BALTIMORE— Feeling the competitive pressure and not wanting to be left behind, Marriott International is readying a proposal to its franchisees to make high-speed Internet access a standard in Marriott brand hotels. Showing the importance and the urgency to get HSIA installed in Marriott brand hotels— specifically its select-service hotels such as Courtyard, SpringHill Suites and Fairfield Inn and extended-stay brands Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites— Marriott executives made a big push to approximately 500 hotel owners/operators, vendor suppliers and designers and architects at its Link 2002 conference held here last month at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Executive after executive emphasized the need for Marriott to not only jump on the HSIA bandwagon but begin to lead it instead. “We are the leader. And when you are the leader in brands and hotels, you must lead,” said Rob Reinders, vp of the Design Management Architecture & Construction Division for Marriott. However, regarding HSIA, Marriott has not exactly been out in front of the industry so far. “Marriott needs to get high-speed Internet access in its hotels and they know it,” said James Voss, director of National Accounts Services for STSN, a provider of HSIA to the hotel industry. Voss referred to the recent unveiling by Marriott competitor Hilton that all Hilton Garden Inn hotel guestrooms will have complimentary HSIA by the end of 2003. The grand opening of the Hilton Garden Inn in Arlington, VA, in early October acted as the launch pad for the hotel chain’s plans to provide free HSIA across the brand. “Marriott is in the middle of generating a HSIA standards document,” Voss said, adding that there is already such a standards document for Marriott’s Ritz-Carlton brand and the one currently being drafted is for its select-service and extended-stay brands. At presstime, Marriott executives did not discuss the timing of any such standards document. However, company executives emphasized that Marriott will not make any decisions on standards without first getting input from its franchises. “We are very open to working with our franchises,” said Reinders. “We do not make any standards’ decisions without freed back from them first.” That said, Marriott executives did stress the need to make HSIA a priority for the company and its brands. “What people have in their houses, they are going to want on the road. What people have in their offices, they are going to want on the road,” said Tim Sheldon, vp/brand management for Marriott. First, Marriott is focusing on getting HSIA in its Courtyard and Residence Inn brands, Sheldon said. Following will be SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites and Fairfield Inn hotels, he said. “It’s going to be in there,” Sheldon said. “But in what form? And what can we charge for it? We are working those details out now,” he said, adding that these issues are expected to be sorted through and proposed to its franchises within the month. “Hilton announcing free high-speed Internet access changed the game,” Sheldon said. “It will be a must have for any hotel over time. By this time next year, we will be leading the way with full distribution in Courtyard,” he said. Currently, approximately 150,000 Marriott brand rooms have been equipped with HSIA, Sheldon said. Surprisingly, the hotel where the Link 2002 conference was being held did not have HSIA in its guestrooms, which frustrated Sheldon when he got back to his room at night, he said. However, a contract to install HISA into the guestrooms at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, which will be just two years old this coming February, is currently being evaluated by Marriott, according to STSN’s Voss. A resolution is expected soon, he said. Because of this hotel’s conference and meetings business, HSIA is a must, Voss said. “This hotel is the jewel of Baltimore. I feel confident that we will have this thing wrapped up in a few weeks and we will be able to begin wor
