AFTER an invigorating lap swim, guests at the newly opened Four Seasons Silicon Valley Hotel will soon be able to flip-flop over to a poolside cabana to watch "Oprah" on a wall-mounted, 42-inch plasma TV and use the same screen to check Google's stock price on the hotel's wireless Internet network.
At the Peninsula New York, patrons can set alarm clocks or adjust temperature, lighting and TV volume controls by pressing keys on the electronic bedside control panel. If they want to sleep in, they can depress the panel's Do Not Disturb key that activates a light outside the door and silences the doorbell.
Hotel conveniences have come a long way in the last few years. Apple iPods and other forms of mobile media are changing lifestyles. And they're causing an electronic whirlwind in the hospitality industry as hotels scramble to unwrap the latest in-room innovations that match or surpass what consumers have at home.
Hotels such as the Peninsula Hotels chain are running research and development labs to determine how technology can enhance a guest's stay. At its incubator in the Aberdeen district of Hong Kong, a staff of 19 engineers and designers is trying to create the Peninsula's dream room of the future.
Keeping customers happy is why hotel technology managers must stay ahead of the game, says Doug Rice, executive director of Hotel Technologies Next Generation, a Chicago-based industry association of hotel information-technology professionals and vendors.
"Generation Y consumers are well-traveled, and they have lived the good life," Rice said. "This teen generation cannot even conceive of not having WiFi." Baby boomers are almost as dependent. They, too, are tethered to their Palms, BlackBerries and laptops. Chains, independent hotels, even bed and breakfasts have found they need to offer Internet access to compete.
The 50-year-old Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort in the Santa Ynez Valley prides itself on operating "telephone- and television-free" rooms.
By day, visitors enjoy such Norman Rockwell-style pleasures as horseback riding, fly fishing and canoeing on this 10,000-acre cattle ranch. By night (or any time for that matter), cowpokes who can't kick the technology habit can whip out their laptops and check e-mail using the resort's WiFi network, which was installed in February.
"The newer guests have been demanding it," said Sherrie FitzGerald, director of sales and marketing. "We finally took the plunge. We had to listen to the concerns of our guests."
