NEW YORK— While a room night may cost a little more than the average property, the Mandarin Oriental New York hotel here certainly tries to give guests their money’s worth, not only with its hospitality, but with cutting-edge technology amenities. And while the hotel’s information technology manager, Eric Cruz, agreed that the property is clearly at the forefront of lodging technology, he hinted that this might only be the beginning for the luxury hotel. From flat-panel, liquid crystal display televisions and high-definition TV channels to voice over Internet protocol phones and wireless Internet access, the Mandarin Oriental provides its guests with amenities that are not so typically found in their homes. Consequently, Cruz said that the feedback from those guests has been overwhelming in the year-and-a-half that the hotel has been open. “People really love it,” he said. “It’s what keeps the guests in their rooms. It’s very rare that you will find a hotel that provides such a variety of technology concepts.” The in-room television stands as the source for much of the technological focus. Cruz said that each of the hotel’s 48 premium suites offers a 40-inch LCD television in the living room, a 29-inch LCD TV in the bedroom and a 15-inch LCD in the bathroom. In each of the 203 standard rooms, there is a 29-inch LCD TV in the bedroom/living room and a 15-inch LCD in the bathroom. “The driving factor behind the deployment of these TVs is that the high-end traveler doesn’t want to come to a hotel and see a CRT (cathode-ray tube) TV model,” Cruz explained. “So we wanted to make it more welcoming for our guests and make it feel more like home because it is becoming more commonplace to find LCD TVs in the home with surround sound. You don’t want to offer something worse in a hotel.” Cruz added that the hotel was able to structure a good bulk purchase deal with the maker of all of the hotel’s TVs, Samsung, which also provides the DVD players found in each room. And when guests turn on their TVs, they are able to access 100 channels, 10 of which are in high-definition format. “On top of that, we offer high definition cinema and new releases of everything available through video-on-demand,” Cruz mentioned. “The rooms also have an auxiliary panel where guests can plug in their laptop, camcorder, iPod or almost anything.” Each guest can also access his or her customized welcome screen via a TV. Through that screen, guests can pick up their voice mail and text messages, look at their folio and everything that has been charged to the room and also check-out. Furthermore, guests can surf the Internet through the TV via a high-speed service. Parents can also put a lock on the TV for their children or initiate certain parental controls. The Internet is also accessible wirelessly throughout the hotel, according to Cruz. While some hotels have security issues surrounding their Wi-Fi Internet service, Cruz said that the Mandarin Oriental does not because each floor has an independent virtual local area network. As a result, Internet traffic on one floor is not grouped together with traffic on another floor. Additionally, the guest and hotel administration networks are separate, so guests can’t hack into the hotel’s system via the guest network. Despite the fact that the hotel has high-end offerings on both TV and the Internet, the hotel’s most leading-edge tech amenity may still be its voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP) phones that are in each guestroom. Cisco Systems is the hotel’s VOIP supplier. The vendor’s 7940 model phones are available in standard rooms, and the 7970 model is installed in each of the premium suites. The standard room phones have a black and white display and allow a guest to check the weather, make and check reservations, enable or disable the “Do Not Disturb” function for the room and set up a wake up call. The suites’ phones go a step or two beyond the 7940 phones. They have color screens and allow the gu
