I?ve always liked Kinkos. It?s one of those places where it seems like anything can happen. They?ve got those big, white counters, fax machines, copiers, computers, even a Fedex drop off. I think they even serve coffee there. But I wasn?t too happy to be in Kinkos on my recent trip to Phoenix to attend the American Hotel/Motel Association?s annual meeting. It happened like this. For some? what seemed at the time, bizarre? reason, I couldn?t e-mail from the room in my hotel, which is part of a major chain. And I needed to, because we were closing an issue of HOTEL BUSINESS? and I was on deadline. What I was trying to file was, ironically, my technology report, which was, even more ironically, about America Online COO Bob Pittman?s address to the AH&MA audience about preparing for a technological future. Getting A Line Outside The hotel in which I was staying did not yet offer high-speed Internet access, but I didn?t need that. I was ready to take anything, even a basic, traditional dial tone out of the building. I had a fax machine in the room, which had a data port. I tried using that several times, but it didn?t work. So I used the data port on the phone on the desk. That didn?t work, either. It was getting late in the evening. I was getting nervous. The phone rang. The hotel operator had been getting emergency calls from my room for the past 20 minutes, she said. I couldn?t explain that one, it sounded like some techno-glitch. I told her it could have been because I was trying, unsuccessfully, to dial out of the room using the data port. ?Hmm,? she said. ?The phone next to the bed is supposed to work better.? That didn?t work either, and finally, one late-night hotel operator said it was because so many people were trying to dial out of their rooms at the same time. So I got up at 2 a.m. to give it another try. Forget about it. The next morning I went to the business center, but there was a long line. From the comments I heard I wasn?t the only one having trouble e-mailing from my room. After trying every other possibility, and complaining to everyone possible, I asked the concierge for a suggestion as to what to do. So there I was at Kinkos, trying to send my story to my office, while the AH&MA conference was going on blocks away. I hear I missed some good stuff. I actually enjoyed my time at Kinkos. There was a nice, big window near the computer I ended up using, so I got to see a lot of people walk by during their lunch hour. I got a little slice of Phoenix life I might not have gotten if I were over at the conference. I even had some coffee. In fact, I even had a moment of enlightenment while I was sitting there, smelling the pizza that was cooking at the pizzeria next door while my stomach growled. I had become one of those demanding consumers, a consumer who has no patience for hotels that don?t offer the technological amenities that should have become standard by now. I had become an irate consumer, who had decided not to stay at this particular brand of hotel until I heard they were up and running not only with high-speed Internet access in every room, but a fax machine that didn?t cut off my phone calls if a fax started coming in. And a business center that can accommodate more than three people at a time. Catching Up To Speed Hotels have to get with the program. We?re pretty much in the middle of the year 2000. In-room technology is no longer a buzzword, it?s a reality. And hotels, especially those that serve major convention centers, cannot market themselves as offering all of the modern conveniences if their definition of modern hearkens back to the 20th century. These hotels can?t call themselves ?high tech? if they can?t handle a large group of hospitality industry executives who want to sign on to the Internet after a long day at a trade show. Or at 2 a.m. for that matter.
