sheraton,” shown here in Bangkok, will roll out globally to 180 Sheraton lobbies by year-end 2008. The lounge-within-lobby co-branding effort with Microsoft offers free Wi-Fi and Internet-enabled computer stations, customized computers with live Internet search, map, e-mail and information services. “Link” computers also will have Webcams, allowing guests to have free video-chats or e-mail video postcards. 

The Dolder Grand

NYLO Hotels

Mirage Las Vegas

The Dolder Grand, Zürich
It looks like a round aluminum alarm clock with a mini-video screen on top, but The Dolder Grand’s new universal remote from Bang & Olufsen does a lot more than beep. The device allows guests to control all audio/visual equipment and electronic systems in the room—curtains, blinds, lighting, temperature and TV.

NYLO Hotels
Launched last year, the NYLO brand seeks a young, tech-savvy business traveler with its edgy, loft-like design and free Wi-Fi access throughout. Lobby kiosks allow for quick self-check-in, the bar has Nintendo Wii systems for social gaming and the company uses a Web-based utility-managed software system to track energy conservation and cut consumption throughout properties. Lights turn on automatically when guests enter and shut off when they leave.

Mirage Las Vegas
Part of a US$110 million remodel that unveils in August, guestrooms at The Mirage in Las Vegas will include high-speed Internet access and a dedicated media hub in each room. The hub allows guests to use the 42-inch (107-cm) LCD television as a viewing/listening device for laptops, iPods, MP3 players, DVD players, PlayStations, Xboxes, digital cameras or digital video cameras.

The Peninsula Tokyo

The Penninsula Tokyo

Hotel Sax Chicago

With its own 20-engineer Electronic Services Department, Peninsula Hotels, Hong Kong, stays at the leading edge with guestroom innovations. Among them in Tokyo: Complimentary broadband Internet access in guestrooms, Internet radio allowing guests to listen to tunes in their home language, highly sophisticated wired and mobile phones, bedside lights that fade gently to black when the guest turns them out at night and come back on when a nighttime phone call comes in. In the bathroom, touching a button adds spa-like features such as mood lighting, music, and do-not-disturb commands for the phone and doorbell. The television has a steam-free screen, and a digital clock set into the mirror vanishes when the lighting is low. Three bathroom phones are also hands-free and filter out the sound of running water and bathroom echo.

Hotel Sax Chicago
Giving guests the chance to connect with technology and other travelers, The Studio at Hotel Sax Chicago has it all. Four 32-inch (81-cm) high-definition flat-panel TV screens for playing Xbox games and Guitar Hero fill the high-energy side of the room, which alternately pulses blue or red lighting. The lounge’s quieter side includes a couch-fronted home-theater style set up that runs movies or games. Along a counter in the middle, three PCs let others e-mail or search the Internet. 

Hotel Sax’s business center boardroom allows sophisticated video conferencing. Up to eight users (each with their own laptop cable) can display work on the main video screen without cord switching mid-meeting. Other creative conference rooms include the “No-Cell-Phone” zone, a let-down-and-relax space with padded wall seats and a waterfall.

VIP suites at Hotel Sax feature Xbox 360s, a four-screen home-theater experience and Zune media players which—when docked—can be heard throughout the suite through a distributed audio system. Home automation software sets lighting and temperature. Twelve more “Entertainment Technology” rooms—and eventually several dozen at the hotel—also will be equipped with Xbox 360s, Zunes and Dell laptops. Linking it all together? All of these computer systems are interconnected so that guests can game against each other room-to-room. 

Courtyard by Marriot

The Regent Palms, Turks & Cairos

The Liberty Hotel, Boston

Courtyard by Marriott
High-definition touch-screen “Go Boards” located in Courtyard lobbies give guests quick news headlines, weather information and act as virtual concierges. These are planned for 700 hotels around the globe. Marriott’s new Courtyard lobbies feature laptop-friendly furniture throughout and communal tables in the café to encourage lingering and socializing. Couches with task lamps in the library area give guests yet another choice. The new lobby design will be fully rolled out by year-end 2010. 

The Regent Palms, Turks & Caicos
It took four months to get them all installed, but Internet radios offering 10,000 international stations are now available in every room at The Regent Palms, Turks & Caicos.

The Liberty Hotel, Boston
The Liberty Hotel, Boston, is built without coaxial cable and runs on a fully converged IP network. When multiple levels of the lobby’s balconies fill with late-night revelers, servers use handheld order-taking devices to speed drink service. In guestrooms, phones are voice-over-IP. Media hubs connect MP3 players, DVD players, CD players or laptops to TVs. When not in use, TV screens display a slideshow of a guest’s choice of art images, set to music.