AURORA, IL— An interesting item has been added to the complimentary breakfast menu at the Comfort Suites City Center here— plug-and-play Internet access. What’s more, this gratis guest amenity is not confined to the breakfast area; indeed, with all 82 guestrooms featuring free high-speed Internet access, this seven-year-old Choice Hotels International property has taken a quantum leap out of the usual limited-service hotel ranks. According to owner/operator Rocky Pintozzi, there are a number of reasons why he chose to offer free high-speed Internet access at his property… not the least of which being “it’s what guests have come to expect.” Along these lines, the second-generation hotelier noted that while the complimentary offering of such technology is not yet a Choice Hotels mandate, he nonetheless has heard talk that free high-speed Internet access may ultimately become a brand standard for Comfort and Clarion properties. In the interim, Pintozzi maintained this offering measures up as a standard feature at his property… and will likely become somewhat prevalent among his competitors in the surrounding area. “I’ve been saying it for four years now: we’ve got to look at offering high-speed Internet access the same way we think of free doughnuts and the availability of non-smoking rooms,” he said. In terms of technical specifics, Pintozzi pointed out the Comfort Suites City Center relies on Viator Networks for the “solution” and Ameritech as the local high-speed service provider. (Pintozzi owns another property in the area that currently lists AT&T as its service provider.) As the owner/operator explained, Ameritech got him a “most affordable monthly rate” for the DSL hook-up incorporating the equipment purchased from Viator. According to Pintozzi: “We didn’t just want to build our own network… not with the emphasis our government and corporate clients put on security for their private networks.” Moreover, he claimed “wireless” has similarly not demonstrated the same level of security inherent to “wired” Internet-access installations. Referring to some properties which have cut no-cost deals for Internet access, Pintozzi— by dint of his chairmanship of Choice’s Technology Committee— contended: “We’ve found the middle-man concept doesn’t work. It’s been shown to be too cost-prohibitive, and offers no sustainability. As such,” he added, “licensees inexorably have to look for something amenity-based.” As he explained: “The best achieved take-rate [for the middle-man concept]has been shown to be in the range of 3%. Furthermore,” he noted, “it was found properties couldn’t expense it, what with a $9.95 daily rate proving to be too big a bite… particularly when measured against typical [Comfort] daily rates.” In the long run, Pintozzi claimed the offering of high-speed Internet access has to be considered as a marketing tool and not as a potential stream of incremental revenue. Some might still be content to “drag their feet” when it comes to incurring expenses along these lines, what with so much discussion of “wireless” poised to replaced hard-wired set-ups. To this, Pintozzi responded: “Our property was already positioned to be wired for high-speed Internet access. This saved us a considerable amount of money… as did the fact we were able to do the bulk of the re-wiring work in-house, so our overall cost came to considerably less than $100 per room.” Other ways and means of keeping the cost down, according to Pintozzi, include the fact Viator provides a toll-free 800 number for help with and inquiries about the system in place… though, to a great extent, it was pointed out such dial-up assistance has not really been all that necessary. “We’ve found that, in addition to our own understanding of the system [and the problems that might occur], our guests are pretty tech-savvy themselves.” As such, he said they’re able (in most cases) to do their own trouble-shooting. When questioned about the next step some other ho
